Observers of trends in New Zealand, Britain, Australia and the USA will have noticed an increase in economic, political and social divisions. The divisive 2023 election campaign, the Brexit referendum and the Trump v Biden Presidential race highlight the increased social tensions. My new book, “On the Brink: Reconnecting communities in an age of division”, explores the underlying causes of the increased polarisation and proposes solutions to move towards a more balanced way forward. The book is based on several years of interaction with leaders in business, government, the not for profit sector and indigenous organisations. “On the Brink” can be purchased from Amazon . Get your copy today.
Wellington author, Roger Ellis, launched his new book to an appreciative Johnsonville audience of 40 people at St Johns Church Hall. He spoke for around 25 minutes about the growing divisions in societies both in New Zealand and overseas. He covered some of the underlying causes including the intertwined international economic, social and environmental crises.
Roger Ellis has more than 30 years experience in government, telecommunications, and community not for profit work. In his prepared comments he discussed the role of new technologies in making social divisions worse. He also focused on economic inequalities as an underlying driver of polarisation since the 1980s and 1990s. Mr Ellis discussed the growing level of debt, low productivity and lack of long term strategy – particularly for infrastructure investment in New Zealand.
The new book proposes some solutions to the challenges facing the country. He advocates a localist or distributist perspective emphasising shared values based on human dignity, community, and subsidiarity. Roger Ellis called for a devolution of power and resources to regions and local communities allowing for regional and local variations but building more participatory democracy.
Mr Ellis’s speech was followed by a lively question and answer session covering local government, regional empowerment, and examples of local community initiatives in lower socio-economic areas of Wellington. “On the Brink: Reconnecting communities in an age of division” is available for purchase from Amazon Australia in both e-kindle and paperback editions.
“On The Brink: Reconnecting communities in an age of division” by Roger Ellis
I’ve produced a handy flyer with additional information for those of you who have asked about staying in touch with both the book and helping promote the ideas. So below are some ways you can stay in touch:
Book summary: Are we a society in a process of disintegration? Growing wealth and income inequalities, housing shortages, breakdown of families, loss of confidence in public institutions such as media and politics, increased attacks and threats of violence against elected Members of Parliament and news media are becoming more prevalent. Misinformation is rife. This does not bode well for the future of a free and fair democracy. For a significant number of groups there is a growing post-Covid disillusionment with government, job insecurity, loss of cultural identity, the failed promises of globalization and especially the growing gap between rich and poor at home and abroad. On the Brink proposes solutions to change course towards a decentralised property-owning democracy in contrast to State Socialism or Global Capitalism where we create an economy for the common good.
The Independent Herald reported (June 22) that Let’s get Wellington Moving (LGWM) has ignored the submissions of 1,300 local residents in favour of its own survey which garnered just 284 submissions. The issue in question, and clearly preferred option of the LGWM is to remove carparks in favour of cycleways.
LGWM heard from around 250 people who favoured cycleways and from more than 1,300 who opposed removing the carparks from Johnsonville Main Road.
Is it any wonder that the public is losing faith in democratic institutions when its representatives and agencies ignore residents who have taken the time to speak up and when majority views are ignored?
There is also the question as to what problem this proposed intervention is trying to fix. Data from NZTA’s crash analysis shows that there had been zero cycle crashes on that stretch of road.
Then there is the cost of LGWM. According to local businessman, Mr Kirk-Burnnand, the cost of LGWM is around $100,000 per household. Ratepayers would be justified in wondering whether they are receiving value for money from this organisation.
The Chair of the organisation’s Governance Reference Group of LGWM is Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau.
In labour, immigration and economic policies center right parties have surrendered earlier principles based on social reform and moderation in favor of a globalized, largely unregulated laissez-faire market leading to the erosion of community and national sovereignty.
Voters increasingly recognize the problems of the laisez faire ideology and globalization for their communities and nations.
Centre right parties in the USA and New Zealand are struggling for philosophical moorings which can anchor policies in 21st century and simultaneously connect with voting publics.
“The outlook that in Burke, Disraeli and Salisbury was sceptical of the project of the Enlightenment and suspicious of the promise of progress has mortgaged its future on a wager on indefinite economic growth and unfettered market forces. [This] scarcely exhibits the political prudence…once revered as a conservative virtue.” (Gray 1997: 88)
Scruton also laments this development, while John Harris comments on the enduring tensions that Margaret Thatcher exposed in Conservatism:
If you profess to believe in both the unrestrained market and such old Tory touchstones as family, nation and community, you will…discover that the former eats away at the foundations of the latter (Harris, 2013; Harvey (2005) offers a trenchant critique of neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism.)
In the vacuum created, and for various reasons voting publics recently opted for the remaining alternatives, either social democracy (eg Ardern) in New Zealand or to a lesser degree social liberalism (eg Biden) in the USA.
If conservative parties are to regain political leadership they will need to speak beyond narrow individualism and business interests to a broader sense of family and community belonging. Restoration of the notion of the common good would be a good good first step.
After six tumultuous years of the Lange-Douglas Labour government, Jim Bolger led the National Party to a landslide victory—the largest in its history—in the 1990 election, allowing him to become Prime Minister on 2 November 1990.
The Fourth National Government was elected on the promise of delivering a “Decent Society”. Bolger was a compassionate conservative who was concerned about the human toll taken by the rapid and uneven economic reforms introduced between 1984 and 1990. Manufacturing was devastated in the face of radical and abrupt tariff reductions. Unemployment was 7.2% in 1985. Home buyers faced mortgage interest rates of 20%. As Opposition Leader Bolger campaigned in 1987 and again in 1990 on the theme of strengthening communities and rebuilding social capital.
However, shortly after taking office, his government was unexpectedly forced to bail out the State-owned Bank of New Zealand and as a result was unable to deliver on a number of promises made during the election campaign. Threatened with the collapse of a major trading bank and further challenged by the 1991 global economic recession, Bolger’s government looked for areas where it could trim public spending. The government also introduced reforms to employment law to assist small and medium sized businesses and ended compulsory membership of unions.
At the 1993 election, the National government was narrowly re-elected with a one seat majority. In addition Bolger also agreed to let the people decide on the best electoral system. At the referendum on proportional voting the public voted for Mixed member proportional voting to be used for the 1996 general election.
The fourth National government also ushered in overdue changes in the broadcasting and telecommunications sectors. New Zealanders began to enjoy the benefit of increased competition and investment from private investors into the nation’s telecommunications infrastructure. Subscription-paid television was introduced, new private radio and television stations were established and a new broadcasting complaints process was introduced as part of a new self-regulatory industry scheme. Special provision was made for local New Zealand and Maori content to be created and broadcast.
In telecommunications New Zealanders began to experience the benefits of growing competition with the entry of Clear Communications and Vodafone competing against the former State-owned monopoly Telecom. Mobile phones, pagers and eventually broadband services were introduced and New Zealand became a world-leader in telecommunications liberalisation during the mid-1990’s.
In his second term (1993-96) Bolger and his new Finance Minister, Bill Birch, successfully focused on paying down New Zealand’s debt.
Led by Justice Minister Hon Doug Graham, the government also introduced groundbreaking Treaty settlements with iwi organisations to help heal some of the historic grievances between the Crown and Maori.
In the subsequent 1996 election National emerged from the first MMP election as the largest party but it was forced to enter into a coalition with New Zealand First. After the 1996 election victory Bolger continued as Prime Minister, however his critics argued that he gave the NZ First party too much influence in his Coalition Cabinet. On 8 December 1997, while Bolger was overseas, disenchanted elements within the National Party caucus ousted Bolger as leader and he was replaced as National leader and Prime Minister by Jenny Shipley – New Zealand’s first woman Prime Minister.
Shipley was the first Prime Minister to attend the gay and lesbian Hero Parade,[16] being the first National Party leader to seek to make electoral overtures to the gay and lesbian voting public. She also advocated lowering the alcohol purchase age from 20 to 18 and achieved this in 1999.[8] This was part of her expressed desire to expand the traditional National Party voting base. In the subsequent 1999 General Election Mrs Shipley was defeated by Labour’s Helen Clark.
In 2002 United Future won 124,000 votes and nine seats in Parliament. In the last few weeks its leader and sole surviving MP announced his resignation and the party is polling at 0% two weeks out from an election.
But United Future members can be proud of having achieved something in politics. Among those achievements are:
Putting the well being of families back on the political agenda after years of neglect. Most parties now talk about helping families and we now have many government policies such as “Working For Families” which promote those aims. United Future also established the Families Commission to be a voice for families in government. UF also secured a $47 million boost for early intervention programmes aimed at children and families in greatest need, including Family Start, and parenting education and support (2005 Budget). United took the care of orphans seriously and ensured that the government increased funding for the Orphans’/Unsupported Child’s Benefit by $8 million, as part of the Working for Families package (2005 Budget).
Boosting charities and community groups by the 2009 introduction of tax rebates of 33 cents in the dollar for all charitable donations.
Helping protect the environment through the introduction of water quality standards.
Securing a vital exit and entry point into the nation’s capital through the 2006 budget allocation for Transmission Gully road.
Standing up for the vital role of parents. United ensured that the paid parental leave scheme will be extended from 1 April 2006 to provide for 14 weeks income replacement to women who have been self-employed for at least six months immediately preceding the birth or adoption of a child. An estimated 2,173 self-employed people will take paid parental leave each year, at a cost of $8 million (2005 Budget).
United Future was also concerned about the environment and housing. As early as 2005 it secured a further $0.6 million to implement an energy rating scheme for homes and an incentive programme to encourage people to improve the energy efficiency of their home and to install cleaner heating (2005 Budget).
The party also looked after the care of the elderly by successfully promoting rates relief, resulting in the introduction of a rates rebate scheme for 150,000 superannuitant households (2005 Budget).
The party was also ahead of its time in promoting restorative justice initiatives. It secured $4.4 million over the next four years 2004-08 for restorative justice initiatives, in an effort to support successful programmes that reduce future demand for spending on police and corrections services (2004 Budget). It also secured another $1.5 million in funding for victims’ support groups(2004 Budget). It also secured an extra $4.4 million over four years to boost services for former inmates reintegrating into the community (2005 Budget).
United Future also pushed for better tertiary training and education arrangements to lift productivity in the long run. Specifically it secured a bonding scheme that provides 500 scholarships for tertiary students each year in return for a period of work in New Zealand after graduation as long as the duration of their scholarship (2005 Budget). Secured $6 million to expand Modern Apprenticeships – providing an additional 500 Modern Apprenticeship places, bringing the total number to 9000 by December 2006 (2005 Budget).
The reasons for United Future’s failure cover some aspects within its control but also many that were beyond it. After 2005-08 the party should have put more effort into building its grassroots organisation and candidate training. It could have developed spokespeople across several portfolio areas and it could have more consistently targeted key support groups. However, small parties are always vulnerable to changes in the major parties – as was seen in 2005 and 2008 by United Future. More recently the Greens, ACT and the Maori Party are all facing the same predicament.
The final blow to the party came with the shock decision by leader and sole MP, Peter Dunne, to retire from politics just four weeks out from the 2017 election effectively destroyed the party’s hopes of surviving to see its 18th birthday. The party’s challenging, but achievable, goal of holding the Ohariu electorate and winning 1.2% of the party vote to secure a second seat turned into an impossible task . After Peter Dunne’s resignation the party suddenly had to secure 5% of the party votes inside 4 weeks. There are signs that the National Party is moving to pick up United Future policies such as a conservation levy on overseas tourists, an energy rating for rental properties and a comprehensive housing package. At the time of writing polling puts United Future support dropping to 0%. Suddenly the end of the road looms for a once promising centrist party.
Disclaimer: The author was a former Board member of United Future and Electorate Chairman for the Ohariu Electorate Committee.
On a per capita basis, New Zealand is one of the developed world’s highest greenhouse gas emitters. New Zealand needs to put its own house in order, and have a comprehensive climate change response plan. Each of us has a role to play. Our economy needs to move away from an economy heavily reliant on fossil fuels to one based on clean energy and green technology.
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