CEO Research Trip Insights Discussion Evening

by | Jun 27, 2018 | Project CivicsNZ, Project ClimateChangeNZ, Project ForesightNZ, Project OneOceanNZ, Project PublicScienceNZ, Project ReportingNZ, Project StrategyNZ, Project TacklingPovertyNZ, Project TalentNZ

Wendy McGuinness explored the insights from her overseas research trip at a discussion evening at the McGuinness Institute on 26 June 2018. In her presentation she shared her two most significant takeaways:

  1. That Europe is in the middle of a ‘slow crisis of confidence’, and
  2. That climate change is a ‘fast crisis of complexity’.

As part of Europe’s slow crisis of confidence, Wendy discussed Brexit and the US more generally, as well as focusing on migration issues. She notes ‘The public policy emergency is how we can develop global consensus on how to manage migration in the 21st century. Technology and social media have increased the visibility of inter-country inequality, which is likely to be magnified as the impacts of climate change and conflict worsen.’ Wendy further explained that New Zealand has not developed public policy to deal with migration issues and acknowledged that this is a very polarising issue. She outlined the questions now facing New Zealand in terms of migration:

  1. Who do we take?
  2. How do we choose?
  3. How many do we take?
  4. When do we take them?
  5. Where should they live?
  6. How do we support them?
  7. How do we work with other countries?

View Wendy’s powerpoint below.

After her presentation, Wendy answered a number of questions from a highly engaged and curious audience. The open discussion covered topics such as

  • climate change scenario development in New Zealand,
  • what sort of people were at the OECD Forum,
  • discussion of conflict with acknowledgement of the histories and contexts that have led to them (particularly the war on terrorism),
  • the role New Zealand might play in a new era of multilateral co-operation,
  • New Zealand leading by example in areas such as innovation and tech solutions,
  • conflict and mediation skills and the support from other organisations that the OECD is getting in this area, and
  • the application of ‘wellbeing’ as a public policy tool (with particular reference to the 2019 ‘Wellbeing Budget’).

Thank you to everyone who expressed interest in the event and/or attended. Read the full blog about the OECD Forum here or look out for the upcoming blogs about the London School of Economics Executive Education Courses here. For those interested in learning more about migration in an Australian context, read reports from the Australian Productivity Commission on economic impacts here and migrant intake here.