Bold ideas to transform New Zealand

Friday, 31 May 2019

Stuff asked: What are the biggest, boldest ideas to transform New Zealand?

With our rich natural, cultural and intellectual capital New Zealand could make some truly bold changes, and perhaps lead the world by example – if we dare.

Stuff asked a range of Kiwi businesspeople, thought leaders and cultural ambassadors what their one big idea would be to transform New Zealand.

High on the agenda for many was increasing protections for the environment and moving to a more sustainable, green, economy.

Others want to shake up our electoral system, invest in technology and education and grow capital markets to take the country forward.

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Shay Wright runs a Māori social enterprise that provides education and training for Māori community leaders to help them rebuild their own economies.

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Shay Wright, entrepreneur & co-founder of Te Whare Hukahuka

I want to give natural sites personhood. Why? We already give legal personhood to corporates, and they aren't even alive.

Nature is declining at rates unprecedented in human history. Several iwi have had their natural sites of significance recognised as living beings, with the legal rights of personhood as a way to protect them and recognise the deep and intergenerational connection they have.

Mahsa Mohaghegh, computer engineer, lecturer, She Sharp founder

Grace Stratton, founder of All is for All, says fashion is about self-agency.

My idea for transformation is to provide quality professional development to all teachers across all levels.

From 2020, all schools across New Zealand will adopt the new digital technologies curriculum. This significant move is a response to our society entering a digital era, where digital skills – development of technology or computational thinking – are as necessary as reading, writing, and numeracy.

Henri Eliot, founder of Board Dynamics and author of Board Shorts

We need to build on New Zealand's outstanding pool of internationally recognised artificial intelligence (AI) expertise by training, attracting and retaining more top researchers who want to lead the world in machine learning and deep learning research. This could involve creating a not-for-profit institute dedicated to research in the field of AI, excelling in machine and deep learning.

Grace Stratton, founder of All is for All

When the experience of mainstream fashion is made accessible, we can transform New Zealand.

Fashion is the nucleus of cultural relevance, it speaks to self-agency and confidence.

Sir John Key says the key to the future is investing heavily in infrastructure.

By reflecting and empowering people with disabilities in mainstream fashion we can spark wider change. Through design we can build a barrier-free society.

Peri Drysdale, founder of Untouched World

We need to get tough about cleaning up the environment. We should implement a user pays system for visiting New Zealand, and with the money, give a better experience.

Install more public toilets and maintain them well, and manage rubbish disposal better. Impose steep fines for breaches: $20,000 for soiling, $5000 for littering, and set up a website for reporting.

Fine companies renting campervans without toilets, and those that give discounts for toilets returned unused. Issue permits for a fee to 'freedom camp'. No permit; automatic $1000 fine.

Sir John Key, former prime minister and chairman of ANZ New Zealand

Francis Valintine says we need to attract more skilled people from around the world to up our game.

If we are to make the waka go faster we need to invest heavily in infrastructure right now – even if the cost is high.

Work on an alternative harbour crossing in Auckland, high-speed rail to Hamilton and a four-lane highway to Whangarei would all allow investment to pour in and productivity to rise.

Ganesh Nana, chief economist at Business and Economic Research

My big idea is to change the distribution of power to 75 electorates made up of 25 children's, 25 Māori, and 25 general electorate seats, and 45 list seats.

Enfranchising children and empowering Māori will shock the entrenched power structures that perpetuate the business-as-usual status quo. This upheaval in the balance of power is needed to transform decision-making processes to longer-term perspectives.

Francis Valintine, founder of The Mind Lab and Tech Futures Lab

New Zealand needs to dramatically increase our population of experts.

By saying 'no' to landfills, we say 'yes' to circular economic innovation say Tahlia and Semisi Hutchison

Through opening our border to engineers, scientists, technologists, investors and researchers, we will generate friction, debate and new capability, encouraging higher levels of innovation.

In turn, we can become a world leader in contemporary industries supporting a dynamic and evolving economy.

Phyllis Tichinin, soil consultant and eco-nutritionist, True Health

Our current model of agriculture is a battle to control nature.

Foundational advances in microbiology and plant physiology have occurred since the 1980's, but has yet to be applied to food production.

The new understanding is of a complex, cooperative natural system that relies on microbial diversity. By tweaking our fertilisation, planting and grazing practices, we can quickly achieve massive environmental health benefits.

We need to look to what works at the grassroots, says Theresa Gattung.

Tahlia and Semisi Hutchison, founders of Little and Brave Eco Nappies

Make landfills a thing of the past. Significantly reducing landfills will kick-start innovation across a range of industries from product and packaging design, to resource and waste management, to home, community and commercial composting.

With strategic legislation, infrastructure investment, and incentives for innovators, we can build the public-private partnerships needed to create a circular economy for our country.

Vaughn Davis, creative director at The Goat Farm

New Zealand needs to get closer to China. Sometime soon, China will have the biggest economy the world has seen. If we're to be anything other than a bit player in a China-led economy, we need to grow our existing cultural, economic and political ties, fast.

We're not starting from scratch: our history with China goes back to the 1800s, 150 years on, it's time to give back.

China is filled with optimistic people hungry for a better future.

Theresa Gattung, businesswoman, author and philanthropist

We should transition to regenerative agriculture says Ngarimu Blair.

We must lift the capability of all New Zealanders, especially those who are struggling. If we, through government agencies, keep developing programmes the way we have always done we are going to keep getting the results we've always got.

Communities need to be engaged with, and deeply involved in, the design and implementation of the solutions to poor health care and poor housing situations. We need to support what's already working at the grassroots level.

For example, programmes like Kootuitui Ki Papakura – education, health services, warm, dry, healthy homes.

Jeremy Moon, founder of Icebreaker Clothing, chairman of Better by Design and business mentor

The minimum wage has increased to a fair level, the focus should now be on increasing the average wage. One way to achieve this is to create more high value jobs, through creating more international businesses from New Zealand.

It's not just about kiwis selling more stuff to each other – it's about New Zealanders running businesses that extend the borders of our economy internationally.

They should be encouraged with more support and funding, and ultimately be celebrated for their courageous journeys into the unknown.

Ciulture eats strategy for breakfast says Craig Hudson.

Ngarimu Blair, deputy chairman of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei Trust

Aotearoa New Zealand should convert all its dairy, sheep, beef and horticulture to a regenerative form of agriculture that restores and enhances the mauri of the land, rivers, air, kai and improves sequestration of carbon, resilience and profitability.

Pine forests and other retired farming lands could be converted to permanent and harvestable native forests increasing the value of our eco-tourism industry providing meaningful work, as every tree planted helps save many threatened taonga species of birds, insects and plants.

Donald Nordeng, chief executive, BioGro

My big idea is to change to accounting and tax law, requiring environmental costs to be accounted for and paid into direct environmental taxes.

Putting the cost of pollution inside the cost of production makes the cost of pollution inherent in the cost of the product. This change of thinking can apply to all products, not just of agricultural production but for petrol, plastics, packaging, tobacco and alcohol.

Green economies will win the future, says Tim Brown.

The retailer or the processing facility can choose to buy the cheapest products however that would come with fees allocated to be paid into environmental funds. So if a company used environmentally friendly ingredients or materials, these fees would not be paid.

Nothing like fees and responsibility at the board table to encourage change.

Craig Hudson, managing director, Xero

Start acknowledging the importance of vulnerability as a leadership capability to create business growth through culture change.

Vulnerability is described by Brené Brown as being the 'core, the heart, the centre of meaningful human experiences,' so it's about time the era of 'hardening up' in the workplace and leaving your 'baggage' at the door comes to an end.

If Kiwi leaders stood up, embraced vulnerability and focused more on creating business cultures steeped in wellbeing and belonging, I think we would see a very different environment to what we have now.

John King, regenerative agriculture consultant

Jenny Morel, founder and managing director of Morgo, with Tim Norton of Kiwi start up, 90 Seconds.

Taste is never corrupted by simplicity. Regenerative farmers focusing on soil health and function are demonstrating pathways to reduce irrigation, synthetic chemicals, and antibiotics by tapping into ecological processes.

For them it's intuitively better because it's simpler. Globally farmers using these techniques create healthier landscapes, grow produce with few toxic residues, lift profits, improve farmer mental health, generate better marketing stories, and store carbon in soil.

Tim Brown, founder of Allbirds

Allbirds announced that its entire business, end-to-end, is going carbon neutral beginning this year.

Climate change, and by association sustainability, is the problem of our generation and solving it is not just the right thing to do, it is good business.

It seems clear to me that the nations preparing to transform to inclusive green economies will be the winners over time. Based as I am now in the United Sates, in a country that hasn't yet reached consensus on the problem itself, I don't think we should underestimate the opportunity this represents.

Jennifer McIver, co-founder of Wishbone Design

Imagine a future where you pay only for the use of the goods you need, and manufacturers retain ownership of the raw materials.

Globally, consumers spend US$40 trillion (NZ$61t) a year. What do we have to show for it? Homes stuffed with raw materials – plastics, metals, paper, textiles – that we no longer use and don't know what to do with.

Brands shift to selling services, not goods, and designers design for quality, disassembly and repairabilty.

Jenny Morel, founder and managing director, Morgo

Activate our capital markets.

Let's fund 10 new venture capital funds with at least $100 million each. Let's have all the Kiwisaver funds and the Super Fund allocate 4 per cent to growing companies in New Zealand.

Let's stir up the stockbrokers to get to know the new companies and find the good ones for us. Let's tell the brokers that we want to invest in the Rocketlabs and Lanzatechs being built – making us proud owners of the great new companies being built from New Zealand.