Spitballing for Christopher Luxon’s growalition.
The scene: a recently elected government rubs its eyes at the start of the calendar year and strides out to reset the agenda in a big January address. Our luminous speaker stares out towards the horizon and declares: “We must go further and faster on growth.”
The message is emphatic: “Kickstarting economic growth is this government’s number one mission.” But that comes with an important exhortation on mindset. Decision makers had “become used to saying no. That must change. We must start saying yes.”
Who is this? Not Christopher Luxon, nor Nicola Willis, but Rachel Reeves, Willis’s counterpart in the fledgling UK Labour government, speaking this week.
Does it point to parallel post-pandemic, inflation-and-cost-of-living-crisis-buffered economies straining to get the wheels turning again? Probably. But my focus here is much more shallow: who can win the sloganeering arms race? Where Obama had hopey-changey, New Zealand and Britain are battling to own the growthy-yessy mantra. Here’s how we win.
Luxon is plainly up for the task. The first week back in the seat last week was festooned with invocations of growth and saying yes, culminating in a state of the nation speech that arrived like a giant word cloud pregnant with growth and its sidekick yes. (“Turbocharging New Zealand’s economic growth is the key to brighter days ahead.” “The bottom line is we need a lot less no and a lot more yes.”)
Willis adds to her LinkedIn profile “minister for economic growth”. In May she’ll present the “growth budget”. Meanwhile, Luxon’s opening address to parliament was popping at the seams with growthisms. “Core to our plan is unleashing economic growth,” he said. You’re going to hear this a lot in 2025. I know this because he posted a video saying, “You’re going to hear this a lot in 2025.”
“We say a big yes,” said the prime minister. “We say a big yes to New Zealand businesses, big and small – that they thrive and they make a profit and they pay higher wages and they hire more people and they invest in more growth – because that’s what it’s all about: growth. And it’s awesome we’ve got Nicola Willis leading our economic growth plan, because we’ve got a plan to make it happen. And that’s what 2025 will be all about: growth trumps everything.”
And just when you thought the day might get derailed by conflict among the governing parties on privatisation – after all, Winston Peters did say at parliament yesterday, “I spent my whole career ensuring that our assets stay in our possession,” and David Seymour did scoff at “low-quality debate [from] people talking endlessly about privatisation as if it is some enormous evil” – Luxon unsheathed his pièce de résistance: “I’ve got to say, we are a coalition on this side; they’re a no-alition on that side – that’s what they’re about. They’re all about no. We’re all about yes on this side.”
Luxon’s mic-drop yesterday (sorry, yesterday) proved that he and his team have what it takes to win the growthy-yessy rhetorical war. But more can be done. Play the national anthem: some ideas follow.
To begin: if they’re the no-alition, it stands to reason that Luxon is leading the grow-alition. And while one of the opening policy salvos was throwing open the border to digital nomads, the full potential here is unrealised. We should be embracing digital yesmads and digital growmads.
This year is all about saying no to yeah nah bro and yeah to nah yeah grow. The month after October will be Yesvember and the one after April shall become Will.
Ministers will be known as maxisters. The Reserve Bank becomes the Gregarious Bank. MBIE is out, DFNTLY in. Goodbye Business Roundtable, hello Yussiness Roundtable. The emerging talent James Meager will become James Abundant. The tourism strapline: 1000% Pure.
Canterbury? Can-erbury, more like. Gore becomes Goer, Lower Hutt becomes Upper Hutt and Upper Hutt becomes Upperer Hutt.
Not even becomes even. Fucken oath is redrafted as fucken growth. And we will abandon the No 8 Wire mentality in favour of a Yes 8 Wire mentality.
OK, I can hear I’m being played off here. At the end of the day, we’re talking about being relentlessly positive for a brighter future. Let’s do this.