When the Labour Party says “In it for you”, will the voter say “no thanks”?
Already Labour’s slogan has delighted those with a sense of humour. As one fan re-worked it, shouldn’t it be: “what’s in it for you?” Answer: “Very little”.
According to Luke Malpass in The Post, the slogan “is understood to basically reflect what Labour research shows is the strongest thing about Labour’s leader: that he is a genuine guy who is there for the ordinary people, not himself.
As Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins is in charge of a government that has spent up large, only to say now that it has to work on bread-and-butter issues.
Where are the tax cuts ordinary Kiwis might have expected?
Instead they face a period of austerity. Even Hipkins seems to concede that. .
Clearly, Labour wants to forget the “Let’s do this” of 2017 and “Keep Moving” of 2020 under former leader Jacinda Ardern who left a legacy of rising prices, crowded hospitals and falling education standards.
Hipkins tells New Zealanders: “While I’ve only been in the job six months, I hope you know I’m in it for you and I understand the challenges you’re facing”.
The problem is that Labour and its leaders, past and present, don’t appear to understand how to create a more prosperous country.
As one-time opponent Steven Joyce put it in his column in the NZ Herald:
“Left-wing politicians seem to have no idea how the decisions that create wealth in this country are made.
“They don’t understand what prompts people to take risks, to start businesses or to hire another person. They have no idea how important those risk-takers are for a country to succeed, and they have no concept of how the decisions politicians make can either encourage or discourage people to have a go”.
Former Labour governments usually included a minister who had either been a successful businessman like Joe Walding in the Kirk government, or understood business like Roger Douglas in the Lange government, or knew his history like Michael Cullen in Helen Clark’s government.
All Hipkins can promise is to “focus on cutting inflation, bringing down the cost of living, keeping people and communities safe, and investing in health, education and housing”.
Already New Zealanders are fleeing NZ. Net migration to Australia is the highest it has been since 2013, soon after the Christchurch earthquakes.
In the last half of the previous Labour-led Government, New Zealand lost an average of 30,000 people net per year. It took time to turn that around, but from 2014 to 2019 it was down to a net 3000.
Now it’s 13,000 and climbing again.
Voting with their feet, as this is characterised – another way of measuring the government’s popularity.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
Where are the tax cuts ordinary Kiwis might have expected?
Instead they face a period of austerity. Even Hipkins seems to concede that. .
Clearly, Labour wants to forget the “Let’s do this” of 2017 and “Keep Moving” of 2020 under former leader Jacinda Ardern who left a legacy of rising prices, crowded hospitals and falling education standards.
Hipkins tells New Zealanders: “While I’ve only been in the job six months, I hope you know I’m in it for you and I understand the challenges you’re facing”.
The problem is that Labour and its leaders, past and present, don’t appear to understand how to create a more prosperous country.
As one-time opponent Steven Joyce put it in his column in the NZ Herald:
“Left-wing politicians seem to have no idea how the decisions that create wealth in this country are made.
“They don’t understand what prompts people to take risks, to start businesses or to hire another person. They have no idea how important those risk-takers are for a country to succeed, and they have no concept of how the decisions politicians make can either encourage or discourage people to have a go”.
Former Labour governments usually included a minister who had either been a successful businessman like Joe Walding in the Kirk government, or understood business like Roger Douglas in the Lange government, or knew his history like Michael Cullen in Helen Clark’s government.
All Hipkins can promise is to “focus on cutting inflation, bringing down the cost of living, keeping people and communities safe, and investing in health, education and housing”.
Already New Zealanders are fleeing NZ. Net migration to Australia is the highest it has been since 2013, soon after the Christchurch earthquakes.
In the last half of the previous Labour-led Government, New Zealand lost an average of 30,000 people net per year. It took time to turn that around, but from 2014 to 2019 it was down to a net 3000.
Now it’s 13,000 and climbing again.
Voting with their feet, as this is characterised – another way of measuring the government’s popularity.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
1 comment:
By 'you' they mean the NGO Corporations like the UN, WEF,WHO, IMF,BIS, Blackrock ect and closer to home, Maori Corporations. All governments are registered corporations, a for profit business. They do not represent the people, only other corporations. The definition of fascism is the state and corporates working together to control the people.
Post a Comment
Thanks for engaging in the debate!
Because this is a public forum, we will only publish comments that are respectful and do NOT contain links to other sites. We appreciate your cooperation.