Get On With It – Our Politicians Are Playing With Our Future.

Political Showcase Aotearoa - 24th October 2025

There’s a saying in politics - “elections have consequences.” But in New Zealand, what follows is often less consequence and more tantrum. Each change of government isn’t so much a pivot in priorities as it is a bonfire of the last mob’s policies, promises and partially laid plans. If you’re a bulldozer, congratulations - there’s always work. If you’re a citizen hoping for something resembling national progress, not so much.

Reading the recent article on the EU-New Zealand investment summit on Newsroom by Sam Sachdeva, one can’t help but feel both hopeful and deeply exasperated. The signals are clear - Europe sees potential in us. Offshore wind, aerospace, clean tech, even traditional sectors like dairy and red meat - investors are watching. Eager, even. But what do they need? One word - predictability.

Let that word sit with you for a moment. Because for all the headlines about foreign interest, bilateral trade and economic opportunity, that single word – predictability, reveals the gaping hole at the heart of New Zealand’s political culture.

How We Keep Getting in Our Own Way

While the EU ambassador speaks diplomatically about the need for “clear signals from government,” what he’s really saying is - You lot don’t seem to know what the hell you want from one election to the next.

He’s right.

Infrastructure? Reset. Health reform? Unwound. Polytechs? Merge them, then un-merge them. Climate targets? Cancelled, reinstated, tweaked, watered down, rebranded. The pattern is embarrassingly consistent - like a rugby match where the teams change ends every few minutes and keep trying to score in opposite directions.

It’s not just wasteful. It’s profoundly irresponsible. At a time when countries are in an all-out race for capital, talent, and resilience, we’re stuck playing short-term, partisan games that insult the intelligence of every voter and investor alike.

The True Cost of Pettiness

Let’s not pretend this is merely an economic issue. It’s deeper than that.

When Winston Peters publicly trashes major European investment deals - calling one a “serious mistake” and implying the other risks our dairy integrity what message does that send to the world? That New Zealand is a good place to put your billions unless the Deputy PM gets twitchy about your accent?

These deals aren’t fringe. One is a $3.85 billion bid by Lactalis for Fonterra’s consumer business. The other is a $250 million investment in the Alliance Group by Dawn Meats. Not only are they signals of faith in New Zealand’s economy - they are the sort of capital injections that could transform industries, improve infrastructure and create good jobs.

Instead, our political leaders fall back into petty parochialism, wielding economic nationalism like a toddler with scissors - not entirely sure how it works, but determined to cut something.

No Plan Endures When Politics Is Sport

Therein lies the problem.

We have allowed our politics to become performative, not purposeful. Strategy has given way to spectacle. Policies are not weighed for their merit but judged by who proposed them. If “the other side” built the bridge, it must be the wrong bridge. Rip it out and pour another foundation.

This is not governance. It’s vandalism dressed as leadership.

The EU’s call for predictability isn’t a diplomatic nicety. It’s a flashing red warning light. Other countries - Australia, Singapore, Denmark have long-term infrastructure and investment plans that endure changes in government. Why? Because they treat their national interests as sacrosanct. Here, we treat them as optional.

The Risk of Doing Nothing

The danger in all this is not just lost deals or missed opportunities. It’s something more insidious: a slow erosion of trust.

Trust in our institutions. Trust in the possibility of progress. Trust that our democracy works for the many, not just the noisy few.

When that trust dissolves, something else creeps in. Populism. Cynicism. Division. The same cocktail that delivered Trump, Brexit and a wave of political strongmen whose defining feature is their contempt for complexity and compromise.

If we’re not careful, New Zealand could soon find itself seduced by the same loudmouth simplifiers - the ones who promise to “fix everything” by breaking everything. Once a nation reaches that point, it is no longer building. It is surviving.

The Sacred Duty Forgotten

Our politicians, from all stripes, all eras, need to remember that they were not elected to settle scores or score points. They were elected to serve the people. All of them. Not just the ones who voted for them. Not just the ones who can donate. Everyone.

That means swallowing ego. Working across the aisle. Building things that last.

It means realising that a wind farm, or a polytech, or a trade deal is not “Labour’s project” or “National’s scheme” - it is New Zealand’s future and that future deserves better than being rebooted every three years by the next Minister with a red pen and a grudge.

We Can Still Turn This Around

Now, before you throw your hands up in despair, here’s the glimmer. We’ve seen what’s possible. We’ve seen bipartisan success before - from ACC to the Reserve Bank, from the Treaty settlement process to nuclear-free policy. When we choose to act like adults, New Zealand can be extraordinary.

Imagine if the same energy and urgency that went into election campaigning went into collaborative infrastructure planning. Imagine a 30-year housing, energy and transport strategy that survives governments because it was designed by all of them.

It’s not a fantasy. It’s a choice. But we need leaders willing to make it.

A Final Word to the Politicians

To our so-called leaders: the country isn’t your toy box, and policies aren’t playthings. You are not here to undo your predecessors - you are here to do your duty.

So stop the performative petulance. Sit down with your political opponents like grown-ups. Find the 80% you agree on. Build from there.

Above all – for Christ’s sake get on with it.

Because New Zealand deserves more than a revolving door of egos. We deserve vision. We deserve progress and if you won’t provide it, you may find the public turns, not to a better alternative, but to a worse one. That’s not a threat. It’s a pattern. One we still have time to break.

But only just.

Please join the conversation. There’s a lot to talk about and I’d love to hear your perspective, even if it differs from mine.

john.luxton@regenerationhq.co.nz l +64 275 665 682 l www.regenerationhq.co.nz/contact