Smarter digitalised businesses and the mass introduction of a green technology base in New Zealand would help build a better New Zealand post-Covid, according to a new list of popular ideas current being drawn up.
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Simon Wilson, senior writer for the New Zealand Herald, is currently working on the list of 15 top ideas. He tells Jesse Mulligan a mix of better business and farming methods married with a climate and environment-friendly technological revolution will go a long way towards future-proofing a recovered Kiwi economy.
The need for such a list was apparent, particularly in the face of politicians like Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones' pouring cold water on the idea on green projects that would herald transformative change.
“We’re going to spend billions upon billions over the next few years on recovery, on a rebuild after the recovery, we’re going to rebuild the country and that’s going to be all the money spent for quite a long time.
“So, the question of how we spend it is really important. There are a number of politicians saying ‘all we have to do is do the things that are right in front of us, get the recovery and rebuild going and do the things that are easiest. Now, that’s a terrible way to look at it. It means we will lose the chance to make New Zealand better equipped for the future and do some really exciting things that we could do instead.”
A no-brainer in terms of Increase productivity is the increased use of digitalised commerce by smaller-scale businesses.
“It’s been suggested in a number of places around the world that one of the big global business lessons is that businesses have to take this chance to digitalise," he says.
“In other words, use cloud-based computing and what they really means is and what that means – large businesses are doing it already - but for small-and-medium businesses, to have the resources that they need in terms of their inventory, in terms of their supply lines and their customer base and all those sorts of things, to have them at their finger tips in a machine they have in their back pocket – their phone.
“It means those businesses can react immediately to opportunities that arise, so that if a customer wants this they can work it out right now and it’s easy.
“It’s suggested that that’s the way New Zealand could increase its productivity. Although we like to think we’re pretty efficient in this country, New Zealand productivity hasn’t really changed in 25 years.”
He says the $10 million set aside in the recovery Budget for e-commerce and the $12.5m for Trans Tasman e-invoicing schemes is relatively insignificant compared to what can and should be pushed.
“Those are little drops in the bucket. It isn’t that the government need to pay everybody to develop their cloud-based computing. The government need to make sure the regulatory framework is right and provide the initiative, if you like, to provide the incentive to do it. Companies are going to be able to make money out of this, it’s not just a handout.”
Another area were change could be achieved was in farming and the introduction of regenerative farming practices, where a focus on cover crops, swales and the progressive building of soil microbes bring a more sustainable, productive yield to farmers.
This type of farming, working with nature as opposed to attempting to dominate the landscape and stressing natural resources, brings much less pollution, particularly in terms of water quality.
“If we get a lot smarter, in the way many farmers around the country are already doing, right across the farming sector – if we get smarter on nourishing the soil as we farm we will increase productivity on the farms, we will have a lot less pollution, atmospheric as well as in the soil and water and we will become a country that can produce higher quality food for the rest of the world, farm sustainably in a way the rest of the world will accept and pay for.”
He agrees with Greenpeace, which has proposed $1 billion funding to kick-start the initiative.
Another area with potential for growth and change is in green power and technology - something that had not been adequately exploited, as in other parts of the world where natural resources were not as abundant.
“We don’t really have the type of super-powered wind farm activity that you’d expect.
"We have a lot of sunshine and we don’t use it well enough yet. And, of course, we’ve got the potential for tidal energy as well.
"So I think in all those areas I really think we need to be saying, ‘OK, let’s take this opportunity to get serious about renewable energy, let’s get ourselves to 100 percent’… and lets position ourselves superbly for the future and create a whole new energy base that will sustain growing industry.
“That links to another big potential industry that we could develop here and that green high-tech industry… and if we’re smart about it, we get them to pay for the energy development as well.”
He points out that because of private water interests, particularly in Auckland, it is currently not made easy for people to collect rainwater from their roofs and that a new regulatory framework must be introduced to change this, removing any financial incentives for companies. Company-based initiatives could be used to make society more resilient to future droughts coming our way.
“It’s true for rainwater and it’s true for electricity,” he says.
“There are lots of places across the world now where solar panels on the roof and the ability to share the power that you get from those solar panels means a village can look after itself. Again, it’s not easy to do that in this country, why not? Because the electricity companies make money from selling us power and we ought to be able to change that framework.
“How well we look at these things will determine how well we do in the future and all of those things means lots of jobs.”
Signs of government interest are hard to read. Minister Shane Jones is on record saying people are dreaming if they believe money for a green technology future is available in the future, which Wilson says is a cause for concern. Ultimately though, with an election in September, the electorate could decide on policies.
“It’s terribly unfortunate that he has that portfolio and is able to… go rogue on the aspirations of building a greener future. It means that cities and countryside are not going to be developed the way they might be. I hope that’s not true. But, we’ll have an election in a few months and all the parties are going to have to declare themselves on these issues.”
