NZ as a Sustainable Society

If New Zealand is to become a sustainable society, we shall need a personal and societal transformation within the next decade. We can only do this through far-reaching change at three levels – governmental, corporate and household.

Our governments need to surrender the illusion that human progress is principally dependent on material growth and accurately measured by the GDP. Under the present system:

- No (negative) adjustment is made for the depletion of our natural resources (forestry, fish, soils) or for the pollution from our economic activity (rivers & streams; city smog). That is dangerous.

- No distinction is made between ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ social activity – when the Ilam Road bus-stop glass is smashed and repaired each month at a cost of $2,000, this is recorded as $24,000 of ‘economic progress’ in our annual GDP. That is absurd.

To replace this we need to introduce a new system of Sustainable National Accounts which record the real impact our socio-economic activity is having on our environment. Innovative work on a Genuine Progress Indicator and sustainable national accounts is underway in Canada and The Netherlands. Some exploratory work has been done in NZ, but we do not yet have any such accounts.

As your MP, I shall introduce draft legislation for a true measure of our socio-economic activity that records our progress towards a sustainable society within which a sustainable economy is functioning.

At the corporate level, we need to invite business and farming to make a concerted move towards sustainable economic activity, giving fiscal & monetary signals to which the market can rationally respond.

In our households, we need to transform our lifestyles so that our country becomes truly clean and green. Walking and cycling, driving hybrids, growing organics, composting waste, installing long-life light-bulbs & solar water-heating, and turning down the heat and power – all combine to make a huge difference. That is neither boring nor does it reduce our standard of living – in fact our quality of life goes up.

We shall not succeed in this transformation if we simply vilify other individuals or groups. We are all in this together and we shall only get out of it through constructive leadership and cooperative behaviour. The ecological crisis, around the planet and to a lesser extent here at home, is too serious to do otherwise.

I am happy to meet with you to discuss these ideas in more depth.