I hope people are sitting-up and paying attention to what BusinessNZ is saying today.

Especially the people who have their heads in the sand about our ability as a country to keep paying for things like healthcare and pensions.

Because, as BusinessNZ puts it, we don’t have enough people to keep on doing that and we need a lot more people.

As one headline today says, New Zealand needs 10 million people to stay afloat.

BusinessNZ says we need twice as many people just to keep the lights on. For several reasons.

For starters, in 20 years’ time we’ll have a labour shortage of 250,000 people. And unless we bring a truckload more people into the country, we won’t have enough workers to do the work. But also, we won’t have enough workers paying tax to pay for the likes of healthcare and the pension.

That’s why I hope people are paying attention. Because, if we think we can keep on keeping on, providing the same services and doing things like dishing out the pension to anyone and everyone just because they turn 65, then we have to either stop doing that or somehow find a way to keep doing it.

If BusinessNZ was a political party, it wouldn’t last five minutes, because the stuff it’s saying today is the stuff that doesn’t win elections. But it’s the stuff we have to listen to and accept.

Example: raising the retirement age. If we are going to be five million people short of being financially viable as a country, we’re all going to have to keep on working longer. Most politicians are too scared to say that, but it’s true.

Or if we still want to retire at 65, we’re going to have to pay for it ourselves. Again, most politicians are too scared to say that, but it’s true.

Now I’m not talking about this happening next week or next year. I’m saying that it’s inevitable that, at some point, we are going to have to accept that everyone retiring at 65 and everyone getting the state-funded pension is a thing of the past. Because we can’t afford it.

Which is why BusinessNZ is also saying today that we’re going to have to start putting more into our KiwiSaver.

That’s another no-brainer. Because, if we’re in a position where we need to double the population just to keep the place running, then we need to change how we do things.

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New Zealand is about to become a dumping ground for dirty vehicles.

That’s what the electric vehicle people are saying today about the Government’s urgent changes to the clean car standards for imported vehicles.

Of course they’re unhappy. Because I reckon they are seeing and we are seeing the EV bubble about to burst.

I’ll tell you why. I’ll also tell you why you’re not going to hear me ripping into the Government for doing what it’s doing.

Reason 1: imported petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles are going to be cheaper, and we would all be complaining if the Government wasn’t doing anything about it.

Reason 2: penalising car importers for importing the types of vehicles that people actually want to buy makes no sense to me. And what I’m getting at there is I reckon most people still want to buy petrol or diesel vehicles or hybrids. In fact, with imported petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles likely to be cheaper because of this move by the Government, why would you even bother with an EV?

That’s why the EV people are so antsy.

And reason 3: I’d be a complete hypocrite if I said otherwise, because I drive petrol cars. One of them is a Toyota Prado that’s been around the block a few times and is a real gas guzzler, and probably isn’t that great for the environment. Not to mention the Vespa 2-stroke nightmare.

I have never had any interest in having an EV. I can’t tell you exactly why, it’s not a protest of any sort. It’s not climate change denial. It’s none of that. And I think most of us are the same. If we can get our hands on a decent petrol, diesel or hybrid vehicle for a decent price, then we’ll do it.

So, as of the end of this week, the penalties car importers get stung with for bringing high-emitting vehicles into the country are going to be slashed by nearly 80%. Which will be music to the ears of the 86% of car importers that Transport Minister Chris Bishop says are facing penalties already.

How the scheme works, is car importers have to meet annual emissions targets.

And when they balance things up at the end of each year, if they’ve brought more dirty cars than clean cars into the country, then they get hit with a penalty, or a charge. Which, of course, gets passed on to customers.

At the other end of things, if they bring-in more clean cars and less dirty cars, they earn credits.

Which sounds great in theory. But, as it stands, most of the importers haven’t been meeting their targets and so they’re facing charges. So the Government is slashing the dirty vehicle charges by 80% to stop that happening.

But the electric vehicle people aren’t happy.

Kirsten Corson is the chair of Drive Electric —which is an advocacy group that wants more of us driving EVs— and she’s saying today that this move by the Government is “embarrassing”.

She says: "If you look at us compared to Australia, in Australia you're paying $100 as a penalty and now we've just slashed that to $15 in New Zealand. So we are going to become a dumping ground for high emission vehicles."

She says: "We keep our vehicles on our road for two decades. The average car is 15-years-old in New Zealand, so the decisions made today are going to impact our transport emissions for the next three decades."

But what do you make of this move by the Government?

Do you think the EV bubble is about to burst?

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The city is back mingling with the country at New Zealand's Royal A&P Show in Canterbury.

Thousands are set to descend on the Agricultural Park over the next three days.

This year’s event has re-gained its royal status for the first time since 2010.

Canterbury A&P Association chair Sir David Carter told John MacDonald that the Royal Agricultural Society approached them after they saw them put on last year’s show, and asked if they were prepared to run under the Royal Show status.

They agreed, he says, because it gives prestige to the show, and means livestock people are prepared to enter more animals and travel further to attend.

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