Make Kiwis run like clockwork

Do you fancy living your lives more like the Swiss? It doesn’t mean developing a fondness for chocolate, fondue, beautiful watches or cuckoo clocks. According to the New Zealand Initiative (NZI), it means entering into a radical experiment which could turn this country into another Switzerland.

A country with a high wage economy that manufactures and exports quality products, welcomes thousands of migrants without any problem and has a fast and efficient public transport system, transporting citizens between cities - punctual to the minute.

It’s a beguiling thought. But is it really possible?

This week, some of the leaders of New Zealand’s biggest companies reported findings from their ‘‘Go-Swiss’’ trip earlier this year.

Air New Zealand’s Christopher Luxon, ASB Bank’s Barbara Chapman and delegation leader Fraser Whineray from Mercury, were among those in the highpowered, business delegation, which aimed to investigate some of the the social, economic and environmental policy decisions that have made the Swiss prosperous and happy.

After meeting politicians, mayors, bankers, business people and educators, they say we have a lot of valuable lessons to learn from this small country, that has very few natural resources.

The ‘‘big picture’’ answer, according to the NZI, is in Switzerland’s decentralisation, where more than 2000 local councils have their own taxraising powers. The argument is that it leads to greater proactivity in devising strategies to attract business investment and power growth. It’s another world, but could we tolerate such localised governance?

Maybe - if we could match Swiss employment prospects. They are 25 per cent less likely to be unemployed than a Kiwi, and the gap between rich and poor is narrower. Education is a dual system, which sees 80 per cent of young people enter vocational training, with only the remainder going to university. But there is no stigma to that. As Fraser Whineray, boss of Mercury said: ‘‘An aluminium welder can be earning $150,000 a year and living in a village like Queenstown!’’

Swiss house prices haven’t changed for three decades (inflation included) - houses are still affordable compared to salaries. Perhaps then, education and giving more local autonomy to special economic zones to develop commerce, would be a good place to start.