Closing the gap. 14 November 2010

A Kiwi (NZ Rugby League team) leaps with joy holding the World Cup in one hand and the '4 Nations' cup in the other. Text reads 'Closing the gap' and a huge Australian Rugby League player (Kangaroos) wearing a 'VB' (Victoria Bitter) shirt has his mouth taped up 'closing the gap'. Refers to the win by the Kiwis of the 'Four Nations' giving them the World Cup Rugby League title with a thrilling last-gasp 16-12 win over Australia in Brisbane. Economically speaking, however, 'closing the gap' refers to John Key's stated desire to close the economic gap between Australia and New Zealand. The '2025 Taskforce' was set up by the New Zealand government after the 2008 election to recommend how the gap between average incomes in Australia and New Zealand could be closed. Incomes of New Zealanders have generally risen less rapidly than those of Australians over the last 40 years, resulting in a gap between average incomes of around 35 percent in recent years. After the 2008 election, the NZ government committed to closing this income gap by 2025. Since the Taskforce presented its first report last year, Philip McCann - an economist with expertise in economic geography - has advanced the view that New Zealand's geographical disadvantages prevent it from becoming a high productivity economy. McCann has implied that structural features that are advantageous in the current era of globalization differ so much from those exhibited by New Zealand that this economy could not reasonably be expected to have relatively high productivity.

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