Paul McBeth is the editor of The Bottom Line and Curious News, having worked at BusinessDesk for 15 years. He's been moderating the Trans-Tasman Business Circle series, which included FirstCape's CEO and chair.
If you ever got the feeling that there’s a certain number of seat-warmers and time-servers in New Zealand’s house of representatives, you’ll probably lament the exit of Labour MP David Parker.
Never the flashiest showman nor the most rousing speaker, Parker seemed most at home when he contributed big ideas – something many of his peers seem to struggle with.
That’s not to say they were perfect, and indeed some seemed a little barmy at times, but even those prompted you to reflect and consider them seriously, such was Parker’s big brain.
Take for instance the idea he floated more than a decade ago to add a variable savings rate to the Reserve Bank’s toolkit as a means to cool or encourage household spending – and the flow-on inflation – by diverting more or less money into KiwiSaver funds through the compulsory contribution rather than tweaking the price of borrowing.
Sure, it might’ve been an administrative nightmare – what new idea doesn’t a bureaucracy bristle at? – but it was a novel thought at a time when the central bank was grappling with a surging kiwi dollar that was undermining the ability of local exporters to get ahead.
And while panned back then, the concept rears its head every now and then as something worth more than a cursory chuckle at some of those crazy things politicians say.
If you ever want a ringside seat to get a feel for the intellectual heft or rhetorical talent of the nation’s 120 bestest and brightest who’ve been elected to lead the country, next time you’re in Wellington spend a day sitting in select committee hearings. You'll get a crash-course in which backbench MPs have the ability to contribute something to the country beyond filling a speaking slot, asking a soft question of a minister or staying on the precinct to make sure their vote counts.
Parker’s valedictory speech is worth a watch.
Not for his delivery, which was overwhelmed by the emotion of closing the book on a 22-year period of his life, but for the thoughts that he continued to contribute, be that a serious consideration of adopting the single-transferable voting system, ditching the grossly unfair tax regime on investments that whittles away future savings through the decades rather than clipping the ticket at the end, or reiterating his desire for Big Tech to face a liability regime as means to curb their amoral excesses.
Think big
The now-former politician is easy to identify as one of those thinkers who contributes to the wider public good, but it’s easy to overlook those private sector thinkers – and not realise how important they are to generating broad and thoughtful debate.
Take James Lee for instance.
The former Jarden chief executive – and before that the long-time go-to-guy for any institutional investor wanting to clear a big trade – has packed his bags to go to Canada, where he’s going to run medtech Healwell AI, which bought local health IT shop Orion Health.
Lee recently took over as chair of his father’s 40-year-old broking firm Chris Lee & Associates, based in Kāpiti, north of Wellington, and has subbed in on several of the weekly newsletter, reminding us of his thoughtful and insightful views on how New Zealand’s approach to risk, be that through financial advice or corporate governance, might not be up to scratch.
We should applaud his taking up an international opportunity, but also rue the fact that it could be a number of years before Lee turns his mind back to the future of New Zealand – if ever.
Those big thinkers are important and we need to get away from the idea of people staying in their lane, as is often the complaint when businesspeople turn their minds to social ills or artists attempt to capture or lead on national issues of the day.
And to be fair, there’s often a lot of crossover.
The National Business Review’s weekly editorial this week picked up on the fine observations put forward by FirstCape chief Malcolm Jackson and his chair Matt Whineray on New Zealand’s slightly-too-cosy governance pool, but they also ruminated on the nation’s favourable tax settings on residential property when pondering whether people’s investment portfolios might be shifting away from the family home (short answer – they aren’t because people are typically rational investors who see the benefits of borrowing and tax breaks).
Plain speaking
Unionist, capitalist and public intellectual Rob Campbell is another example of someone who continues to pose uncomfortable questions that make one think, whether that was taking potshots at the financial services industry when he was still neck-deep in corporate life or questioning government directions as a short-lived public servant.
A common trait across these types of communicators isn’t just that they have something big to say, it’s that there’s an actual outcome in mind from what they’re saying.
Some of our finest orators are ultimately vacuous speakers, using a multitude of words to say very little.
That might work in the bearpit of Parliament, but like much that goes on in Wellington, the real world is more demanding.
If we want people with something meaningful to say to raise their heads above the parapet, we might just have to start listening rather than cutting them off when we hear something that makes us bristle.
And if not, well our current public discourse already accommodates loud talkers with little substance.
We already know how that’s working out for us.
Image from Curious News.