Pushed into paradise
By Vincent Heeringa,
When Rod Oram was unexpectedly sacked as editor of the New Zealand Herald’s business section in 2000, it was on the rather delicious charge of insubordination. Everyone should be sacked (or ‘resigned’ in Herald-speak); it looks great on the CV. In Oram’s case it was especially gratifying because the Herald’s loss has been the nation’s gain.
Reinventing Paradise: How New Zealand is starting to earn a bigger, sustainable living in the world economy
By Rod Oram (Penguin, 2007). $35
Before he brought his own version of Third Way thinking to these shores, discourse about business and economic policy was a fairly binary affair: more government bad, less government good.
Through his columns in the Sunday Star-Times, articles in Unlimited and radio slots with Kim Hill, Oram chipped away at the hegemony of the dry-as-nuts brigade. Much to the horror of the business lobbies—and the sniping of his colleagues in the business press—Oram broke ranks on issues such as climate change, tertiary education reform, dismantling Telecom, labour laws, resource management and corporate (in)competence.
Breaking up the ‘business’ view of things was a major triumph. It was only matched by Oram’s ability to make the arcane world of corporate strategy the stuff of dinner party debates. Oram, and to a lesser extent the Weekend Herald’s Brian Gaynor, have made Fonterra’s China strategy, Telecom’s underinvestment in its network and Rakon’s technology success relevant and, well, fascinating.
This book contains very little that is new. It’s a collection of his best work since that fateful day he donned his bicycle clips and pedalled away from Herald HQ forever. Those who dislike his almost adolescent excitement with any form of entrepreneurship, his contrarian views on the exchange rate (he says we need to live as if our dollar is worth 90 US cents), carbon emissions (embrace carbon credits before anyone else does) or whether we should be GE-free (“disastrous”) will likely hate this volume.
For those who relish a New Zealand led by humane, enterprising, patriotic and ambitious leaders: buy this book.
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