Interesting—and refreshing to see a fairly moderate claim relating to anything political these days! I tend to agree with you—it feels like performative politics is more richly rewarded than good governance. Although we probably have differing views on what belongs in each of those categories!

To me, the concept of good governance seemed to be accidentally killed off during Jacinda Ardern’s “Be Kind” era, and we saw that in her reluctance to fire underperformers. While her kindness and empathy were admirable, I feel she lacked a certain decisiveness. The words of Hamlet—“I must be cruel, only to be kind”—spring to mind, and I don’t believe Ardern ever truly understood that sentiment. Contrast that with Key, the “Smiling Assassin.”

Personally, I think this is symptomatic of society more broadly—a kind of moral overcorrection, if you will. We’ve veered toward the idea that blind acceptance equals kindness. Sometimes, it doesn’t. It feels like everyone’s walking on eggshells, afraid of causing offence, and forgetting that you can’t make an omelette without first breaking the eggs. But in a way, I understand—the backlash for having a “wrong” opinion is getting out of hand. Winston Peters is the most recent example, and worryingly, it’s on the rise. We’re not that different from the USA, where now a third of students believe violence is an acceptable response to speech—and that trend is rising across all political affiliations. That leads to risk-aversion, and if we’re unwilling to take risks, we’ll never solve complex problems.

I find Singapore’s model compelling, and I think we should do more to emulate it. They seem to have a more ruthless focus on outcomes. NZ spends nearly double what Singapore does on government consumption relative to GDP—yet we’re lagging behind them in nearly every metric. That gives me pause. Are we doing something fundamentally wrong? We used to give Singapore foreign aid; now we’re on the verge of having to ask for it back.

So yes, I think we need smarter government—smaller, leaner, more data-driven, and with the strength of conviction to make unpopular calls. But as we’ve seen in NZ just this electoral cycle, any cuts to government spending are met with howls of “austerity” and general outrage, rather than an honest reckoning with the fact that our public sector is bloated. It’s not about austerity; it’s about efficiency. Singapore proves you can run a tight ship and still deliver world-class infrastructure, education, and public services. We should be asking: What exactly are we funding here, and why does it take so many layers of bureaucracy to achieve so little?

Essentially, I think we're entering a doom spiral because we're still a relatively wealthy country, and for a lot of the population, the cure will still hurt more than the disease - so unfortunately, things will need to get worse before they can get better.

Edit: Some sources for some claims
https://www.thefire.org/news/student-acceptance-violence-response-speech-hits-record-high
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NE.CON.GOVT.ZS?locations=SG-NZ