1 Million New Opportunities

There is a lot of good discussion on how to turn what is a terrible situation into an opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand. What follows is our thinking on this topic we have been developing over the last few years, and in conclusion an action we are taking and hope others will too. We believe that technology and innovation can propel our people into the future with new opportunities.

There has been some fantastic big thinking about infrastructure projects, and we need these big ambitious projects that build assets that we can all leverage as a nation. Cheap electricity, zero carbon electric transport, 5G and smart networks. These will give us all a real economic advantage in the future. 

The reality is though right now we will have record unemployment. We need to quickly create new opportunities for our people that we can get busy on now. And while we do that, we need to rapidly upskill and retrain for a more technologically driven future.

There is an opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand to create new industries in environmental technology, zero carbon tourism and agriculture, high speed internet, transportation and energy.

Update: This thinking has been included in The People’s Paper which was an output of the Reboot: NZ retreat at The Institute of Awesome as part of NZ Vision Week. Read that paper here.

COVID-19 has accelerated change that was already coming

The crisis has accelerated disruption in many industries. Understandably businesses have scaled back operations due to demand going away, and wait patiently for it to come back, but many won't wait and are already pivoting to doing things a whole new way. This crisis is either forcing or affording the chance for many industries to accelerate plans to evolve and pivot to new ways. Adopting automation out of necessity and making huge digital shifts they were otherwise too busy with business as usual to do. 

What will happen in the space of months is mammoth shifts to new ways of working that would have otherwise taken a decade to complete. Look at retailers shifting enmass to ecommerce. Manufacturing to automation. Schools have had to fully embrace digital learning in the space of a couple of weeks. The digital shift makes perfect sense and is inevitable, but accelerated like this it is disrupting the many with analogue skills, without any time to adapt. 

These are good decisions for industry, but not for people. How do we respond in a way that allows both industry and our people to advance? This is an opportunity for Aotearoa New Zealand to bring together a new kete of skills for our people. 

The crisis has shown an upsurge of community support for the ethic of care/kaitiaki. This is positive and we need to incorporate these values into our decisions more strongly. Care is also at the heart of the Māori values system, which calls for humans to be kaitiaki, caretakers of the mauri, the life-force, in each other and in nature. This means any recovery plan is developed in partnership and consistent with the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We have been losing connection with our environment

Our natural environment is something we cherish and have all lost connection with through isolation. But even before COVID-19 we have been gradually losing connection. We have been living in a more digital world, increasingly in urban environments. Kids are growing up never leaving their suburbs. School camps one by one have been slowly closing. 

As we live in more modern times we slowly lose connection. But our tamariki are losing connection with the environment completely. What was a right of passage - going on school camp now is not accessible to most kids. How will the next generations protect something they have no connection with? If our children are not connecting with the bush, mountains, rivers and the sea how will they know what they have lost when it’s gone?

Whatever we do we need to reconnect with what is arguably the most important part of being a New Zealander, as kaitiaki.

Bold projects done with communities

There are some big infrastructure projects we can roll out. There are others who are better placed to champion these, like Rod Drury and others, who understand the benefits of these more deeply. Whatever these projects are we should make sure we use the opportunity to create new industries around them, that our communities have ownership in. 

Take rolling out 5G and advanced networks to take advantage of that infrastructure. We should be empowering Iwi and our communities to take a stake in these projects and the benefit that comes from them. Not necessarily ownership but at the very least taking part in the implementation. Creating vocational training opportunities for communities all over Aotearoa to learn digital era skills, then be involved in the implementation and create the opportunity to innovate on top of these projects. For example - a local community can leverage a 5G rollout to upskill its people, build an IoT network on top to watch and care for their land air and water and create some innovation that creates new jobs and exports. We all need to learn how to fish in new technology waters.

Clean power is another industry we can create, and develop new innovation in. Pest free 2050 could be a goal we achieve in 15 years, by investing in new innovation in the bush. Developed, implemented and managed by communities. Autonomous vehicles are being tested on our roads and in our skies but we don’t own the IP. Education can leap a decade in a year, if we choose to do it but at the moment our classrooms are controlled by Google, Apple and Microsoft. Our communities need to have a bigger say in how technology shapes their lives. Technology developed in other countries with different value systems may not be best for our people.

New Zealand once was the pioneers in fintech with EFTPOS now, global fintech companies are disrupting payments and we will lose this asset too. Our Eftpos system has been taken over by French giant Ingenico after the banks sold Paymark last year. EFTPOS used to be a strategic asset, with low to no fees for the merchant and customer. This is being replaced by Visa and Mastercard backed Debit cards with fees. Customers pay more and our small businesses are effectively taxed more. This technology used to remove cost now it adds more.

There are countless opportunities for us to take a lead on, and use them as ways to create the million new jobs. We can be displaced by it or we can be the innovators who own it and choose how it benefits our communities.

How do we empower our communities to take their futures in their own hands?

We need to be more deliberate, we need government and industry to work together to prioritise these and other initiatives and lift our people through education to develop the skills required and create jobs for them in these industries.

1. Invest deeply in new innovation in key infrastructure that strengthen our people and our economy and measure the health of the economy on it; including education, transportation, environment, health, digital access (internet) and energy. These are projects that lift all waka and should be part of a set of prioritised nationwide strategies.

2. Upskill communities to deliver these significant infrastructure projects that benefit them as part of a nationwide collective approach, with training and new job creation in the community. What’s left of the Provincial Growth Fund wont do this and we need to provide more investment to enable this.

3. Establish a form of universal basic income that supports people retraining, starting businesses and/or caring for their family and community. Not everything can be shovel ready, many projects need significant time to build capability and innovation. We need to bridge the gap to allow communities to take bolder leaps, to reeducate and to take the innovation risks.

4. Put the protection and the enhancement of our environment at the centre of everything, with the goal of New Zealand being the world leader in solutions to the world's environmental challenges. Sir Paul Callaghan’s vision is to attract new talent, nurture our own talent, and transform our economy into a powerhouse of science and innovation, exporting to the world. A key part of that strategy is leveraging our lifestyle and our natural environment to make New Zealand a place where talent wants to live. It’s why the billionaires want to come here.

5. Do all of this within the context of applying a modern lens to the things we already do well. Not trying to be the next Silicon Valley or London, but rather a more equitable, prosperous (for all) and just Aotearoa. New Zealand is uniquely positioned to do this, so we should not try and be like anywhere else.

If we do this, we will have a country connected back to its values of care for the environment, vibrant healthy communities, innovation and equality. 

Some big ideas

There are smarter people with bigger ideas than us but here is what we have been thinking about for the last 5 years with the work we have been doing with our charitable foundation - The Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust, named after my mum who took a punt and make an investment in technology (PCs in the 80’s) and changed the paths of her three sons into technology careers. She was a big bold thinker, in the early 80’s when computers were only used in banks. She was also a paraplegic solo unemployed mother of 3.

Since we started the foundation we have worked with the science and technology industry and with the education system and shown how we can use new innovation as learning experiences for communities and their future generations. Getting them to believe they can change their world by making spaces for innovation and inspiration, focussed on key innovation outcomes. 

These are the 5 areas of innovation we think should be prioritised.

1. Environmental science and technology - our greatest asset next to our people is our environment. Climate change hasn’t gone anywhere, we need to be the pioneers of new ways. Establish centres that focus on predator eradication, clean technologies, biodiversity protection.

2. Zero carbon agriculture and tourism - These industries we are so dependent on will come back but the opportunity is to try something radically different. Grow and supply local, focus on plant based foods, level up our 100% pure image with bold actions that drive more tourists to us. New Zealand should be seen as a safe harbour, a desirable place to stay, learn, relax, and innovate. 

3. Telecommunications - the backbone of a new digital economy is great communications infrastructure. We have seen the benefit of fibre while we all worked from home. We need to help build a future proofed digital backbone that will drive more innovation.

4. Energy - We need clean cheap energy, but not just building new plants for generation, but innovating the ways we generate.

5. Transport - we have the perfect geography to test new ways of moving around. We have offshore companies testing autonomous vehicles and flying cars here now. We should be taking a bigger stake in this future of transport innovation

Rapid retraining, in our communities, alongside industry and innovation

To deliver big projects we need to develop some new muscles to be able to empower people to be a part of them. We need to address how we get people rapidly retrained with new skills. 

We need to fire up new types of innovation and training centres. Not glass classrooms on campuses and not new degrees. We need to get our people innovating where the innovation needs to happen, in the regions, on our land, in our sea and in our air. New vocational training adopting new paths to measure skills using microcredentials, acknowledging that intensive study for 3 years no longer produces future skilled people. We do this by engaging with industry and specifically the science and technology sectors to help assist through mentorship, modern internships, and participating in the development of new training centres applying new technologies to new ideas in a practical way.

We need to create new spaces for inspiration and innovation - wharekura where industry, Iwi, and communities work alongside new innovators and students with a common interest and a common problem to solve. These new wharekura should be existing places close to where the innovation can be, in the bush, in communities, on the marae. Repurposed places like old school camps or council buildings and halls. Not fancy offices or classrooms. With industry mentorship and support from the Government, new technologies and practices can be explored, learned and then applied creating skills, jobs and new opportunities along the way benefiting everyone. 

We have thousands of venues in our communities to welcome people already. School camps, public halls, council buildings, parks, farms, huts. Many are closed and would otherwise go unused. We can develop a model where we leverage these assets to encourage innovation, training and collaboration. Where we can create residential training centres to develop new industries. Creating connections with the environment as places to learn and innovate to make the world a better place. 

Our people are smart and passionate for the things they care and connect with. With communities solving their own problems and creating their own opportunities they are connected with purpose. As our next generations grow up in these communities they will have pathways into new industries and be inspired to join in.

Lastly we give the next generation a renewed context and connection to the environment. Perhaps we can get school camps happening again as a rite of passage. Perhaps it’s something new.

Now is the time for more innovators, A new generation of entrepreneurs, for our kids to find connection with the sciences and technology and for there to be pathways for them that go from inspiration and belief as kids, to education with purpose, through to new vocational training that puts practical action around learning. We can do big bold projects driven by our people, for our people.

The outcome is 1,000,000 innovators creating new jobs with new skills. 

Doing our part - Enviro-tech education at The Institute of Awesome

We are hoping to do our bit by shaping the thinking and doing more than just talking, we have dedicated the work we do in the charity and our enviro-tech innovation and education centre to this mission. We want to showcase a new way of doing vocational training, environmental innovation and recreating connection with our communities to their environment.

But we want to connect our work with other likeminded organisations to create a nationwide network of innovation and vocational training centres. If you share the same vision as we do then please get in touch.

Vaughan Fergusson & Zoe Timbrell

Pam Fergusson Charitable Trust

We’re in this together

Acknowledging the considered thoughts and debates that helped shape these ideas. They are not ours alone and we are grateful to everyone who shares the kaupapa. Thank you to Ben Kepes, Andy Higgs, Erin Wansbrough, Angie Judge and all those in our communities we work alongside.