Originally Posted by NZAV8R

The problems are numerous and complex and won’t be solved overnight. And I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do have some thoughts about the issues facing NZ that I'll share with you. First of all I think that there needs to be change a of government to help set the country in a new direction. Also, NZ needs to hold a referendum and get rid of the current electoral voting system, which is called Mixed Member Proportional (MMP). Read more about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Government
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_member_proportional
MMP is a fairly complex system that was introduced in 1996 and was modeled after the German system. It has proven to be problematic in that a ruling party may be forced to form a coalition(s) with minor parties to form a government and in effect have to compromise and curry political favors from the minor party and/or water down policies and delay getting things achieved while its merits are argued in parliament. Anyway, I think the MP's see it all as just a big tea party; not a very effective method of government if you ask me. The Labor current labor government (which has been in power since 1999) is led by Prime Minister, Helen Clark. It is heavily socialist and as such caters for the working class; of which are growing in numbers due to her immigration and generous social welfare benefits and policies for the lower classes. Labor has enacted a number of laws that, in my opinion, over the long term are not in the countries best interests. Essentially, what is happening is the skilled middle and upper classes are being taxed, fairly heavily. A good many of them have this idealized view of how things “should be.” However, they justifiably take a dim view when they see the government mismanaging their tax dollars and handing it out willy-nilly to the undermotivated, unskilled and uneducated low/no income bracket; especially when the welfare candidates have just arrived from overseas. In similar fashion to what is occurring in the US, the NZ government is evidently catering to the unskilled immigrant. It's ironic that for those that are educated, skilled and ready to contribute, getting residency can become more of a challenge. IMO the NZ government has got their immigration policy all backwards. I’ll give you an example. A couple of months ago there was a hijacking on a domestic Air NZ flight by some quite literally crazy women, that originally immigrated from Somalia to NZ in 1994. The story even made it to APC. Apparently, for the entire time while this particular women was living in NZ she had not managed to become a productive member of NZ society, ever; but likely would have cost NZ tax payers a ton of money. And will probably continue to do so while she undergoes psych treatment and/or prison. This is truly a sad situation for her and for the NZ taxpayer. You might wonder then how did she manage to get into the country? Quite simply because she was a refugee. You see the NZ government loves refugees! Go figure. I don’t see how the country can afford go on holding out as being charity central for some many that apply to enter and having an open door policy to certain ethnic groups regardless of education level/skills (or lack thereof) background, etc when the truth be known the country doesn’t generate enough revenue to support them long term. It's fine for them to live there, its the lack of motivation to get off the benefits and improve and educate themselves is what I see as the concern. Sure, there must be some who do this, but they would likely be the exception rather than the norm.

Originally Posted by NZAV8R

Another problems is the large increase in serious crime. NZ is not the picture perfect society it once was considered to be; but, by world standards it's still pretty good. However, the government is still somewhat lax about doing anything about really lowering the crime rate. It seems that they would rather go after law abiding citizens doing a few km’s over the speed limit (because it means lots of extra revenue) than really curbing serious crime. One of the newest developments in that regard is the methamphetamine problem; or ‘P’ as it’s called in NZ. Marijuana, is present in the NZ, (just like it has been in the US) but it doesn’t seem have had the same sudden and deleterious effects on society and an asscociated increase in crime as is the case with meth. P is cheap and easy to make, from common household chemicals, and is highly addictive; and so crime is on the rise as a direct result. Unfortunately, it seems to becoming well established there, with even some that are affluent. Here’s an article from today’s NZ herald about the daughter of a well known TV celeb that got charged with possession of P: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/index.cfm?c_id=30

However, the main problems with P’s usage is in the rural communities where employment is typically lower than in the larger cities, and also because there’s not much to do for entertainment. So the young teenagers and 20 somethings sit around on government bene's and get high on P. I do not mean to sound culturally biased, but the fact is that the NZ prisons are filled with mainly Maori and Pacific Islanders. Considering, these to groups comprise less than 20% of the population it does seem to indicate that a disproportionate percent of the crime and social problems stem from within those certain ethnic groups. Yet the government does little solve it, except introduce silly laws that they think will curb the problems. For example, a law was recently introduced that makes it a crime to reprimand a child with physical discipline, such as smacking. This came about as a lot of children in Maori and Island communities were getting severely bashed and (some killed) by the parents. Ok, you might happen to agree with that. But the problem is to the nth degree to which this law is being interpreted, is what makes it absurd. There was a case about a year ago where an otherwise respectable law abiding citizen (ironically he happened to be a government MP) almost got charged by the police for lightly restraining his child (something that any responsible parent woull do) at a public shopping mall- to prevent his child from hitting another child. Well, a member of the public complained about his apparent "mistreatment” of his child and so the police were called and so they had to investigate; complete non-sense. This is a good example of where one well intended law has unintended negative consequences for all.