20-year plan needed

Mike Baker raises many salient points about New Zealand’s balance of payments deficits (NZ Herald letters, January 1), and that the $30 billion deficit is a drain on a struggling economy long-term.

However, solutions post-Covid may require at least a 20-year and beyond plan.

Whilst tourism provides approximately 3 per cent of our GDP, there is a chronic shortage of skilled labour in the hospitality industry and it’s difficult to find and retain qualified staff.

Add a net migration gain of

128,800, and the tourist centres, particularly Queenstown, suffer from an acute shortage of affordable housing for workers.

As for balancing the import/export paradigm, we are 20 years behind in infrastructure planning and demographic resolutions addressing population increases in our major cities.

One of the results: we import inferior Indonesian coal to power businesses and homes, whilst exporting most of the premium bituminous coal that other countries value because of its cleaner burn and lower ash content.

Ethically, somewhat of a clean fuel conundrum, but at least the level of imported coal has dropped to its lowest level in 22 years, and the previous Government’s investment in the Decarbonisation Industry Fund has positively impacted our industrial reliance on coal.

Marie Kaire’s excellent letter of the week (Weekend Herald, December

30) also highlights the need for a longterm sustainable plan and a bipartisan political party construct. Realistically, a two or three-term government may not be able to ameliorate all these issues, but it’s possible there can be cross party cooperation to achieve a long-term plan.

We needn’t be the “too little, too late” country, because we are lucky that we haven’t reached the parlous state the US is in, with a huge political divide hampering any meaningful legislation.

All we need is determination and courage, and perhaps a touch of humility, to resolve these problems, and NZ has never been short of any of those attributes.

Mary Hearn, Glendowie.