Article as published NBR 19 December 2003

The day after the World Rugby Cup Final the former All Black captain Anton Oliver was interviewed by Chris Laidlaw on his Sunday radio show, but his most important comments were about the economy not about sport.

He said that many of the top All Blacks (including himself) could make two to three times as much money playing overseas, but "we want to be All Blacks, and the thrill of playing for our country is what keeps us here".

But here's the chilling bit.

Oliver went on to say the gap between the money in New Zealand and what players like him could get overseas was widening and the bonds of loyalty were getting strained.

"Being an All Black won't be enough to keep people here forever. It's too big a burden to ask the jersey to bear," he warned.

In short Oliver offered yet another example of how wage rates in New Zealand for those able to compete on a world market had fallen behind. To keep top class people in New Zealand, more reliance was now being placed on non-monetary factors like pride, faith in New Zealand, our clean air, water, and open spaces.

It's a familiar refrain, and it works - up to a point.

Earlier this year, a rural doctor called Wally Metcalfe was in the news. He'd had enough of being the only doctor in his part of the Wairarapa - the hours were too long, the stress was constant and unrelenting, he couldn't take a holiday, and the money was poor. So he packed his bags for Ireland and what he thinks will be a better lifestyle.

The Ministry of Economic Development says our wage rates are on average 25% below those in Australia, and for those with skills in demand internationally the choices are even greater. Unfortunately the drain isn't just in rugby players.

The most serious problem facing New Zealand is our lack of prosperity.

Energy Minister Pete Hodgson got it right when he told a conference in Wellington in April , "I was born 52 years ago in a country whose living standard was the third highest in the world. Now I live in a country that is 25 th . We can no longer afford the things we think we deserve."

The Treasury spelt it out this way in its post election briefing papers. " Over the past decade, good policy foundations and favourable external conditions have lifted New Zealand's growth rate towards the OECD average.

However, this has not been sufficient to close the per capita income gap that opened between us and the other OECD countries during the 1970's. While our growth rate is projected to be around the OECD average for the foreseeable future, that's not going to be enough to catch up."

Hang on, isn't catching up what this is all about. And here we have Treasury saying it isn't enough.

I think that rather than being consumed with economic transformation, New Zealanders seem to have tacitly accepted that their future isn't going to be as bright as our past has been.

This is dangerous nonsense. Accepting the continuing economic slide that New Zealand has experienced since Mr Hodgson was born ago leads to the view that little can be done.

What I call "the case for prosperity" has never been made properly, perhaps because until now it's not had to be made. As a nation, there have been few occasions when New Zealand has examined how we are going to create and maintain wealth.

In 1969 the National Development Conference made an attempt at indicative planning and did achieve some co-ordination of our economic efforts.

In the 1970's we had export drives - fuelled by a raft of incentives. In the 1980's we swung from a fortress economy to one of the most open.

Certainly our competitiveness rose, but the enthusiasm for change waned in the early 1990's.

At that time the Porter Project laid out a thorough and disturbing analysis of New Zealand's vulnerability and provided some directions for growth. Professor Michael Porter returned to New Zealand a couple of years ago, and politely but clearly expressed his disappointment at the lack of progress.

So what is the case for prosperity and why does it need to be made? Why we need to make it is obvious: since 1951, and more particularly since 1973, New Zealand's standard of living relative to other countries has fallen consistently and continues to fall.

Despite all the different policies we have pursued, despite all the brilliant strategies and plans developed, despite all the sacrifices we have made and despite all the hurt and anger which various reforms have generated over the past thirty years, other countries have done more and performed better.

I can't and won't accept that the best days of New Zealand are behind us, or that this is as good as it gets. We can and should work for a stronger and more economically secure future for ourselves and our children. The job of working out how starts now.

839 words.