[As published in January/February BayBuzz magazine.] 

I like to ignore local and central government as best I can. They are infuriating, inefficient and bureaucratic. I can’t fix them and I wouldn’t fancy the job if I could.

Frustratingly, I’ve been forced to conclude that NZ will continue its inexorable moral and economic deterioration unless we start getting the underpinning governmental functions right. 

From a central government perspective, education and healthcare are paramount and we’ve been in decline for decades. The cry is that if we increase taxes and fund them better, all the problems will go away. I don’t believe it. Large bureaucracies with top-down thinking, no competition and little accountability will never function efficiently. Take the Ministry of Education who increased their staff numbers by 60% over six years of the last Labour government, yet still maintained the educational decline, by all metrics.

If you want me to pay more, you have to outline what the problem is and what you’re going to do about it. Governments aren’t very good at that and seemingly prefer to operate on a ‘trust model’. 

Immigration is another subject I’ve been ranting on about lately. Kiwis need to know that homelessness isn’t helped by government policy. The immigration levels are highly elastic and we’re heading for net migration of around 120,000 this year. StatsNZ suggest an annual deficit in housing supply of some 14,000 homes. 

Unlike migration, the supply of housing is inelastic and the supply of infrastructure more so. What happens with irresponsible immigration rates is that there is intense economic competition for the relatively scarce housing stocks. Those that can’t compete in that economic battle, end up living out of their cars or in the park. This is of little concern to any government because the vast majority benefit from house price increases, feel affluent and re-elect the party in power. Homelessness is a win politically. 

Energy costs are also a bitter pill to swallow. While NZ might have many disadvantages internationally, we should have cheap and abundant energy. Again the policies of central government have failed and energy companies are maximising profit through scarcity. Here in Hawke’s Bay we have abundant, year-round sunlight, and reasonably predictable winds. Surely a regional energy scheme with the right incentives has some merit. Well, it would unless local government led the charge.

I was at an economic development meeting recently and a theme that came to light was ‘a lack of confidence in the region’. “Is this a post-Gabrielle problem?” I enquired. “In part, but there is a loss in regional leadership across the board,” I was told. That rings true. I have not known a time when the HDC, NCC and HBRC have been so universally reviled. Hefty rate rises may be a good part of this, but in the last 15 years we’ve had ballooning debts, leaky homes, the Havelock North gastro crisis and the civil defence failure surrounding cyclone Gabrielle. 

The big issue that is currently below the radar is water use on the Heretaunga Plains. The modelling the TANK processes has settled on, is imperfect but a 36% reduction in allocated volumes will soon be imposed, with some suggestions further reductions will be required. Little regard is given to the changing land use that will follow Gabrielle and the frustrating protracted process remains an impediment to investment.

On the big issues, many citizens feel let down by our local bodies. Older people talk about the ‘good government’ of the past, but I think they’re really talking about a time when societies were richer than they are today. 

Money doesn’t solve everything, but it can sure paper over the cracks. Once we nail down the solutions to governmental problems, we’ll need a budget to fix them. That can only be sustained if we grow our local economy. You can’t tax your way to prosperity. Every dollar you take off the most productive and give to government to allocate inefficiently, comes at the price of real jobs and a bigger economy.

As a libertarian I’ve always held that governments – of all stripes – shouldn’t run very much. Their job is to create an environment where their constituents can prosper. On that basis the best thing you and I can do is to come up with, not a big idea, but a small one that’s achievable. If we can generate 200 of those, a handful might become big ideas in time. 

So, in the sure knowledge that you have a better one, here’s my humble idea.

Apple cider vinegar.

OK, so I know it tastes terrible and is already widely available, but I can make something that could change the vinegary world. For 15 years I’ve been accumulating, testing and breeding with a raft of heritage and cider apples. 130 years of modern apple breeding has delivered big, sweet and crunchy, but nutritional power has been diminished. 

The healthiest components of apples are associated with acidic, tannic or bitter compounds. In preliminary tests the cider vinegar from my selections delivers more than 13x the polyphenols of the next best competitor. Of greatest interest are the catechin/epicatechin levels, which are 34x greater. Some chains of these compounds exist at 210x and 450x the benchmark competitor. These compounds are called procyanidins and the literature suggests they have anti-cancer properties. ‘Search it up’ as my kids so often tell me. 

What I hope to do is to produce bespoke cider vinegar that can have a demonstrable impact on human health. It will take many years before I can prove the benefits such that a health claim can be made, but I’m up for the journey. I’ll launch it in 2025 and the statistics on ambitious startups like this suggest … I’ll fail. I don’t care much for statistics and am undeterred. 

Each generation must have the pioneering spirit and to leave the world better than they found it. My ideas are nerdy and complicated but let’s celebrate all those in our society that have the courage to have a go in any domain. I don’t care if it’s just a coffee cart entrepreneur or a weekend print maker. 

The only big idea we need is in the hands of the creative and the courageous that already reside in our communities. 

Paul Paynter is our resident iconoclast and cider maker. Weather permitting, he grows stuff at Yummyfruit.

Photo supplied