Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

RESEARCH, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Our vision
We want New Zealand to become – and be recognised as – not only clean and green but a
country with cool, smart ideas that leverages the inherent talents of its people to produce an
export-led economy that is highly productive and innovative.
While we are blessed with natural advantages of a good climate and soils, our future relies
on our talent and brains.
We must invest in the talent and resourcefulness of our people both in agriculture and the
high-tech, green sector – building on our internationally recognised clean green brand – to
become a wealthy prosperous country.
We have no alternative. We know we can‟t multiply our dairy industry five times or more to
catch Australia‟s economy. Nor can we multiply our tourist industry substantially. Yet we
know our economy is slowly declining in relation to others. Just over 40 years ago meat
exports paid our pharmaceutical bill 18 times over – today, it pays for them just four times
over.
National‟s „strategy‟ goes something like this: as China and Asia grows richer they will
demand a higher protein diet. We grow protein, therefore we‟re ideally positioned. That‟s not
a strategy, it‟s a hope. They hope that it changes out there, so we won‟t have to change here
– so we can continue doing more or less the same thing as we‟ve done since the 1960s.
Labour knows that we need to shape our own future, not simply rely on the prosperity of
others. We are an inventive people but we have relied on a number 8 wire mentality to see
us through. Great ideas, but too often we fail to commercialise them. We need to capture the
innovative, out-of-the-box thinking that is part of our psyche and make money from it.
Labour believes that the role of government is to lay the foundations to establish the
environment in which science, innovation and great design will flourish. It means acting
quickly and collaboratively as a country, across our businesses and public institutions, to
seize opportunities and eliminate obstacles to innovation and growth.
Creating a culture of science and innovation
If we are to develop a vibrant science, engineering and design sector to power our
productive, innovative industries they need to attract our smartest. Unfortunately, there is
limited awareness of the value of science and the opportunities it offers.
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