Thursday, March 28, 2024

PULPIT: Don’t pass the buck

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Exporting is normally associated with sending goods overseas.
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We need to redefine the term to now include exporting problems, also known as passing the buck.

School attendance, housing and the environment are examples.

We need people to stand up and declare the buck stops here.

Declining school attendance sets a bad platform for regular work attendance. A failure to get the education sector delivering is a pending timebomb for businesses, including agriculture and horticulture.

In 2015, 70% of students regularly attended school. To be regularly attending school requires 90% attendance. Thirty percent of students did not meet that in 2015. 

In 2019 regular attendance dropped to 57.7%. That is more than 40% not attending regularly. That decline has been described by the Ministry of Education as looking like a systemic trend.

Maori and Pasifika regular attendance is below 50%.

The biggest declines in attendance between 2015 and 2019 have been in primary schools.

In the Hawke’s Bay, 20% of students have an attendance rate that is below 80%.  A couple of other regions are worse.

Little wonder the apple industry in the Hawke’s Bay has been importing labour and reliant on it.

Some hard questions should be asked on student attendance – and solutions demanded.

The median house price is more than seven times the median income. Rents chew up a large proportion of income. The social housing waiting list has hit 22,000.

Housing failures risk exporting a systemic problem into wage demands as a catch-up move rather than addressing the fundamental issue of housing at a reasonable price.

Too much attention is on putting money into people’s pockets (while admirable if we link it to productivity) and not enough on containing what goes out of the pocket. I hope the Commerce Commission’s investigation into supermarkets has some substantive outcomes. 

Housing is a major cost, whether that be to build, buy or rent. Living cost inflation for lower income groups outpace living costs for higher income groups, and housing costs are a key culprit.

Interest rates are low so servicing a mortgage is easier, but good luck getting together a deposit if you cannot leverage the bank of mum and dad. 

Housing is a major concern for 53% of New Zealanders according to the latest IPSOS Issues Monitor.

Kiwibuild has been a debacle, poor policy and middle-class welfare.

The social contract between citizens and the Government for the provision of reasonable cost housing has been broken. 

The situation has become so ridiculous that a recent article pointed the finger at the horticulture sector for ousting people to accommodate seasonal workers. The accommodation was purposely built for seasonal workers, but temporarily used to house families as interim help. That help was never a long-term solution.

Demand for higher pay is escalating. There is truth in the need, but some fundamental failures in housing policy are exaggerating it, adding unnecessary extra cost to businesses.

The environment is another issue of our age. We need to stop pointing the finger and exporting the problem to farmers.

Farmers have worn the pointed fingers despite most playing by the rules, and many doing even better than what the rules require.

It is about time city folk or policymakers considered what the equivalent of a Farm Management Plan – call it a Household Management Plan (HMP) – would look like.

A HMP would look at water usage, contanimanets down drains, effluent disposal, recycling practices, usage of pesticides and fertilisers, storage of hazardous goods, right down to a management plan for the pet. And make sure the plan is audited and reviewed annually.

No government will implement a HMP, but it provides food for thought.

Being small or a household and not a business does not exclude responsibilities. Everyone needs to play their part. New Zealand is not going to turn the dial on climate change in a global sense, but is stepping up, but this means households too, not just farmers.

I have provided three examples. There are lots more.

As attention turns to 2021, it is time to look hard at some key issues and people who are not prepared to pass the buck.

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