"There was once talk of closing the gap between New Zealand and Australian incomes/productivity by 2025..."

"In a couple of weeks it will be 2023. And then in a couple of years it will be 2025.
    "Those with longish geeky memories may recall that there was once talk of closing the gap between New Zealand and Australian incomes/productivity by 2025. Without any great enthusiasm no doubt, the incoming National government led by John Key agreed to ACT’s request for a (time and resource-limited) official 2025 Taskforce that would offer some analysis and advice on what it would take to achieve such a goal. The Taskforce’s first report had been dismissed by the Prime Minister before it was even released and after the second report the Taskforce was quietly disbanded....
    "[D]espite all its mineral riches, Australia is not a stellar productivity performer, so aiming to catch them was hardly reaching for the stars....
    "In 2007, just prior to the last recession, OECD estimates have Australian real GDP per hour worked about 23 per cent higher than that in New Zealand.
    "What has happened since? On that same (annual) OECD metric the gap last year was about 31 per cent....
    "[And] there is no sign either main political party actually cares enough to think hard about overhauling policy here in a way that might one day mean New Zealand might offer the world-matching living standards it did not that many decades ago."

~ Michael Riddell, from his post 'NZ and Australia'