PoliticsLuxon’s ‘inward-looking’ remark didn’t come from nowhereThe first signs of New Zealand's introversion came with the Asian financial crisis in 1997, which highlighted how vulnerable we were to international shocksOpinion: National Party Leader Christopher Luxon struck a nerve when he told a Helensville farmer New Zealand had become a "very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country”. Many inferred he was describing the country under the Ardern and Hipkins governments, and took umbrage accordingly. Major broadcast and print media outlets have cut back substantially or abandoned basing New Zealand correspondents in major international centres. An inevitable consequence of such introversion in a small, isolated country is an excessive focus on our domestic situation to the near exclusion of anything else. Like Sir John Key, who complained New Zealand was becoming a “smug hermit kingdom”, Luxon is right when he says we have become more inward-looking.

Source: New Zealand Herald June 22, 2023 18:23 UTC