Allan Barber calls for a 'coalition cabinet' to deal with the sheer scale of the weather disasters that effectively put us on a 'war footing'

The catastrophic trail left by Cyclone Gabrielle is just the latest disaster to hit the country, inflicting huge damage and loss to communities across much of the North Island.

Its impact in every way is much broader than that of the Christchurch earthquakes and mosque massacres while not as insidious and all-pervasive as Covid 19. All these and other tragic events will continue to cause major economic issues for many years, quite apart from the incalculable effect of stress on the national mindset.

Agriculture and horticulture will undoubtedly suffer more than other sectors of the economy.

The response to the cyclone from political leaders, local government, Civil Defence, and other emergency response agencies demonstrates how much can be achieved when all cogs in the system work together. Local communities have shown enormous cohesion, courage, and goodwill working to rescue people and animals and helping with the clean-up and recovery process.

It seems as though the nation really shows its best side when it pulls together in the face of disaster. What a contrast to the bickering and points scoring that goes on the rest of the time, whether in parliament or in the media, when all the protagonists try their hardest to catch the other party or opponent out.

How much better off we would be if there were consensus on key aspects of running the country or local government areas, such as broad taxation policy, an infrastructure fund, climate change response, investment in health and education to name a few. But every three years the national or local electorates are asked to vote for the party or individuals they think will offer what are perceived as the least objectionable policies. Inevitably we get mediocrity because visionary leaders who step outside the square tend to frighten too many voters who want their politicians to hug the centre line.

Very rarely does the majority of the electorate appear to base their decision on policies designed to achieve better outcomes for the country or community as a whole, but rather on what people see as posing the least risk to their own way of life. Otherwise, we would surely have seen a constructive change to our narrowly based tax system which has seen no substantive or radical decisions since the introduction of GST nearly 40 years ago.

While not a passionate proponent of first past the post elections, I believe the introduction of MMP has made it harder to adopt anything other than relatively conservative and unimaginative government policies. The 2020 Labour government is the first since the adoption of MMP to gain an outright majority which it then used to promote a series of unpopular policies, some of them recently dropped to avoid further unpopularity in an election year.

The unwillingness of the public to accept some of the policies – Three Waters, hate speech legislation, merger of TVNZ and Radio New Zealand – arose from the government’s failure to communicate the true nature of the problem and poor design of the solution. The events of the last few weeks only serve to underline the parlous state of our infrastructure, whether drainage, roads, electricity transmission or (new buzzword) connectivity. This government’s big mistake with Three Waters was not the policy itself, but the clumsy attempt to conflate it with co-governance without explaining what this implies.

The huge increase in PR consultants employed to sell the government’s agenda has coincided with a corresponding failure to design practical policies or to work out how to implement them. The overriding impression is of political incompetence leading to a performance vacuum which is progressively filled by public service officials who are not answerable to the public. A similar problem exists at local government level where ratepayers feel disengaged because they have little or no confidence in their council to deliver services efficiently and, in Auckland at least, believe the council controlled organisations and employees are out of control.

Ironically Wayne Brown is criticised, particularly by the media, for his unwillingness or inability to communicate, when the reason he was elected in the first place was his self-proclaimed image as a grumpy Mr Fixit, prepared to get wasteful spending on reports and consultation replaced by actions to sort out Auckland’s mess. It remains to be seen whether he can achieve anything substantive or be sucked under by layers of bureaucratic silt. The recent floods emphasise the critical importance of investment in infrastructure which ratepayers cannot afford without central government assistance, the main reason why Three Waters was a good idea poorly promoted.

It remains to be seen if Brown can build sufficient consensus round the Auckland Council table to achieve what the whole region requires and expects. He has already identified the urban bias of officials which clearly disadvantages the provision of facilities and services to Auckland’s rural areas.

From a national perspective, I believe the present crisis arising from the cyclone effectively puts the country on a wartime footing which would be best served by bringing together the best brains capable of making sensible, logical, and bold decisions and co-opting apolitical advisers to provide technical expertise. A coalition cabinet, selected from all parties on the grounds of excellence, would in my opinion provide New Zealand with the best chance to design and implement policies to address all matters of national significance. I am seriously concerned our present tribal party system inevitably leads to a lack of strategic vision and operational incompetence.

My hope for a consensual coalition is no doubt pie in the sky, but at the very least we have to get away from this paralysing state of mediocrity caused by the fear of losing. This can only be achieved by a two party government prepared to work together for the good of the country which neither of the main parties, Labour and National, has the talent or vision to do alone.

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