Leaders’ top three

Sam Stubbs, Simplicity 1. Income inequality: Only removal of crazy tax incentives for housing will address this long-term. 2. Infrastructure: Business and Government needs to think about investing in a more capital rich, low interest rate environment. They can build with the confidence that it will be demanded, and funded. 3. Water: This is the issue that will bite us internationally. We use it liberally and pollute it wilfully. The world demands best practice from water-intensive exports, and we are not leading the way here. Mike Bennetts, Z Energy 1. Climate change: Follow the recommendations from the recent report by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Or at the very least agree the framework for a bi-partisan agreement that deals with the intergenerational issues arising from climate change. 2. Inequality, and the long term social consequences of growing inequality. Focus resources on where the greatest risk/gap exists rather than a more average approach to all. 3. Investment in infrastructure that better matches current and forecasted demand: Solutions could include better financing options like infrastructure bonds, better analysis and understanding of the opportunity cost of delayed investment. Chair, Major meat exporter 1. Loss of bipartisanship on international trade policy settings put at considerable the country’s competitiveness and economic wellbeing. The National Party needs to be more inclusive and the Labour Party open to empirical evidence. 2. Concentration of political focus on Auckland. 3. Urban-Rural divide which is driving poorly researched populist political agendas at odds with the country’s economic advantages Suse Reynolds, Angel Association NZ 1. More skilled migrants 2. More tertiary education funding 3. Capital shortage — more venture capital — tax incentives, incentives for offshore VCs.