The National Party’s website carries the slogan: ‘Less debt, more jobs’. Really? Unemployment has risen for the third successive quarter to 7.3%. That’s 175,000 Kiwis out of work. More out of work in some areas than others: the unemployment rate in Auckland is 8%, in Northland it’s 10%, for 15 – 24 year olds it’s 13.4%, 15.1% for Maori, and 15.6% for the Pacific community. Times are tough for many Kiwis, but the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance stubbornly assure us that New Zealand is on track. That must be a difficult line to swallow for all those people struggling to pay their bills.

Despite government statements to the contrary, it is clear that New Zealand’s economy is in a proper shambles. We’ve recorded the highest unemployment rate in 13 years, our manufacturing sector is in steady decline, our dollar remains overvalued, there’s a housing crisis in Auckland, the Christchurch rebuild programme has stalled, our current account deficit has worsened, government borrowing continues to increase, and there’s no indication that our situation will improve in the foreseeable future. The flow-on effects of the global financial crisis will continue for years.
Of major concern is the National-led government’s apparent blindness to its role in NZ’s economic downturn. The PM’s folksy spin is no substitute for a genuine willingness to take steps to protect New Zealanders from the effects of the global financial crisis. Our situation is not the same as Spain’s, nor Greece’s, nor Italy’s, nor Portugal’s, nor anywhere else’s situation. And anyway, the austerity measures imposed in those countries are nothing more than a recipe for civil unrest and misery. New Zealand’s economy has its own problems and those problems need to be addressed in a way which works for us here.

A first step along the road to building a truly independent NZ is for the government to have the humility to accept it doesn’t have answers to the hard economic questions, and to look around for viable alternatives.

Social credit monetary reform is an alternative worthy of serious consideration. It could replace the creaking system devised in the seventeenth century with a new economic model suited to this century. As a system which elevates the local above the global, it encourages de-centralisation and supports dynamic, inclusive, self-reliant communities. It recognises that we can’t borrow from the future, that it is unacceptable for New Zealand’s financial system to be owned by overseas interests, and that the government’s primary responsibility is to the people of New Zealand.

The government may yet be able to honour its election year promise of a ‘brighter future’ for all New Zealanders….. but only by using social credit.

- Stephnie de Ruyter

Published: December 2012