Speaker by Various Artists

This country's “book tribe” – as Dr Sam Elworthy, chair of the Book Awards Governance Council, called it – is indeed a small one. In the lobby of the Auckland War Memorial Museum last night for the New Zealand Post Book Awards I spoke with editor Stephen Stratford and we laughed that we were both there to support our friend Chris Bourke, convenor of the judging panel.

In the lift to the top floor I met someone I had been to school with (and hadn't seen since – funny how names and faces from more than four decades ago stick better than someone you met last week) and the first person I spoke to upstairs – potter and guidance counsellor Stuart Newby – remembered me from when I was at his school as a visiting author.

Stuart was up for an award for Playing with Fire; Auckland Studio Potters Society Turns 50 which he co-wrote with Peter Lange. Peter came over – we'd met at a dinner some years back and have a mutual friend in Chris Knox – and we chatted, and when I was seated I was beside Lawrence McDonald who was also up for an award with fellow writers Diane Pivac and Frank Stark for their excellent New Zealand Film: An Illustrated History.

Lawrence also knew Roger Shepherd of Flying Nun and he too had seen the thrilling LCD Soundsystem doco Shut Up and Play the Hits at the film festival the night before.

When I looked around the room I must have clocked at least a couple of dozen people I knew, even more that I knew of or recognised. Radio NZ's Katherine Ryan said “Hi” at the buffet table.

It's a small world in New Zealand books, and that's the good news. The room was supportive of nominees and winners (not like the more partisan music awards where I guess young people feel their career depends on winning a gong). Success or effort was genuinely applauded.

The long shadow of Margaret Mahy, of course, hung over proceedings, but not in a negative way. Her successes were honoured and her inspiration acknowledged. Hers was a life, career and contribution to be celebrated.

After the generous mihi by Matt Maihi – in which he spoke of a “wind of change”, a metaphor bedded in those first sailing ships landing and extended into how we should enjoy the change together – it was down to business.

Elegant MC Jennifer Ward-Lealand was flawless, the speakers were eloquent (an unfair comparison with the music awards where “Ahh, yeah . . . cheers” is considered adequate) and the few facts thrown in made your chest swell.

Elworthy noted 75 books would be taken to the Frankfurt Book Fair in October at which New Zealand is the official Guest of Honor, later we were told last year 10 books had been translated into German and this year the number was over 100, and at the recent Auckland Writers and Readers Festival 151,000 of the $5 book vouchers had been redeemed. The Kindle Generation hasn't won the ground just yet.

This year there was a Maori Language Award (not given every year) and it went to Chris Winitana (Ngati Tuwharetoa and Ngai Tuhoe) for Toku Reo, Toku Ohooho/My Language; My Inspiration whose speech opened with “Wow!” and went on to pay tribute to his family – and the 24 elders who form the core of a book which traces the development and crisis in te reo (but nods to who was on Ready to Roll at the time also).

Presenter Paora Tibble picked up the metaphor from Maihi's welcome and noted “the wind coming, it's te reo Maori”.

In accepting her People's Choice award for From Under the Overcoat, Sue Orr noted Margaret Mahy was the “choicest people's choice”; introducing the non-fiction award (Joan Druett for her exceptional account of Cook's Polynesian navigator in Tupaia) judge Mary Egan spoke of the “interesting, beautiful and erudite” books in the category; and it was noticeable the poetry finalists (the category won by the young writer Rhian Gallagher for Shift) all got extra special hugs from judge Paula Green.

Poets need hugs more than most probably. The hours are long and the financial rewards considerably smaller than a shift in a fast food outlet.

Even successful novelist Paula Morris, collecting her award for Rangatira, said “I'd like to thank everyone who loaned me money . . . but I'd be here for a long time”. That's the way of it for New Zealand writers, and yet they still do it. Crazy but wonderful.

Absent on the night was Chris Bourke (good excuse: “fatherhood imminent”, although when I texted him he said “no action yet”) . . . but present were some of the finest, most dedicated and intelligent writers this country has.

Best first book went to New Zealand by Design by Michael Smythe and John Adams' complex but utterly engaging Briefcase (poetry, prose, the language of the law in a remarkable post-modern conjunction) won best first book of poetry. He's a district court judge so although he didn't get one, he maybe needed a bigger hug than most. Hamish Clayton's Wulf (“a feat of bravura lyricism”) set in early 19^th century New Zealand was acknowledged as best first book/fiction.

Even a cursory glance at these titles and their subjects affirms we are not only writing about ourselves, but for ourselves. Our eyes are focused on defining, redefining and refining our own view of who we are as a people, a nation with a rich history and interesting present.

The big winner managed to encompass both: the NZ Post Book of the Year went to the handsome New Zealand's Native Trees by John Dawson and Rob Lucas (also picking up best illustrated non-fiction).

Such a book – at $120 – might not find a place on too many home bookshelves, but as a defining text and beautifully illustrated with over 2000 photographs, it is a salient reminder of the rare land we inhabit and how that remarkable native forest came to be like it is, evolving over millennia. And – when Dawson spoke briefly of his theory involving the eating habits of the extinct moa -- how we are but temporary citizens of this place.

The NZ Post Book Awards are a celebration of ourselves and that “tribe” is growing in size and importance. They might not win bronze, silver or gold and thus command the front page of our newspapers or top the nightly news on television, but the writers are our people and of considerable importance. They are also bloody good company and there's about two degrees of separation between most.

Oh, and that guy from school I met in the lift was Alan Sorrell. I asked him what he was doing there. Seems he chairs the Arts Board of Creative New Zealand, so fair enough.

I really need to get better connected.

The term “Dutch Disease” was first used to describe the situation in the Netherlands in 1959, when the discovery of a large natural gas field increased revenues in that sector, overvaluing the exchange rate and causing a decline in the manufacturing industry; imports became cheaper and export margins evaporated.  In New Zealand this is caused by our primary sector.

A similar situation occurs with mining in Australia, on two levels; locally wage inflation ravages associated industries like trucking, and nationally overvaluing the Australian dollar makes other Australian exports uncompetitive.

Broadly, the term describes the negative impact of a dominant part of an economy on the rest of the economy. Farming in New Zealand has become more of a property development game; production is a secondary issue, there to service debt up to the point that the current owner cashes out to the next tax-free.

Macro-economic settings drive behaviour. Innovation needs investment and predictable margins to fuel experimentation and to fund failure. Without the oxygen of margin innovation either fails or fails to happen.  Highly innovative businesses must export and run on the smell of an oily rag. 

New Zealand’s macroeconomic settings support low revenue to asset ratios activities like those found in dairy farming, and as exchange rates escalate the same settings poison activities that have high revenue to asset ratios like manufacturing and software companies. 

How long will we remain hostage to the ideas that bind us to our low value version of the Dutch Disease?  What would we need to do to start transitioning to a more logical economic situation?

I will be exploring these issues and more at the Voyage of a Lifetime event held at the Q Theatre in Auckland on the 10^th of June. The passage is already fully booked, but those keen can go onto the waiting list by registering at www.thevoyage.co.nz and watch it live streamed on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/voyage-of-a-lifetime   Follow @voyagenz on Twitter to keep updated.

John Walley is the Chief Executive of the NZ Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA).  

New Zealand, Ireland, Portugal and Greece are the most indebted of developed nations.

However, we have one thing going for us that the rest don’t: Our government debt is low. But that means our private sector owes international creditors proportionately more than theirs do.

Consequently our creditors have more faith in us than them. They believe we can keep exporting so we can earn enough to service our debt.

Treasury forecasts show though, our creditors’ confidence is misplaced. Our current account deficit continues to deepen. We finance it by borrowing more and selling off assets.

Thus, Treasury’s forecasts in the recent budget show our net international liabilities will rise from 67.5% of GDP in 2011 to 80.8%% in 2016. One of the main reasons for this is the low-growth rut in which exports are stuck.

Turning that around will take decades of higher earnings from exports and overseas investments, coupled in the domestic economy with more saving and investment and less overseas borrowing.

Foreign investment in New Zealand is crucial to that equation. Good investment will help us do more than we could on our own, such as accelerating the growth of high value, technology-driven exports here and co-investments overseas.

Ireland is the best country at that strategy. For decades, it has attracted foreign investors with technology and capital that enabled Ireland to create abundant exports, high-paying jobs and research capability.

That export-focused sector still thrives. It was Ireland’s banking system and housing market that collapsed under the burden of reckless borrowing. In fact, lower house prices and wages caused by the crash are making the tech sector more competitive.

But we attract mainly bad foreign investment to New Zealand. Of the money invested 2003-09 (a pattern very typical of long term trends) 55% sought domestic market share (largely Australian investors); 40% sought cheap labour or other efficiencies (ditto); 4% sought to capitalise on knowledge here and 2% sought resources here.

These domestically focused investments worsen the current account deficit when their profits flow overseas yet we gain no exports.

Yet, we continue to encourage such destructive behaviour. For example, the Overseas Investment Office has conceded that Shanghai Pengxin’s investment in the Crafar Farms will not increase exports or jobs here or NZ in-market skills overseas. Yet, the government approved the deal.

To correct this dire performance we need as a country to understand exactly what financial messages the global economy is sending us … and work out what messages we will send back about our economic development and the crucial role right foreign investment can play.

I will be exploring these issues and more at the Voyage of a Lifetime event held at the Q Theatre in Auckland on the 10^th of June. The passage is already fully booked, but those keen can go onto the waiting list by registering at www.thevoyage.co.nz and watch it live streamed on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/voyage-of-a-lifetime.   Follow @voyagenz on Twitter to keep updated.

Rod Oram is an international business journalist

New Zealand, like many other developed economies, faces a decade or two of painfully slow to no economic growth. Our economic engine is misfiring badly and our ship is drifting.

The world’s ability to invent and develop new tools and techniques to increase productivity has atrophied over the last 30 years. The internal combustion engine is still our dominant means of transport. Burning coal and oil is still our main way to generate the energy we need for our modern way of life. Passenger jet speeds haven't increased for 50 years. The burst of amazing innovation during the 1940s and 1950s that gave us nuclear energy, supersonic jets, radar, transistorized computing and penicillin hasn't been repeated during the 1990s and 2000s.

Instead, the energy of the world's best and brightest over the past two decades has gone into globalising and financing the global economy. This has reversed decades of rising incomes and wealth for the middle classes in the developed world. The fruits of any productivity growth was flooded upwards to shareholders, managers and bankers, as banks took a greater share of profits and the globalisation of supply chains helped shift income from workers to owners. To maintain real living standards and incomes, these middle classes were encouraged to borrow to fill the holes in their hollowed out incomes. High paid factory workers were laid off and became real estate agents and bank tellers. Rocket scientists got jobs at investment banks and hedge funds.

A generation or two pulled forward resources from the future and over consumed through the 2000s. By the end of the decade household debt built up in the developed world became unsustainable, unleashing an almighty fight over who would pay the price.

Rising debt is sustainable when it grows slower than incomes, but when it becomes clear that incomes will grow much slower than debt, this usually triggers a revaluation and restructuring of this debt. Those at the bleeding edges of that debt are usually wiped out first. Usually, that is bank shareholders, bank bond holders and then bank depositors, in that order. In 2008 this didn't happen. Governments chose to take over the bad debts to protect bank bondholders and managers. This shifted bad debts from one group of private lenders to taxpayers in general.

All over the world this has broken economic growth and the result is that economies are drifting. Aging populations are going to retire and get sick over the next 20-30 years, leaving a smaller group of passengers working and paying taxes for health care costs and pensions. This isn’t the time to be up on deck sunning ourselves. We need all hands below deck to rebuild and restart the engine while we still have time.

 I will be exploring these issues and more at the Voyage of a Lifetime event held at the Q Theatre in Auckland on Sunday the 10^th of June. The passage is already fully booked, but those keen can go onto the waiting list by registering at www.thevoyage.co.nz and watch it live streamed on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/voyage-of-a-lifetime   Follow @voyagenz on Twitter to keep updated.

Bernard Hickey is the managing editor of interest.co.nz

We’ve never been here before. Humans have never lived in a time when we have had the technological capability, resources and knowledge to end the worst of global poverty. As New Zealanders, we have the ability right now to bring the 23,000 of our kids living in relative poverty up to a basic standard of living. What we don’t have is the political will to solve those old problems with new solutions.

I’ve never been here before, either. I’m in my final year of a law and commerce degree at the University of Auckland, staring down the barrel of a stark choice between abandoning ship or staying aboard in the hope of helping us get back on track in some small way. Last month 4,500 kiwis went to Australia, my best friends included. They skipped for consulting jobs that dropped a bonus of $15K AU on each of them as soon as they signed. It’s a tempting offer; around 26% of my graduating class will earn less than $20Kpa until 2016. 

It’s a choice every young person on the brink of their professional life might make, between living your values and trying to get quick break. This one has a new twist though. My generation have grown up with an underinvestment in education that will cripple the knowledge economy we hope to lead. We’re also faced with growing inequality, and we’ll be living in very different New Zealand to the once we grew up in if we don’t change course.

I will be exploring these issues and more at the Voyage of a Lifetime event held at the Q Theatre in Auckland on the 10^th of June. The passage is already fully booked, but those keen can go onto the waiting list by registering at www.thevoyage.co.nz and watch it live streamed on http://www.ustream.tv/channel/voyage-of-a-lifetime.   Follow @voyagenz on Twitter to keep updated.

Arena Williams is the President of the Auckland University Students’ Association (AUSA).