The Radical Solution.

Radical statism built New Zealand, and only radical statism can restore it.

THE RADICAL IMPULSE is to be treasured; without it individuals accommodate themselves to the status quo and societies stagnate. New Zealanders were once renowned globally for their willingness to embrace and implement radical reforms. So much so, that the country was hailed as the “social laboratory of the world”.

But New Zealand’s last great burst of radicalism came in the 1980s and 90s. Our “quiet revolution” (as political journalist Colin James called it) is now more than three decades old.

The world is much changed since New Zealand’s years of radical reform. Indeed, the rising tempo of this global transformation is prompting a growing number of New Zealand economists, business leaders, public servants and commentators to insist that another burst of radical reform is needed urgently.

According to their grim analyses, New Zealand is stumbling blindly into a future overstretched by unsustainable obligations and overburdened by ruinous debt. Every year that passes without action, they argue, the cost of inaction rises.