Wool to Weta: Transforming New Zealand’s Culture and Economy

185 Pages·2009·1.923 MB·English

by  Paul Callaghan

Wool to Weta
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Wool to Weta
Transforming New Zealand’s
Culture and Economy
Paul CallaghaN
AucklAnd university Press
First published 2009
Auckland University Press
University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019
Auckland 1142
New Zealand
www.auckland.ac.nz/aup
© Paul Callaghan, 2009
isBN 978 1 86940 438 3
Publication is kindly assisted by
the David and Genevieve Becroft Foundation and

National Library of New Zealand Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Callaghan, Paul T.
Wool to Weta : transforming New Zealand’s culture and economy.
includes index.
isBN 978-186940-438-3
1. Economic development—New Zealand. 2. social change—New Zealand.
3. interviews—New Zealand. 4. science and industry—New Zealand.
5. Technological innovations—Economic aspects—New Zealand.
6. New Zealand—Economic conditions—21st century. i. Title.
338.993—dc 22
This book is copyright. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research,
criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by
any process without prior permission of the publisher.
Cover design: spencer Levine
Printed by Astra Print Ltd
contents
Preface vii
1
Beyond the Farm and the Theme Park 1
2
Our World-class success stories
Michael Chick, Mike Daniell, Peri Drysdale and Richard Taylor 24
3
The Aspirants
Murray Broom, Hans van der Voorn, Bill Denny and Andrew Coy 58
4
The Challenge for science
Andrew Wilson and Di McCarthy 80
5
M ori Perspectives
ā
Craig Rofe, Ocean Mercier and Wayne Mulligan 93
6
New Zealand’s Prosperity
David Skilling, Rod Oram and Stephen Tindall 119
7
Our Capacity to succeed
Sally Davenport, Neville Jordan and Stephen Tindall 142
Epilogue: From Wool to Weta 168
index 172
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Preface
Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, New Zealand’s
prosperity was built on commodity sales. Wool was one of the earliest
products and, thanks to refrigerated shipping, was followed by meat and
dairy. But in the twenty-first century an additional basis for prosperity
is needed, in which we generate New Zealand products of great value
to the world, offering opportunities for talented and creative Kiwis to
work in their homeland. The title of the book, Wool to Weta, reflects the
transition we have to make. Weta Workshop Ltd embodies an ideal. its
products have extraordinarily high value and are transportable anywhere
in the world. it manages a complete value chain, from intellectual
property (iP) generation to production, yet it works in close alliance
with international players. it is confident and bold. To quote from chief
executive officer (CEO) Richard Taylor, ‘One of the things i say to our
crew is, “Why shouldn’t it be us?” if it can be a company in the heart
of Burbank in California, why couldn’t it be a company in the heart of
Wellington, New Zealand?’
That is the story the book seeks to tell. if we are sufficiently bold and
determined we can make New Zealand a place where our young people
see their best future. The book is optimistic, but it also examines our
present predicament, a declining prosperity in which we are comforted,
yet imprisoned, by our myths.
Every time i return to New Zealand from a trip abroad, i savour the
air as i walk out of Auckland international Airport towards the domestic
vii
viii paul callaghan
terminal. Whether a bright day is dawning or storm clouds looming,
there is a clarity of light, a freshness to the place that even a week or so
away causes me to notice, yet again. Living here, day in day out, it takes
more to remind me of the delight of this place, perhaps a moment of
astonishing stillness, gazing out over Wellington Harbour, perhaps during
a pause for breath, looking back to the Nelson Lakes valley from the top
of the scree near Mount Angelus. We New Zealanders are defined by our
natural environment. We know why this place is home to us.
Yet we are worried that our children see better opportunities abroad
and that our infrastructure each year appears a little more decrepit by
comparison with the countries where our children are headed. We worry
about our health services, about our access to the best possible medical
treatments and about our social cohesiveness. in short, we sense that
we are somehow not as prosperous as we would like. We work hard, we
have a good-quality education system, but something is amiss. Political
lobby groups provide ready answers: ‘We are overtaxed’, ‘The Resource
Management Act is stopping us using our natural assets effectively’, ‘The
New Zealand dollar is too high’. And yet, when we look at countries
more prosperous than us, we often see higher taxation rates, more
bureaucracy and higher value currencies. i choose two examples to make
the point. Australia and sweden are richer than us, per capita, by 30 per
cent and 31 per cent respectively.
The origin of our economic predicament does not lie in our politics,
nor in our commitment to hard work, nor in our lack of mineral
resources, nor in our lack of skills. sustainable prosperity is a product of
culture. New Zealanders choose to be poorer than other nations because
we choose to work in low-wage activities. Our land-based industries
are the bedrock of our economy. Dairying is to us what minerals are to
Australia. And yet, as this book will show, we cannot build a successful
modern economy based on pastoral farming and horticulture alone.
And as much as we love our landscape, and extol our Kiwi values, we
need to break free from myths of our own making. The fundamentals
for our economic transformation are in place, and the examples of small
economies moving rapidly from decline to prosperity should encourage
us. Finland and ireland made their upwards shift in less than one
generation, and so can we.
David Lange once said, cheekily, that New Zealand’s destiny was to
be a theme park, while Australia’s destiny was to be a quarry. This book
tells the story of how we must move beyond the farm and the theme
preface ix
park if we are to build sustainable prosperity in New Zealand, protecting
our natural environment in the process. The story grew out of a series
of public lectures throughout New Zealand in late 2007, sponsored by
the Royal society of New Zealand (RsNZ) and the David and Genevieve
Becroft Foundation. A camera and sound team accompanied the lectures
and, as we travelled around the country, i interviewed a number of New
Zealand entrepreneurs, technologists and economic commentators. The
project extended into 2008 as the scope of the interviews broadened,
resulting in a ten-part documentary series first broadcast on stratos
Television in May 2008 and a later fifty-minute documentary broadcast
on TVNZ7 in October 2008.
The book is an edited compendium of those interviews and the
first chapter is based on my public lecture. it is partly a vehicle for the
insights of those interviewed and, in the first chapter, a vehicle for my
own opinions. i interviewed a remarkable collection of New Zealand
achievers, including Warehouse entrepreneur and philanthropist stephen
Tindall, technologist and venture capitalist Neville Jordan, business
professor sally Davenport, the CEO of New Zealand’s premier ‘high-
tech’ company, Mike Daniell, Untouched World exporter Peri Drysdale
and iwi business leader Wayne Mulligan. A multiplicity of voices emerge.
Through Peri Drysdale we learn how our land-based industries can find
entirely new markets based on fashion and design. Richard Taylor of
Weta Workshop makes clear the potential for creative industries based
on the humanities. Rod Oram and David skilling present somewhat
different economic analyses of New Zealand’s potential for growing
global knowledge-based businesses. And Di McCarthy and Craig Rofe
stress the importance of motivating the young.
This, at heart, is a book about economics, and i am not an economist.
But economics is a subject that fascinates me. Far from being ‘the dismal
science’, it is a subject about humanity, about human behaviour and
about how we can live socially to the greatest mutual advantage. i respect
the discipline of economics, especially because of its own inherent
scepticism. i’m a scientist, so being a sceptic comes naturally to me. i
invite and welcome the reader’s scepticism as well.
i would like to acknowledge some of the people who have made this
project possible, most importantly all those i interviewed. Di McCarthy
and Glenda Lewis of the Royal society of New Zealand encouraged me to
undertake the lecture series and organised it, while David and Genevieve
Becroft assisted through their generous sponsorship. Mark Everton and