New Zealand

Why businesses should employ refugees

Refugees are typically very hard-working, highly motivated and loyal employees, and many are highly skilled too. On a fantastic speaking tour of New Zealand organised by Host International and other partners on 6-10 August I made the case for employing refugees including at a parliamentary breakfast hosted by Minister of Finance Grant Robertson and a lunch hosted by the British High Commissioner in New Zealand, Laura Clarke.

I was interviewed on TV on the AM Show and The Project

I wrote an article for the National Business Review

Here’s my interview with Sam Sadcheva for Newsroom.co.nz on refugee employment and the broader threat to openness from President Trump

Here’s a press release from Multicultural New Zealand calling for action to employ refugees

Here’s a great piece by Thomas Manch on stuff.co.nz

 

Who’s afraid of a hung parliament?

Coalition governments are par for the course in many countries in the world – and they often work fine.

Bryan Gould points out on the Guardian’s Comment is Free that they work well even in a country with a Westminster-style democracy: New Zealand.

The real significance of non-majority government is the change that it brings to the process of government. The New Zealand experience has been that government ministers are constantly engaged in a process of negotiation; each piece of legislation, each major policy decision, has to be preceded by discussions to ensure that a parliamentary majority exists to support that particular measure.

Curiously, this does not seem to have meant that the government’s programme is hopelessly delayed or frustrated. It has meant, at times of course, that legislation cannot be introduced until the necessary deals have been done, but the corollary is that the passage of more thoroughly prepared and carefully drafted legislation – once introduced – is smoother and takes less time. An even bigger plus is that the legislation – appealing as it must to a wider constituency than that represented by just one party – is often more soundly based and widely supported, with more of its contentious rough edges rounded off, than it would otherwise be.

The psychological change is also important. There is less of Quintin Hogg’s “elective dictatorship”. There is less obsession with doing down the opposition parties at every opportunity, since their support might be needed on the next item in the government’s programme. In other words, governments are not only freer to, but are required to, think more about broad-based positions than about the immediate party battle. There is a greater understanding of the value of broad public support and keeping in touch with public opinion. And parliament itself is more widely representative of the range of opinion, and its members have a greater interest in and understanding of the processes of government.

It is not necessary to idealise these outcomes. Government is still a messy, difficult, at times bad-tempered, partisan business. But we should not be frightened of ghosts and shadows.

Quite.

Little New Zealand has a big strength

I'm in New Zealand for 2 weeks speaking about the economic benefits of diversity at a series of events in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.

NZ is small country that will always be geographically remote, but it is intimately connected to the rest of the world through its wonderfully diverse people.

Their diversity is an often undervalued asset, especially in these difficult times.

Yet just as ethnic Chinese networks have long been at the centre of trade in Asia, Chinese New Zealanders can help New Zealand connect with China and the rest of Asia's dynamic markets.

What's more, New Zealand's diverse workforce can boost creativity, innovation and enterprise, and thus boost productivity growth. That makes everyone richer and helps pay for the schools, hospitals and other things we cherish.

To any NZ-based readers on this blog, I look forward to meeting some of you over the next weeks.