The following text was penned for NZ Herald a few days ago....
New Zealand’s immediate response to the pandemic includes
prioritisation of essential services and protection of essential workers.
Central Government has focused upon the food, health and financial needs of
people, families and communities across the country in the sort of forced
paradigm shift not seen since the Great Depression and after World Wars I and
II.
Global norms and political priorities previously considered
immutable by the rich and powerful have been torn asunder in the public
interest. National governments have sacrificed their economies in radical
actions to protect public health. Lockdown measures and rocketing unemployment are
the new normal. Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, has called for
businesses to “hibernate”. Around the world media reports of daily infection
and death statistics sit uncomfortably beside the usual reports of GDP dips,
exchange rate changes, and stock market swings.
The pandemic has exposed gaping holes in public health
systems and forced the world to redefine what is essential and to plan and act
accordingly. Many of those changes should not be temporary just while
there is an emergency. The priorities that underpin them need to be incorporated
into a new social contract between government and people, a contract which
protects and promotes what is essential.
Already there is discussion and debate about what sort of
response will be needed in future after the worst of the pandemic has passed.
Commentators around the world are thinking and writing about climate change and
carbon emission changes, about changed work and commuting practices as people
have adapted and learn and work from home, about changed travel demands as
airlines are grounded and cruise ships are refused entry, about the need to
prepare for the next pandemic, and about the importance of social networks
within communities and families as they look out for and look after the
vulnerable.
The New Zealand Government deserves much credit for its
pandemic response on behalf of the people. Unfortunately this approach is not
evident in preliminary accounts of what is planned for its post pandemic
response which have focussed on “shovel ready” roading and poorly planned
transport infrastructure projects, and a return to the old paradigm.
My grandfather was one of thousands of men employed in the 1930’s
using a shovel and wheelbarrow to construct the Waitaki hydro-electric dam
which still supplies our country with renewable electric power. An essential
service if ever there was one, and a project with a huge benefit cost ratio.
Which is more than can be said for roading and light-rail
projects that are apparently “shovel ready” for New Zealand’s economic recovery.
Many of these transport projects are based on urban population growth
assumptions and scenario planning that must be questioned. Rushing to build
roads for a future that has changed and that are not economic is a poor use of
resources and will serve to reduce the country’s productivity.
Surely the investment emphasis needed post-pandemic is lots
of essential small-scale health, education and community infrastructure
projects throughout the country, rather than a few high-risk think-big projects
that are based on high population growth projections. Already there are
positive signs such as an educational TV station, providing school kids with
computers, and internet in all homes.
Rather than put the country’s post pandemic project
decisions into the hands of a few captains of industry, it would be better to
establish local Community Pandemic Recovery Agencies (based on the Canterbury
Earthquake Recovery Agency model) working in partnership with local government
to identify and lead local economic development projects. Some of these will
already be planned and be “shovel ready” such as cycle paths, bus shelters, and
footpath improvements, community infrastructure including day-care and drop-in
centres, sports facilities and playgrounds, and environmental projects such as
wetland restoration and coastal protection.
Projects like these would kick start local economies across
the country, provide the revenues needed to bring smaller businesses out of
hibernation, create employment opportunities, and bring the economic multiplier
effects that stimulate community retail and entertainment enterprise.
These are the essentials of a post-pandemic
recovery package that continues the paradigm shift and political priorities and
values in action now.
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