Excellent post. As an NZ resident of some years personally commited to prosperity and opportunity for all NZ citizens, some thoughts: The massive drain of talent, capital, and opportunity from NZ to Australia has a lot to do with a Kafkaesque maze of self-defeating regulations that strangle NZ prosperity for all of society. Bureaucracies don’t build equitable societies, but they can regulate to death the economies that enable them. A country of a few million people facing huge deficits, a butchers’ bill of climate change consequences just starting to present itself for payment, and a fragile over-reliance on ag and tourism should not be so resolutely hostile to ideas, innovation, and capital from outside.
Founding Director at Aotearoa Science Agency | Prime Minister's Science Communication Prize Winner
It was really interesting to hear Steve Meller from CH4Global on RNZ this morning discussing the ongoing hurdle - more of a brick wall at the moment - in using methane-reducing red seaweed (asparagopsis) for feed on farms in New Zealand. Asparagopsis is native to New Zealand and Australia. Australia are producing it and allowing it as a supplement in cattle feed, where in New Zealand it's categorised as a veterinary medicine which creates prohibitive barriers. I know "fast-track" is a dirty word at the moment, but perhaps we should be looking at why Australia is moving ahead at pace while we aren't. Let's consider speeding up the process on methane reduction, not coal mining.
