Peter Dunne Leader's Letter January 26 2007

Another summer holiday is behind us and it is time to look beyond the beach to the year ahead.

Parliament will resume in a couple of weeks with the traditional Prime Minister's Statement on the government's plans for the year, but that is likely to take second place this year to the first real match-up between Helen Clark and John Key, with the emphasis likely to be on the atmospherics of that occasion, rather than the detail of what they actually say.

Helen Clark will inevitably focus on the detail of the government's programme, but will need to overlay that with a clear statement of her party's sense of direction for where the country should head. While John Key does not yet need to go into the same policy detail, he does need to start hinting strongly at some of that, and moving beyond looking like no more than a kinder, gentler version of Labour.

The overriding risk for both is that the media emphasis on the excitement of the occasion will mean that neither of them is able to get their key messages across to New Zealanders, keen to hear what they have to say.

For many New Zealand families there are far more immediate issues than the Helen and John show. Shortly, the school year resumes, and many parents will face the harsh reality of being unable to send their kids to their local school of choice. So, they will opt either to send the kids to a school that is not their preference, or they will join the rising numbers paying twice and sending their children to private schools, even if it means a considerable financial struggle at home.

We definitely need to be investing more in building local schools, but maybe too we should also be acknowledging the role of the private education sector more through increased assistance, possibly including some form of tax deductibility for school fees.

Others will worry about getting into their first home, and how unaffordable New Zealand houses are on an international scale. Mortgage diversion schemes such as United Future has Jan 26, 2007 No. 1 introduced through Kiwisaver will certainly help bridge the deposit gap, but they need to be supported by expanded sweat equity programmes, and initiatives to facilitate urban development by local authorities.

This is the year that United Future's business tax review comes to fruition. While the details of that have been pretty clearly signaled already, the emphasis will now shift to the implications for personal taxes and what changes might occur there. With Kiwisaver being available for those joining the workforce after July, and the Reserve Bank Governor's ongoing warnings about low savings levels, the debate about compulsory savings, and with it the possibility of tax trade-offs for superannuation contributions, will inevitably become louder.

After the failed experiences of the Kirk government's compulsory superannuation scheme and the Peters' referendum 10 years ago, any government wanting to move in this direction will want to be absolutely certain there is a political and public consensus behind them.

The actions of the Family Court in the Jayden Headley case raise some interesting issues. It is not that long ago that there was a strong media campaign to "open up" the Family Court to more public scrutiny. Stop the secrecy, and let the public see for themselves what was going on, the argument went. Now that the Court has done that in this case, it strikes me as ironic that the argument suddenly seems to have shifted from the public's right to know, to protecting a person's right to a fair trial, even though in this instance the information released publicly is all information known to the Court anyway.

What is needed here is a more considered discussion about how open Family Court proceedings should be than the polarised debate of recent years. Our daylight saving petition continues to gather support. Many Kiwis like the idea of a few more weeks of summer time to enjoy outdoor evenings at home with the family before the onset of the winter months.

The petition is available to be signed until February 28. Copies of the petition can be downloaded from www.unitedfuture.org.nz

In a few weeks, Chinese people the world over will be celebrating the start of the Year of the Pig. The characteristics of this year are selflessness, honesty, hard work, compassion and understanding. After the bitterness and pettiness of last year, my hope is that the characteristics of the Year of the Pig become more dominant in New Zealand in 2007.

Happy New Year! Peter Dunne

ENDS

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