This is Us
New Zealand's best and brightest reveal what it will mean to be a Kiwi in the 2020s
Dame Fiona Kidman, author
The hope of the world lies in the hands of the young. As we get older, we realise that if we don’t believe in them to fulfil our dreams, the world is munted. We have had our chances. But in order for them to be those vital people of the future, we have to make sure they are ready for the task ahead of them, of saving the world. That’s where we can still help.
What I look for is a generation of kids that is fed every day, if necessary through school lunches, has free trips to the doctor, a house not a shelter, warm coats and a change of shoes. To this I would add classes filled with enough teachers to cope with their needs. I hope there will be books there, and that their authors won’t have to continue to struggle to earn sustainable incomes, the way successive governments have promised writers. What sort of Kiwis will we be? A vibrant, increasingly multicultural mix, creating a specific identity of our own. More and more people will speak te reo.
Anjum Rahman, ethnic women’s rights campaigner
My hopes and wishes are around reduction of poverty. I’m supportive of a living wage, and we need to think about housing, rent control, or stronger measures around housing. I think that’s where we’re losing out with poverty. So much of people’s income is going on housing. Everyone deserves a warm, dry, safe house, it’s a human right. I’d also like to see people given the chance to thrive as themselves, without having to hide who they are. What I want is a lot less hateful rhetoric and better ways of communicating with each other. I’m not nationalistic and I think we need to think of ourselves as global citizens and have a strong human rights-based approach to how we deal with things like environmental protection and sustainable living. Workers should have good hours and good conditions, so they can have a really balanced lifestyle to spend with our families. The things I love about being a Kiwi is our sense of justice and fairness, and our willingness to help out when something has gone wrong.
Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister
Nga¯ mihi o te tau hou! What will it mean to be a Kiwi in 2020? We probably can’t answer that without looking to every year prior. We are a nation that’s been shaped by firsts – by not being afraid to stand up for what we think is right. Whether it’s women winning the right to vote, creating the welfare state or declaring ourselves nuclear free – we’re not afraid of bold statements.
But we’re also pragmatic. In the lead-up to 2020, we’ve had tough moments, but what has shone through is a totally Kiwi character trait: we look after one another. So as we head into some challenges like climate change, making sure we look after our environment, digital transformation and inequality, I hope we keep doing what we do best. Be unafraid to be first, pragmatic, and always, always look out for one another.
Peter Beck, Rocket Lab founder
New Zealand as a country is a pretty special place when it comes to our values and identity. I think New Zealand pretty much punches above its weight in a number of different fields. I hope we can continue to lead the world in a number of different areas – environmentally, for one, but naturally I’m going to say in space too. There is so much opportunity in space in terms of the infrastructure needed to be put in orbit, which can have a really impactful change for society for decades to come. Closer to home, I’d like to see us grow venture capitalism and our entrepreneurial community. I think one of the defining traits of being a Kiwi is the ability to do everything yourself. New Zealanders will look at something, a problem, and just go and try to fix it themselves instead of waiting for someone else to help them. We take on lots of projects and spend summers building decks – that is what makes New Zealanders special. The day you don’t go down to Bunnings to buy all your hammers and wood and not worry about your permit, is the day we’ve lost our identity. I think that’s what makes Kiwis really, really unique. They’ll try anything. They’ll be really innovative. They’ll just work hard.
Emma Espiner (Nga¯ ti Tukorehe, Nga¯ ti Porou), essayist, student, and communications lead for Ha¯ pai Te Hauora
I’m hopeful for the cultural flourishing of our country. Our difficult conversations about racism and our hunger for the truth about our history form a necessary crucible for the creation of a truly New Zealand identity. Despite being confronting and often painful, the fires that have been lit will be the making of us.
There’s so much to celebrate about our authentic selves – the stories are much better when the characters are complex and the journeys fraught. That’s my aspiration for my daughter, a Ma¯ ori girl coming of age in the 2020s; to have a rich and true history as the foundation for her dreams.
Mia Sutherland, School Strike 4 Climate NZ organiser
I hope New Zealand will take more ambitious steps towards leading the way in climate policy over the next decade. We are often seen as a beautiful, clean, green ‘‘100% Pure’’ country, but that’s hardly true when you look at the damage we are doing to our environment and the weak policies that are emerging to fight global climate change.
I can only look forward to progress in the 2020s, and I hope my optimism isn’t deceiving me. Being a Kiwi in the 2020s will be an exciting time. Ambitious climate policy won’t be seen as attacking farms, but instead supporting developing sustainable farming practices. It’ll be transforming cities to make living a more sustainable lifestyle more accessible for everyone: redesigning roads to prioritise lowcarbon transport, replacing single-use packaging and plastics with sustainable alternatives, and reducing poverty so Kiwis all across the country will be able to engage in what they’re passionate about rather than worry about if they’ll have enough money to buy their family’s next meal.
Simon Bridges, Leader of the Opposition
My hope is that New Zealand remains one of the
best countries in the world to raise a family. That will require a strong economy because the investment in the health, education and infrastructure that New Zealanders need depends on it.
My daughter Jemima is two at the moment, so by the time 2030 comes around, she’ll become a teenager. I want her and those her age in New Zealand to be world beaters. We can’t take that for granted – the choice is in our hands. We need to make good decisions economically and invest wisely in ECE, schools, apprenticeships and our universities. First class investment in healthcare and infrastructure will also be critical to ensure we continue to punch above our weight.
Roger Partridge, chairman of the New Zealand Initiative
New Zealand ranks spectacularly well on many measures globally. We are one of the most free and least corrupt countries in the world. We are among the top countries on the UN Human Development Index. We suffer little of the populism and political polarisation that plagues other advanced economies around the world. Our quality of life is hard to beat.
Yet we should be doing much better.
During my lifetime we have become complacent. Our lack of ambition has allowed significant social, economic and environmental challenges to take hold. Among them are poverty, severe housing unaffordability, poor productivity growth, declining educational outcomes, overstretched transport infrastructure, and a host of environmental challenges.
Fortunately, these problems are solvable. Indeed, for most of them solutions already exist.
For example, in housing, the government understands it must ensure infrastructure keeps up with demand.
In many areas, however, little progress is being made. If we are serious about wellbeing, we must demand more of our politicians. We need effective – and costeffective – policies to solve these challenges.
We need better school performance measures to learn what works and what doesn’t to reverse the long-term decline in student literacy and numeracy. Our success in managing our offshore fisheries should be applied to similar environmental challenges like water quality and climate change. We need to rethink our extremely centralist approach to decision-making and reinvigorate local communities by giving them power over local decisions.
Some of these challenges need long-term solutions, but we can make a start over the next 10 years.
That way, Kiwis in the 2020s will have a clearer pathway to a better and more prosperous, sustainable, and inclusive future.
Paula Penfold, journalist; New Zealand Television Awards Reporter of the Year
Being a journalist who usually focuses on bad news, I’m using this as an opportunity to seize upon the good. The most inspiring thing I saw in 2019 was the focus, drive, intelligence and organisational skills of the leaders of School Strike For Climate. In the 2020s these students will be heading off to university or wherever their ambition takes them. And very soon they’ll be contributing even more to society and the world than they already have. They’ll be leaders and visionaries, galvanisers and provocateurs. And they deserve for us to listen to them because it’s their planet to inherit.
I hope the 2020s will become a time of healing. This past decade has been hard, damn hard, in so many different ways. Maybe it’s time that as New Zealanders we give ourselves a reset, and do those things we can be so good at: we can listen more, seek to understand rather than react, become more tolerant, more openminded, more constructive – and more hopeful.
Pania Newton, Save Our Unique Landscape (SOUL) leader
I hope we’ve advanced our conversation around constitutional transformation. I would like to see race relations improve and see the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples entrenched and possibly Te Tiriti o Waitangi. I hope to see the Government make a better commitment towards mitigating climate change and I certainly hope the Ihuma¯tao issue is resolved.
To be a Kiwi in the next decade will mean we are a bilingual nation. That we celebrate diversity and we are multicultural and have an understanding and respect for Te Tiriti o Waitangi. That we are adventurous, outgoing and outdoorsy Kiwis.
Mike Chunn, Play it Strange CEO and founding member, Split Enz
Young New Zealanders are the forward motion of the future of New Zealand and its identity and it will be the waiata, storytelling, music and more that proves that. Those elements hold a force that, when portrayed and revealed to us and the rest of the world, mirror who we are and we should celebrate that.
In my world of the Play It Strange Trust and the hundreds of songs written, performed and recorded by teenage New Zealanders that are entered in our songwriting competition, there is a momentum that points to a new decade where words and music merge together in the craft of songwriting, such that we are enlightened and rewarded by what those songs reveal to us. They teach us. And we learn from them.
To be a Kiwi in the 2020s is to be of this place. We need to stand up and absorb all that surrounds us. To take note and absorb.
It’s not about the rest of the world. It’s not about books, music, films, etc, that fly in our direction from other countries. It’s about our identity. Our unique construct. And I believe we know how to stand up and take that in our stride. We must take it in our forward motion. We must think about it. Concentrate on it. And that means all of us.
Jehan Casinader, Sunday correspondent
I hope we can break up with technology – especially our personal devices. We love them, and they’ve radically changed our lives. But our screen addiction is killing us. New Zealand is a beautiful country, full of great yarns and great people. Life is so much more interesting when we’re living in the real world. I’m still figuring out how to do that. But I reckon the tide is turning, and we’ll have a better, bolder, brighter country – when we learn how to switch off.
Being a Kiwi in 2020 will be about walking the talk. On March 15 our country changed. As the Muslim community grieved, many of us declared, ‘‘They are us.’’ But did we mean it? The first anniversary of the Christchurch terror attack isn’t far away, and New Zealanders will – once again – be questioned on whether our warm, kind sentiments match the reality of life in this country. Right now, we have an opportunity to build a truly inclusive community. Let’s not lose that momentum.