Collision Course.

Can New Zealanders change their direction of travel? Do they want to?

WE’VE ALL HEARD IT, the cliché about how long it takes to turn around a super-tanker. Doesn’t mean it’s wrong, though. Indeed, when the “super-tanker” in question is the vast bureaucratic edifice of the modern nation-state, then, cliché or not, the metaphor is a good one.

Those of a generous disposition might offer up the super-tanker metaphor in at least partial defence of the National Party’s slow progress on what many voters still see as the urgent task of turning New Zealand’s state bureaucracy around. Less generous souls would question whether the necessary orders from the super-tanker’s captain have even been issued.

Why is this so hard? And why is it taking so long?