Anne Salmond: Kiwi entrepreneurs, heroes show up Govt

2026-03-22 - 17:43

Last week I attended the Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year awards. It was a fabulous night, featuring innovative, heart-warming work by myriad local and environmental heroes, community groups and younger and older generations of leaders, at home and abroad. There were wry, self-deprecating remarks from the winners, repartee among the hosts, laughter, tears, and a spectacular generosity of spirit. It was the best of New Zealand, which left you feeling proud of this country, while recognising there’s so much more to be done. We heard about extraordinary efforts to care for dying children and their families, prevent child abuse and carry out surgery in Gaza. Dame Lynley Dodd, with her iconic ‘Hairy McClary’ children’s stories, received a Legacy award, while ingenious innovations in brain science and cyberspace, on farms, restoring native forests and fostering te reo and Te Tiriti were celebrated. The 2026 Young Leader of the Year, Lucy Blackiston, who reaches millions of viewers world-wide with her media platform, christened it ‘Shit you should Care about;’ and the phrase of the night became ‘getting Shit done.’ The down-to-earth good humour of the evening was in sharp contrast with the mean-spiritedness of so much contemporary politics in New Zealand. There were no politicians present; or if they were there, they kept a low profile. That’s just as well. The intelligence, grit and generosity shown by the winners of the 2026 New Zealander of the Year awards shone an unforgiving light on the uninspired governance to which our country is currently subjected. The 2026 Kiwibank New Zealander of the Year, Sir Rod Drury, for instance, founded Xero, an innovative global accounting platform. He’s passionate about electrifying New Zealand, restoring native forest and supporting his iwi, Ngai Tahu, with scholarships and business advice. His vision for New Zealand is strategically astute, making the most of its natural and cultural advantages. He reminded me of other business leaders, for instance fellow trustees in the NGO Pure Advantage – Sir Stephen Tindall, 2015 New Zealander of the Year, founder of The Warehouse and the Tindall Foundation, tireless supporter of innovation in business, sport, community and environmental action; Rob Morrison of Morrison and Co, leader in global finance and infrastructure and a brilliant strategic thinker; Phillip Mills of Les Mills Gyms, another global leader, with his passion for fitness and well-being for people and planet; and Andrew Grant, former member of the McKinsey global board, now CE of the NEXT Foundation which is restoring native forest in sites across New Zealand. Together with others, they’ve designed ‘Recloaking Papatūānuku,’ a visionary project to restore indigenous forest to 2.1 million hectares of highly erodible land and around waterways across New Zealand; and advocated for ‘Rewiring Aotearoa,’ a project to electrify transport, farm vehicles and homes; regenerative agriculture; and Ocean 30X30, which aims to safeguard a third of our oceanic territory by 2030. Judging from this year’s awards, other Kiwis also think that such projects are no-brainers for New Zealand. Key leaders in ‘Recloaking Papatūānuku’ and ‘Rewiring Aotearoa’ were shortlisted, and Mike Casey, founder of ‘Rewiring Aotearoa,’ became the 2026 New Zealand Sustainability Leader of the Year. Among the black tie audience, there was spontaneous, warm-hearted support for taking care of land and sea, Te Tiriti and te reo, and leadership at the flax roots and grass roots across New Zealand. This sharply contrasts with the current government’s trajectory, with its short-sighted support for fossil fuels rather than renewable energy; its war on the environment; its endless attacks on te reo and Te Tiriti; and its top-down approach to governance, punching down on local government and many of its own citizens. When ordinary Kiwis, rather than politicians, decide who to nominate for awards, they show their true values. It’s as though we live in two different countries – an Aotearoa based on goodwill and manaakitanga, that inspires its people to do extraordinary things at home and abroad; and a backward-looking New Zealand that leaves us dispirited and divided. In the end, it’s all about leadership. Great leaders are far-sighted and bring out the best in us, while others are self-serving, fail to see what is coming and deliberately incite mutual ill-will. At present, New Zealand is experiencing a slow slide towards corruption in political life, with virulent attacks on others, uncontrolled lobbying and conflicts of interest, and policies for sale to the highest bidder. It’s past time for voters to demand integrity and good judgment from those who represent us in Parliament, and a radical clean-up of electoral and democratic processes. We need politicians who mirror the best of New Zealand, rather than those who drag us down to the lowest common denominator, playing to their donors and treating citizens as ciphers in cost-benefit calculations. When Sir Rod Drury, like the Prime Minister, talked about New Zealand ‘losing its mojo,’ his mantra for recovery was different – take care of the land, make the most of its natural and cultural riches, electrify the economy, and run the country for the benefit of future generations, not offshore profiteers. If he and others among our most successful entrepreneurs think this is what it takes to ‘get New Zealand back on track,’ I’d trust them above the current Cabinet, with their divisive politics and outdated, failed ideas. With the other New Zealander of the Year awardees, these leaders know how to ‘get shit done,’ and good shit at that. I wish people like this were running the country, and therein lies the challenge. Parliament needs to be a place that attracts this kind of leader – astute, good-hearted, far-sighted New Zealanders who are passionate about this country, and respect and trust its citizens. I, for one, will be looking at party manifestos in the next election to see who will tackle lobbying and electoral donations, clean up parliamentary processes and restore integrity, decency and a sense of unity to our democracy. As the founding editor of the World Happiness report remarks, “Successful societies cooperate in the face of adversity. Once you have the sense that you are in this together, there’s no end to what you can do.” Without this kind of leadership, New Zealand will continue to drift downwards, increasingly poor and fractured in a fast moving world. We will no longer be a successful small society. Who among us wants that?