Free Press: The Gen-Y Manifesto

ACT’s new regular bulletin

The Gen-Y Manifesto
Andrew Dean, a Rhodes Scholar, has gotten some press for his book, Ruth, Roger and Me. It is a plaintive cri de couer about how bad people under 40 have things these days. Free Pressdoesn’t usually endorse books from the left, but Ruth, Roger and Me is short and worth a read.

The Good
Dean raises some worthwhile points: housing, super, and student loans are all putting the squeeze on the young. That doesn’t mean many people didn’t have it hard a generation ago, or that many don’t have it good today. Nonetheless he’s addressing important trends, good on him.

The Bad
He’s written about a golden age in the 1970s that he wants to go back to. New Zealand, he tells us, was wealthy, equalitarian, warm and friendly. Only a 26-year-old white, presumably straight, male could think that. He wasn’t there and if he was he wouldn’t have had it that bad. He also writes as though globalisation never forced changes on all societies.

The Ugly
Dean is a junkie for the first person pronoun. On one page the word ‘I’ appears 12 times, and that’s reading off an iPhone. Enough people thought his generation protest too much before he provided written proof.

Still a Uniting Issue
Despite his style, Dean shows what a uniting issue intergenerational politics will become. Dean is from the hard left. He probably regards the current Labour party as sell-outs. Nonetheless the problems he identifies, with housing, superannuation, and education are not so different from concerns ACT raises. Our solutions are, of course, quite different.

Revolution
The 1980s revolution happened when baby boomers took the helm from the WWII generation. The same teenagers who rebelled in the ‘60s started running the show. It happened in every anglo country, New Zealand’s revolution was just the most acute.

Revolution II
John Key may be the last boomer PM and cannot keep his finger in the dyke forever. If not, he will certainly be the second to last. Expect 25 years of policy stability to end abruptly with superannuation and housing market reform.

From the Front Lines
Free Press regularly hears of this building floodtide, in response to a previous edition:
In my house we now have 8 people, as my daughters and their partners and babies have moved back as they cannot afford to live in Auckland any more.
One daughter is a neurology nurse and the other an osteopath. Careers that used to give a living wage well they can live but they can't afford Auckland housing.
My neighbour has 10 people in his house, his wife, himself, 3 grandchildren, 2 partners and 3 great grandchildren.

Solutions
Free Press has written at length about the need to reform the RMA to free up housing supply and to reform superannuation, and get some innovation in education so that the next generation will be able to compete and pay for all of the above in an increasingly globalised market. We will spare readers this week.

Regulatory Standards Bill Survives Nats’ Assassination Attempt
ACT’s Regulatory Standards Bill is the Holy Grail for better regulations. It would involve forcing politicians and regulators to, by law, answer questions such as: What is this regulation for? What are the alternatives? Does it affect property rights? Who wins and who loses from this regulation? National members on the Commerce Committee voted for the bill not to proceed. It will now face a parliamentary vote. Imagine a world where the National Party wanted these questions answered.

$400m in Regulatory Favours
David Seymour asked Steven Joyce what would happen if the government backed down from its gambling concessions granted in the International Convention Centre Bill. The answer, given in parliament, is $400 million in penalties, transferred from the taxpayer to Sky City. Imagine if the National government was busy improving the regulatory environment for everyday New Zealanders instead of distorting it for casinos.

Just When You Thought….
The Auckland Council is considering spending $10 million on a new chamber so that civil servants don’t have to walk to the existing one. Note the elected representatives are moving to suit the unelected ones. These are the same people who want to raise residential rates by 10 per cent and make you walk up Mt Eden.

NCEA Reporting Scandal?
One assumes that pass rates for the NCEA are based on the number of kids who entered the school at the beginning of the year and the number who exited with qualifications when they left the school. However a major daily paper has reported pass rates based only on those who actually sat.

Seven Per Cent?
Free Press has been told that, on this basis, pass rates for some schools are as low as seven per cent. If true, we hope the opposition and press will investigate this instead of decrying the nine small Partnership Schools that seem to be their unending focus (and where students are succeeding by any measure).

Further Gaming?
We are also informed that a credit is not a credit under NCEA. You can game the system by getting credits for going skiing, or for studying physics. If true, then what attempts are being made to compare the choices that students at different schools make about credits?

ACT Cameo in New Maori TV Show
Free Press is informed that Maori TV’s new show, Find Me a Maori Bride, is based on a Kuia’s ultimatum to her grandsons. The sanction is that she will donate her $50 million fortune to the ACT Party if they fail to find wives.

Freedom Ain’t Free
Of course we wish the boys every success in finding true love, so we’re relying on you, Free Press readers, to donate here www.act.org.nz/donate

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