We’re apparently going to bank on international students, tourism and immigration to lift our economy.
Sugar-rush policies that will not raise New Zealand’s dire productivity and will put even more pressure on the stretched infrastructure of regions with few ratepayers but masses of visitors, like inland Otago.
And at a time when councils, like the Dunedin City Council, have been struggling to stay on track with existing infrastructure projects (roads, water and sewerage).
You’d think a recipe for real growth in GDP and productivity wasn’t known.
But it is, and Dunedin and Otago could play a huge part:
• Invest in transportation and freight (rail, ships and ports). We should be taking the train to Invercargill and Christchurch, not flying.
• Pump up research funding and the path from research to development, in, well, everything; having NZ’s most research-intensive university, what couldn’t Dunedin offer?
• Break the -opolies (supermarkets, banks) and localise food more.
• Invest in carbon-neutral, cheap, accessible electricity. Dams, wind, wave and local, like the Blueskin Energy Network.
• Support industrialisation — much easier to do with cheap power and good ports and a pipeline of world class research into development.
Migrants and international students contribute richly to our shared lives, broadening the horizons of our community and working hard to contribute to Otago.
And those are excellent reasons to encourage both.
But they’re not a basis for economic growth that sets us up to stop the brain drain to Australia.
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