A note from Australia

I've just returned from a brief visit to Australia where I was
invited to speak to the Australia New Zealand Leadership Forum,
and I met with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

New Zealand and Australia are uniquely close and that was on
display for all to see during the Christchurch earthquakes.

But the growing gap between us has a real impact back home.

We don't have Australia's vast mineral wealth so we have to come
up with new and innovative solutions to grow our economy.

We need to be forward looking. As Sir Paul Callaghan was fond of
saying, we need to create a place where talent wants to live.

You could say that the issue around farm land ownership in New
Zealand is symptomatic of a broader concern about the direction
we're heading.

Many people I talk to are concerned that we're losing control of
our future as a country. As we sell more assets to overseas
investors and more profits flow offshore it makes it more
difficult for New Zealanders to get ahead.

If the Government does manage to go ahead with their asset sales,
we're only going to be more vulnerable to shocks in the global
economy.

In the coming weeks we'll be launching our campaign to support
the Citizens Initiated Referendum on asset sales. I'll have more
details for you on this shortly, and I hope you can get involved
.

Our future is directly linked to preserving our assets and our
natural advantages. I hope that you want to be a part of that
fight.

Regards

David Shearer

Leader of the Opposition



PS - We've also got some photos of the trip to Australia
[https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.218094024963471.40598.179201192186088&type=1]
, and you can read the full text of my speech online
[http://www.labour.org.nz/node/4764/].

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