Regional Development

But the shift in power that is going on reaches much more deeply than that. The Labour Party has talked a great deal about regional development over the last eight years or so. When we first developed a solid policy, in 1972, it was because we wanted to rebuild an economic future for areas of the country that were in danger of fading away. But it grew into much more than just an economic package. It touched a very real emotional cord in most New Zealanders and touched a shift in political thinking.

Regional development is not just about freight subsidies, or a "Rangitira" sailing from Lyttelton. It's about regions, and smaller communities demanding that they have a real control over their own future, rather than being shoved around at the whim of bureaucrats in Wellington. All over the country, but especially in the South Island, people are literally throwing down the battle lines, and throwing the 'we know best' arrogance of central Government and big industry, back in their faces.

They want to run their own lives. They want to retain the unique features of their own communities, like small industries and shops, schools, community hospitals and small pubs.

It's an important shift, and it's one that politicians will ignore at their peril, because it's the best possible sign that New Zealand is finally growing up. It does not mean that we are necessarily reaching back to the old provincial system of government. But if we have the sense to recognise it and change our entrenched institutions to respond to it, then we will have a much richer and more relaxed society.

Bill Rowling