JOHN CAMPBELL: In 2017, What Next started a national conversation. We need to come up with some big plans, and we need to do that now. We asked you what you wanted for the future of New Zealand in 20 years ` the technology, the economy, the environment and how we live. Should we continue with Plan A ` keep doing what we're doing, making small changes ` or do we need some big new ideas, a Plan B? The answer was loud and clear. Overwhelmingly, we're a Plan B country, at least as reflected in the more than 200,000 votes that we have received. Now we're going to look at Plan B in action. We'll meet New Zealanders with big, radical ideas ` people who are passionate, innovative and maybe just the right amount of crazy. Hemp will be mainstream if we make it mainstream. They're showing us a path to future-proof New Zealand. So what does a Plan B look like? Over four episodes ` four different visions for our future. We'll address the most important issues facing New Zealand in the next 20 years. (DRAMATIC MUSIC) Carolyn Robinson discovers how we get the environment in good shape for the future. Miriama Kamo examines the impact of AI and technology on the next generation. Jehan Casinader explores how science could extend and improve our lives. And Nigel Latta asks if there's a way the economy can be fair for everyone. Do you think profit is the most important thing for a business? Tell us. In series one of What Next, 80% of you said that profit shouldn't be the number-one priority of business. But what would that look like? We try to treat this as a completely whiteboard exercise. 'How do we want it to look? How would you like to work?' We visit companies that are trying new models of what work could look like in the future. I wanted to work at a place that at least tried to be fair. (MOMENTOUS MUSIC) New Zealand's richest man lives in East Auckland, but just a few kilometres down the road are some of the growing number of working poor. (DOG BARKS) Shannon and her partner both work. They take all the hours that their employers offer. I work up to 25 hours a week, and my partner works up to 30-plus hours a week. But working 40 to 60 hours a week between them isn't enough to even meet their basic needs. I feel that we work just to pay our bills and stuff, and I feel that we don't get to do what we want to do with our money. Well, we got a lot of bills. (SIGHS) We have a budgeter as well; so, I have a budgeter that works with me and helps me pay off some of my bills, but I feel that any time I pay a bill, something else comes along. Yeah, like, it's just never-ending. Even though we both work together and we both work hard, it doesn't mean that we live a great life. You know, when the doors are closed, we're either arguing over some bill or arguing over who's buying this and who's buying that. Um,... it's just a burden on our backs, you know, not having enough money for anything. Has the creation of the working poor been caused in part by the pursuit of profit? Should workers be getting more if they can't make ends meet? I think it's best that companies do try to pursue profit and then distribute that profit through to their shareholders and leave the decisions about which equity aims to pursue or which charities to support to the shareholders that benefit from it. In New Zealand, we really haven't had an overall increase in inequality since about 2000, but, of course, some groups are suffering out there because for some reason they have not been able to keep up. Sometimes my kids will miss out school due to no lunches. I always make sure my two youngest ones went to school and had lunches and stuff, but my older ones, I'd keep them home, and I would... make up excuses that they're sick. Yeah, but it's just that there was no lunch. But it was a worry for me. Like, I was ashamed of being judged. And sometimes Shannon has no option but to get food parcels. I just feel that it sucks, because, um... we work so hard and... Um... I just` I know food parcels help,... but just,... (SNIFFLES) um, it just makes me feel like, (SNIFFLES) 'What's the point of working?' Yeah, like, 'Why am I working? Why is my partner working?' Like... (SNIFFLES) Yeah, I just feel that it's sad. Shannon lives in one of the last state houses on her street. The houses around her are selling for more than $1M. Being brought up in a street where there's no balance, it's difficult. And for my kids to be, like, 'Oh, well, Blah-blah-blah has this and that and...' You know, but it's telling them that, 'That's them. We're different.' I feel that it's getting harder and harder, and I just feel that, um, when our kids become adults, it's gonna be even more harder for them. Yeah, like, it's hard` It's hard for us to struggle and cope with what's going on, food-wise and petrol and everything, but I feel that it's not getting any easier for us. I don't know how else to step up, but I feel that I'm doing` that we're doing all that we can. More and more families seemingly doing the right thing are unable to even feed their kids. Is plan A working or do we need a plan B? Should we stop listening to economists and start listening to other voices, like Dr Seuss? READS: 'But I had to grow bigger, so bigger I got. 'I biggered my factory. I biggered my roads...' The Lorax makes the argument that growth and the pursuit of profits at all costs leads to a very bad world, but many economists reckon while capitalism may not be perfect, it's the best choice to lead us into the future. It's certainly better than the alternatives, when you consider socialism, communism; the impact on human rights, respect for human lives, et cetera, has been absolutely appalling. Rather than saying capitalism, think about the system of free minds, free markets, free exchange and free people that has enabled the greatest expansion in prosperity that the world has ever seen. If we look at the past 2000 years, we can see how growth has skyrocketed in the last few centuries, lifting many, many people out of poverty. There's a simple truth that has seen humans become the most dominant species on the planet ` working together is more effective than working against each other. But today, it seems we never agree. We can't agree on why people are poor, let alone whether or not we need to change how the economy works. So far, where capitalism has led us? I believe that it's on, like, a good road or a good way, but, yeah, I think they need minor adjustments, so I'm definitely plan A; I would say so. If plan A was gonna work, it would have worked by now, so we need some radical changes. Plan A, yes, and it depends on what those tweaks are and which direction they're going to go as to whether I think they're the right ones or not. I'm definitely plan B. I think that... the poverty rates are so high. No, I think I'm a plan A person. There are things I'd like to change, but I don't think I need to change things radically. I'm definitely a plan B person, because technology, artificial intelligence, that kind of thing, it's definitely gonna take people's jobs. I mean, it already is taking people's jobs. But are there some ideas for the future of our economy that everyone can get on board with? False lash glam just got real. The Falsies Mascara from Maybelline New York. Our spoon brush means corner to corner volume, no gaps. False lash glam that challenges fake lashes. The Falsies Mascara, only from Maybelline New York. * (EERIE MUSIC) Sharks are natural predators that take what they want, but they do have some things that stop them from getting too big. They have natural feedback mechanisms which tell them when they're full and genetic limitations on how big they can grow. The shark is part of the natural world order, a system with inbuilt checks and balances. Unlike sharks, capitalism has no mechanism to tell it when it's full; it just wants to keep growing and growing and growing. But can it do that forever? Famous shark-lover David Attenborough once said, 'Anyone who thinks that you can have 'infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an economist.' You'll often hear people argue that we can't have infinite growth in a finite world, but that really misunderstands the nature of the growth accounting. GDP and other measures of growth, they aren't measuring the number of widgets or pounds of things in the economy or` they're not the units of mass. They're not physical quantities; they're units of value, and value really depends on the recipes that we come up with for turning raw materials into things that we all like, and that can continue forever. I think a lot of commentators and a lot of scholars are now coming out and saying that this continual growth cycle is just not sustainable. The planet doesn't have the resources for it. So, which view is right? Can you be a businessperson and focus on sustainability, knowing it might actually limit your growth? Will it send you into bankruptcy? If we just focused on being ` in our earlier days ` a coffee company that was able to sell as much coffee as we could and maximise our profit, then we would have made a profit a lot earlier than the seven years it took me to make my first profit, but I've got some very patient shareholders, and I'm very thankful for that. So, I mean, capitalism would say just reduce costs and increase profits; why don't you just do that? I suppose, because I've got a conscience, (LAUGHS) and so I don't really` if I just wanted to do that, then I would probably own a different type of business. But I don't think that profit is a dirty word. I think that it's really important that you are financially sustainable and you have enough money to pay your suppliers and pay your staff and pay your rent. I, sort of, see sustainability and innovation as one and the same, and I also see it as smart business as well. I suppose the ambition is to show that you can be a business owner that cares about people and cares about growing and being part of the New Zealand economy. How does focusing on sustainability affect your bottom line? I suppose you need to think about sustainability as an investment. So, we're paying, generally, four to five times more for compostable packaging than maybe conventional packaging, but, in the long term, we think that that's the right thing to do because we wanna show leadership in that area. Is what your company's doing, is that an extreme example at the fringes or is this something that everybody should be doing? It was extreme 10 years ago. It's no longer extreme, and I think you're seeing that across multiple businesses, not just the coffee industry, where you're seeing people that are starting to think more sustainably about their business, and you're seeing consumers have more` a greater awareness for the impact that we're having on our planet and the amount of resources that we're consuming and what we're using in our everyday lives. And so I think that businesses need to be considerate of that, and they need to adopt that and incorporate it into their business. Is it good business to do good? If the leader of an organisation fundamentally believes that doing good business is the right thing to do, and they can do that alongside making a profit, then I think that that is good for everyone. So, how do we talk about growth? Well, it pretty much comes down to one figure ` GDP, Gross Domestic Product. It's a measurement of everything we make in the country. Not just physical objects, it includes services like lawyers, accountants ` the stuff that people do in offices. Where did it come from? Simon Kuznets got the Nobel Prize in Economics for the idea of capturing all economic production in a single number, which should go up in good times and down in bad. Since then, though, we can see that as GDP per capita increases, health improves, life expectancy improves, child mortality reduces, education goes up. All the things that we really do care about in human flourishing, those tend to correlate well with GDP. But Kuznets also thought we should be very careful about using it. GDP doesn't care about the quality of the growth, only the quantity. This is me increasing GDP. (THUD! BONE CRACKS) (YELLS) Being injured provides work for ambulance people and doctors. The more I injure myself, the more GDP increases ` as long as I don't miss a day of work. An oil spill also increases GDP because we spend more on cleaning up the results of the disaster. And GDP goes down if more mothers breastfeed because that means less formula is bought. But it doesn't measure a good education or any of the work done inside the house. Perhaps we need to rethink what's important. The New Zealand government is trying to figure out how to include well-being in their economic planning. New Zealand is at the frontiers of implementing it in public policy. Everyone is measuring these things ` happiness and so on and so forth ` but New Zealand is one of very few countries that's actually said, 'Let's see whether we can implement that.' The public sector is working on it ` the academic people are working on it collaboratively ` to find a way of actually making it real, and so that it does improve people's lives. A growing number of companies are already incorporating well-being into the workplace. Mars is a massive multinational company that sells M&Ms, Whiskas and Dolmio, amongst other things. So, if someone walked into your office, what would they see happening here that would be different to other places? You guys have seen the dogs today; I think that's pretty unique, and it brings, you know, I think, a bit of play and a little bit of lightness. You've seen the table tennis and a bit of netball. We've got a netball team, and we don't take ourselves too seriously, and I think we like to have fun the way that we do things. It's the family that is really at the heart of our culture. I always remember when I first joined Mars in Europe, and I was sitting in a meeting, and we were looking at future dates for other meetings, and one of the European managers was like, 'Oh, I can't do that date, because it's my son's birthday.' At the time, I was like, 'Oh my goodness, you can actually say that you can't be travelling on that day, and, you know, personally that's had a really big impact on me, and actually I don't feel afraid to actually` you know, things are important for my family... You know, that really comes first. So you can literally say, 'I can't do that because it's my kid's birthday that day? Yes, you can. That's pretty nice. Yeah. Ready? Pow. Last week, I had a lot of regional calls, so I was working till later in the evening, which actually meant I took a couple of the mornings off last week and spent them with my son and got to hang out with him for a few hours, and, you know, I think that makes a difference. Yeah, whoo-hoo! But will all this touchy-feely stuff run a company out of business? If you put people at the centre of your business, you don't look at it as a return on investment. You know, you` We get the benefit in terms of, you know, people bringing their all to work and that, so I think` it's not really` we don't look at it as a cost on our P and L. Some economists are concerned that using well-being as a measure of how we're doing as a country could be a bad thing. Treasury has taken what they're calling living standards framework, or the well-being approach, where they are trying to measure well-being across a broad array of dimensions. You do worry a little bit, though, that without a better framework around it, it could pretty easily turn into a mechanism for a government to justify just about any policy they wanted. I think it'll end up being pretty meaningless for any individual person or family out there. In the future, they'll wrinkle up their noses and go, (SCOFFS) 'That doesn't matter,' when they say, 'The government's index of well-being has improved this quarter from 117.4 to 117.8.' 'OK, I didn't notice it.' I think that's what's going to happen. There are some people who don't like it. I think it reflects a misunderstanding of the framework. First of all, there's a concern that it diminishes focus on economic matters, fiscal discipline, monetary discipline and so on. It does none of that. In fact, economic performance is an integral part of overall well-being. I think we should try and measure well-being. We've gotta have some way of looking at the public good that can come from our economic activity, cos that's the point of an economy, isn't it? You know, it's something we're all invested in, and it's something that should be used in the public good. The very good news is we have changed the conversation. We are talking about well-being. The second very good news is that we now have the mandate from a government to say to pursue this, which is delightful. The third challenge now is to make it work in a real, real way. And as we begin our well-being experiment that might make our future brighter, perhaps we should look at ways to address inequality as well. Fit Me! Matte + Poreless Foundation from Maybelline New York fits your skin's unique tone and texture, blurs pores, stops shine, with 32 shades. Fit Me! foundation. For a flawless natural look, use a Fit Me! concealer, only from Maybelline New York. * VOICE OVER RADIO: Society has fallen. Now, it's every man for himself. DayZ is a post-apocalyptic computer game created by Dunedinite Dean Hall. So, while I was in the army, actually, in Waiouru, I made a mod, which is basically taking someone else's game and altering it. How much do you make out of something like that? Sometimes it can be a little complicated to figure out, but I definitely remember, in terms of those life-changing moments, one day there was, like, five million US dollars ` my first royalty payment ` appeared in my bank account, which actually caused a little bit of a drama; I nearly got arrested, because I didn't notify the bank, and all this money just turned up in my account, and they` the police turned up at the bank because they were worried I was doing some illegal trade. Maybe being wealthy already gives Dean more freedom to run his company a bit differently. In New Zealand, the average chief executive gets paid 19 times the median wage. Is that in the ballpark of what you get paid? I have concerns around chief executives getting big salaries, because I think that rewards should come from a job well done. So my salary at the moment's pegged within 10% of the next highest employee. Each week the average New Zealand CEO brings home $33,000. I think, on a wider scale, on a social scale, when you have large wealth gaps within a society, that creates tension. It creates a sense of unfairness and disequity in the distribution of wealth among people. It just doesn't benefit New Zealand as a whole. I think there is an element of greed, and certainly, you know, the wealth of individuals is often protected, and the wealthy tend to look after the wealthy. Dr Roberts believes we need change. I think it needs to start with some sort of legislation. I don't think legislation needs to necessarily control everything, but certainly some action around putting some limits on CEO-worker pay ratios would be a step in the right direction. Profit sharing might be a way for New Zealand businesses to reduce inequality. It's something RocketWerkz is trying. One of the big things I saw from my discussions with people working at the big studios overseas was they didn't feel like the success was equitable. You get big games making, you know, potentially billion dollars on their first day, and, you know, people were getting big bonuses ` maybe $50,000 bonuses ` but while they were getting a $50,000 bonus, you know, the director or whatever was turning up in a new Maserati ` probably a new Bugatti. And so they were looking for` many of them were looking for more equitable distributions, and, you know, these people were really good employees, and that was definitely a key way we saw we could attract people. So, really, it was about success. It was about, 'How can we attract the best talent?' But I also think there's a moralistic argument there as well, that I wanted to work at a place that at least tried to be fair. Yes, I think profit sharing is a great incentive. It aligns your interests with those of your employees. Your employees own what the firm is doing, and they also get remunerated in a way that represents the contribution they're making. Francis is a programmer, and his job is making things in games do stuff like walk and interact. He likes working at RocketWerkz. Currently, there's unlimited sick leave and unlimited paid leave and, kind of, flexible working hours, and, yeah, that all works really well for me. He especially likes the realities of profit sharing. We basically got a deal from another publisher, and they said, like, 'Oh, we'll take your game, pay you money, 'and we'll put it on consoles,' but that money got distributed between everybody who worked on the project. I ended up getting about two or three month's pay as, like, a lump sum bonus. You can do something really meaningful with that amount of money all at once, you know? So I think it's` yeah, it's really good. So, for you, it's as much about good business as doing good? Absolutely, and I don't think people mind those who are fronting up with the money and capital to make big risky decisions. They just want their fair share too. That's awesome for the people in the highly-skilled tech sector, but what do we do for those 164,000 workers on minimum wage? And welcome to our 2018 Living Wage... Annie Newman likes the idea of something called the living wage. ...because you have decided that decent wages, prosperous communities and a healthy, wealthy society is important to you. Well, it started in New Zealand about six years ago, and it began when a whole group of individuals and organisations decided that they wanted to do something about poverty and in particular about in-work poverty. There was a lot of growing evidence that this was a big issue in New Zealand. So, what is the living wage? So, the living wage is $20.55, and that's the amount of money that people need to survive and participate in society. So it's a basic yet decent income. It's not a lot, and I don't think anybody would expect $20.55 would be a luxury lifestyle, but it is enough to get by and to just avoid some of the calamities that happen when you're on a low wage. We wanted to use all our collective voice. The living wage is $4 more an hour than the current minimum wage. The minimum wage is set by government, and so it's a political accommodation, really. It's what they think that the market can deal with and to manage the constituencies of that particular party that's in power. We've got some 680,000 workers on less than a living wage, and that's a third of wage earners. It's a lot of people on low incomes, so there's something very wrong with the way that the labour market is operating. Joining the living wage group is Ian Crawford, the owner of Cityguard, a security firm with around 120 employees. I think there's enough data to prove that if you pay people the living wage, retention of staff is higher, and there's an awful lot of hidden costs involved that people don't see with staff leaving ` IP changing hands ` and I think that effectively you're playing the long game. The longer people are working together, the better it is. We've also changed the times in which they start, so we start at 6 o'clock in the morning instead of at 7, which allows people to finish at 2 on an eight-hour shift, and that gets them time to get home and pick up their children from school. That was a conscious decision? We tried to treat this as a completely whiteboard exercise; 'How do we want it to look? How would you like to work?' So, commuter times now instead of 40 minutes or 45 minutes to get into work ` to an hour ` are now 15 minutes, cos they're travelling off-peak. It shouldn't be, but it seems like a fairly radical idea that you plan your business around the lives of your staff, rather than your staff having to plan their lives around work. I think there's a misconception that staff are not important. Staff are everything. Without good staff` Richard Branson says he looks after his staff, and they look after his customers. (APPLAUSE) Thank you. Congratulations. Thanks very much. Cityguard has been on a journey for the last four years to, as we've coined the phrase, become a socially sustainable business. 'Think about your bottom line, and then think about how you can improve your product' so you can charge more for it. If you provide a better service, people will pay for it. And if you provide a better service by having better staff, I think you'll have a longer life cycle. Afia's life has been radically changed by these small but important differences. I've grown a lot with Cityguard ` a lot. I started off from just being a casual guard, static guard, and then I moved my way up. I earned it, though. I worked my` I worked so hard to get to where I am right now. And the support I got, that's how I got to where I am. So, Afia, have you worked a minimum-wage job before? Yes, I did. I used to work at a fast-food restaurant. How is it different now that you're working for Cityguard and you get paid a living wage? This is really helping me and my family. Back then, it was a bit of a struggle. Honestly, I had to depend on financial assistance from WINZ just to get me and my family by. So, even though you were working, you still didn't have enough money to, kinda, get by and provide for your family's basic needs? I wasn't able to afford stuff that my kids needed. It doesn't seem that outrageous an idea to pay people enough money so that they can have a decent life. ANNIE: And most New Zealanders would say that, 'Why shouldn't people who go out to work, 'do a full-time week, earn enough money to survive? That seems reasonable.' And I think that that's seen as Kiwi fairness, so this isn't an unusual or radical concept. It's simply about people having enough, and that's better for New Zealand as a whole. Business can be kind without breaking capitalism. In fact, treating employees well can increase profits. But what happens if you're not lucky enough to work for a company that understands that? What makes you happy? Smarter ways to get around the city? Like driving past the petrol pump with the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Prius Prime ` goes up to 63km on electric alone... and has an unbelievably efficient fuel consumption. Whoa. That is clever. Plus, with Toyota Safety Sense technology, like Adaptive High Beam and Intelligent Park Assist, it's one of the smartest ways to get around ` all for a very smart Toyota Driveaway price. * (MOMENTOUS MUSIC) One of the major problems today is the increase in inequality between rich and poor. Charities have stepped into the gap to try to fix the problem. Some charities provide a lunch, others give you a pair of shoes or maybe you'll get books from another. One charity is experimenting with giving cash. With the Variety kids sponsorship programme, you get to sponsor a New Zealand kid for $45 a month. We normally hear about sponsoring children in Third World countries. It seems a bit strange that you would sponsor children in New Zealand. I think we've got a crisis in New Zealand. We have a crisis in that we have 290,000 children who are living in poverty in our country, and it's not poverty like a developing country, that you would see children living on traffic islands, but it's a poverty of access and opportunity in our country, and we've gotta be able to do better than that. There may be a perception in the community that poverty affects a group of people, but it is becoming more and more apparent to us that poverty is touching the lives of a wide cross section of our community ` people who are working two jobs struggling to make ends meet, seeing families that are having to share houses because there's just simply not enough homes. Poverty is touching more and more people within our community that perhaps people would be surprised about. I think we want to create a society where all kids have the opportunity regardless of their parents' financial circumstances, and this is one way that we can take a really big problem and say to the community, 'You can help one child at a time.' That's doable. That's, I think, inspiring. That's something that we can all do; we can all make a difference to one child's life. It's just a lot of help ` big difference, you know, when you need clothing or you need something for the children, that` it's amazing what people can do, and the sponsors are fantastic, and I really thank them. What impact does the money that sponsors give to these kids and their families` what impact does it have? It gives them access. It gives` It creates equity. So, kids that couldn't start school on time because they didn't have the right school uniform or the right stationery, they can now start school on time, because they look like all the rest of their class, and you hear so often from kids saying, you know, they feel embarrassed. They feel that deep sense of shame that they're not` they're different to those in their classroom. They're the ones that are left behind because there's not money to attend a school trip. I've been to some schools where kids are` they can be quite nasty, you know, like, 'Oh, you can't afford it. You can't afford your shoes,' or, 'You can't afford this,' or, 'Look at your uniform.' It` I guess it is a shame thing for the child, but it's how that child's feeling is what's really important. We undertook an impact survey last year and, for some of the little kids ` we used smiley faces ` so, 'How did you feel about going to school before Kiwi Kids sponsorship?' And most of them just had a flat line smiley face. All of them ` 98% of them ` after Kiwi Kids sponsorship, had a smiley face. They felt really good about going to school, because they didn't stand out. I mean, obviously, the work that Variety does is great for the lives of those kids, but is it a Band-Aid? And what does that do for the bigger picture? So, I think, for the children that we have on our programme, it's not a Band-Aid. It is transforming their lives for the better. Clearly, our Kiwi Kids sponsorship programme is not going to transform poverty. It's not the answer. It's part of the answer, and it's just such a complex issue. It will take a myriad of answers and a myriad of responses to be able to solve it, but we have to do better. Kiwi Kids sponsors 3823 children. What do you think the impact would be if the hundreds of thousands of children living in poverty received that same level of support? It would transform the lives, firstly, of the individual child and their families, but I think that that spinoff effect within the community is so much greater, immediately, because they're participating, and they're part of the New Zealand community, but in the future too. It means that we're giving kids those opportunities and access to the basic essentials that mean that they can focus on their learning, so that ultimately they're going to be amazing citizens in our country. 'Thank you for helping me...' And it can change things permanently. In the next 12 to 18 months, I probably won't need Variety any more. I gotta learn to stand on my own two feet and move forward. (PRAYS IN SAMOAN) But there's also a fact we need to face ` inequality between ethnic groups. Pakeha have a net median wealth of $114,000, seven times wealthier than the $12,000 Pacific people have, while Maori have just $23,000. If we do nothing different, inequalities will grow and harms will grow, and it won't just be that those harms will impact Maoridom. Those harms will start to bite everyone, so I do think we should be afraid of the status quo. We should be afraid of doing nothing. But I think the key thing is we can be paralysed by that fear or we can use that as a disruptive force in terms of catalysing change, you know. How do we put our foot on the accelerator and actually commit to working together? 'A group in South Auckland is doing exactly that. 'They feel the system isn't helping them, so they're creating their own future.' We all come from good homes, good backgrounds. Yeah. How did we get into this situation? (CHUCKLES) Dunno. (LAUGHS) It's just something that happened, you know, and we're making the most of it, and we're doing the best that we can with what we have. So they've formed their own group, the Kootuitui Whaanau. So, we're whanau working with whanau. So, we learn ourselves; our motto is 'Fill my kete; fill your kete'. Our main areas at the moment are warm, dry, healthy homes. Showing them` Rather than just going in and putting a plaster on their house, actually educating them and showing them how they can do it themselves. You know, it's more of a hand-up as opposed to a handout. Before the group, I was a stay-at-home mum, and I just stayed at home. I'd done nothing. I'd go to the school if my kids asked me to, but I really ne` wasn't engaged with the community. Being part of this group, I'm never at home any more. I'm always with these ladies. I've got so much knowledge, which I wouldn't have had if I was still just sitting at home. Their warm houses programme uses the novel idea of bubble wrap insulation. Trish warmed up her house, but it was more than just the house. Being involved with them's awesome, and I just wanna` I wanna be part of it, to go out in the community and share it with our community. You know, the more people that know about it, the better off they'll be. They also look at financial literacy and make it for people just like them. The course that we were taught was for people with money, so we've it turned around. Like, they were talking about, 'Don't go and buy a pair of shoes if you don't need it.' You know, we're lucky to buy a pair of shoes. So we've just` When we need it. (ALL LAUGH) Yeah, when we need it. So we've just given it our spin for our whanau. If you were to think about why you think the work that the group does is so effective, what's the secret, do you think? Uh, cos they're just normal ladies. Just normal, everyday, 'walk past them on the street' ` they're just those normal, everyday ladies with kids that go to the same schools... you know, just in our community. You're making houses warmer, and you're giving pe` you're educating people, so what difference does that make in people's lives? Huge. It makes positive changes, you know. It shows them that things` no matter how little you have, you can get better. And through education ` education is the key, really, to getting us out of this hole that we're in, the rut that we're in. And knowing where you can go to get help, that's important as well. And if we can get other whanau to be like us, then it will change. It will change. Just like the $45-a-month sponsorship of a child, it's seemingly small things that are changing lives. We know technology has a major part to play in our future, so how can we apply these ideas to create the New Zealand we want? * (WHIMSICAL ELECTRONIC MUSIC) Wini lives in Point England in Auckland, and she's had a tough time. I'm a trained dental assistant, and I've had to resign from my job because my youngest child... He got bronchitis, and I was, kind of, forced down the avenue of having to resign and seek help from Work and Income... to go on the sole parent benefit. You know, I wanna pay my way in life and not be dependent, you know, on a benefit, but, you know, I have no other choice. Wini's children go to a local decile 1 school. Is there a relationship between poverty and the level of education that you receive? There is a relationship between poverty and education, very obviously seen in differences in achievement, differences in outcomes, and that can be easily explained, in certain respects, by access to resources. But Point England School is trying to do something different. They call it Manaiakalani. Manaiakalani is, first of all, a group of people that got together in this community, along with all of the schools, and said, 'Let's try and make things better than they are.' In the Manaiakalani set of schools, they're using the tools in very innovative ways. In fact, I would describe them as world leaders. The innovation is around both how you use the tools for teaching and for learning and putting those together in very effective ways. You know, they've provided an opportunity for people like myself to purchase Chromebooks through the school for a small amount. That's definitely been a big help for myself. How does technology help you guys with your learning? Um... It helps us a lot with... yeah, doing our work. Like, so, we have this school site where we can... like, download our, like, schoolwork and that. What do you think your kids' lives would be like if you hadn't had access to the, kind of, the internet stuff and the technology stuff through Point England School, through the Manaiakalani cluster? It would be extremely hard. I'd have to be on a daily basis taking the children to places like the internet cafe or the library to use their facilities, so that they can be able to access their work online. The Manaiakalani programme fully embraces technology in kids' learning and provides access to those who might not be able to afford it. They needed the help of business to bring the idea to life. When I started getting involved, it seemed like the right thing to do, cos we could help out, and as we've got further involved, our staff have continued to do so, and it's one of the most rewarding things. I mean, you can help businesses, but there's just something a little different about helping a community learn. Technology gives kids the opportunity to be the best they can be without the limitations of access to, you know, the right mentors and the right information. It's there at their fingertips, and if they're given the tools to develop that, then, I think, they can go a lot further. The evidence for the Manaiakalani cluster is that they've been able to accelerate writing markedly against the normative expectation. They're making about a year's extra progress for a year at school. Wow. Really? That's quite remarkable. It is. (LAUGHS) It is remarkable. Lots of people say that technology gives kids a, kind of, way` it's like a ladder up, out of their lives and into the world. Is that` Has that been your experience? Yeah, absolutely. Mitchell has an Instagram account ` which I monitor, of course ` and he was able to access one of his musical idols. His idol is American rapper Nicki Minaj. I just wanna say I'm obsessed with him. I love him so fucking much. I went on Instagram, and I asked her a question, and she read it, and she liked it, and then she just wanted me to go to her concert. So, my guess is that when your son says Nicki Minaj wants to fly you to America, you didn't believe him. (CHUCKLES) I didn't believe him. I walked in the door, and Mitchell just casually said to me, 'Mum, Nicki Minaj wants to fly us over,' and I literally turned around to him and said, 'This is all a hoax. 'I can't deal with this, Mitchell.' (CHUCKLES) And his sister has earned a scholarship to a private school partly due to the Manaiakalani programme. What do you think has helped you to do that? Um, the school, all the teachers, yeah, and technology. Yeah. The evidence is very clear; the more education you have, the greater the likelihood of higher incomes, better employment, health outcomes as well. And that's the magic of technology. Things that might seem little, like cheap Chromebooks and access to the internet at home, can have these massive effects. Technology can be a ladder out of your life and into a much bigger world. In 20 years, the economy could be less fair or more fair based on what we do now. We've seen flourishing businesses who care and are prepared to try plan B solutions ` Cityguard, Kokako, Mars and RocketWerkz. These companies show you can have other priorities alongside profits which will create a fairer future. We've also seen plan B ideas from Variety, from the Living Wage, from the Kootuitui Whaanau and from Manaiakalani. They show that seemingly small ideas and small amounts of money can make massive changes.