Wellington is great if you are kicking around the CBD. Everything is a five-minute walk, ten if you want to get an ice cream at the Cuba Mall and admire the fountain.
But I’m not here to admire buckets. I’ve got a few clients I like to annoy and the capital is where the political action is; so I have spent time talking to hacks, a few parliamentarians, current and former staffers and anyone else who might be useful.
We are a year into Christoper Luxon’s Premiership. How is it going?
I’ve not been generous to our Prime Minister. My main complaint is that he does not take the sovereign debt seriously, has no underlying political world-view and appears disinterested in re-engineering our public services in a way that is consistent with my libertarian world view.
I think we should be selling hospitals and issuing vouchers for education. Most Kiwis believe these ideas verge on lunacy so I shall not dwell on these gripes but rather report on how the regime is perceived from those close to it.
Luxon’s approach to politics is technocratic and not based on conservative political ideology.
I doubt he has read anything by Milton Friedman and if you asked him about Grover he’d assume you were referring to a Muppet. He perceives no problem with Goldsmith’s adoption of Willie Jackson’s law to compel Google to pay money to the domestic media and is happy for Andrew Bayly to pursue actions against the supermarkets for alleged anticompetitive behaviour.
Act lives in a different intellectual universe and recoils at such measures but for muddle New Zealand such issues are esoteric irrelevances.
Meanwhile, supporters of Luxon gripe that his achievements are not acknowledged, portrayed as failures or claimed by the minor parties.
Most of them, such as the mercy killing of Three Waters, scrapping the Fair Pay legislation and reversal of Labour’s version of the Resource Management Act were easy wins that undid the worst aspects of the past regime.
These are not trivial, however. Had Labour’s Natural and Built Environment Act, and its two unwieldy siblings that formed David Parker’s answer to the Resource Management Act remained law building would have been subject to restrictive environmental and treaty constraints.
The economic burden of this, combined with the reintroduction of compulsory collective bargaining in the Fair Pay Act and the handbrake on overseas investment under Labour meant that doing business was beginning to feel like wading through a swamp of molasses.
There are many smaller developments. From the mundane, such as constraining the Marsden Fund to science, forcing the Ministry of Health to focus on a person's medical needs and not their ancestry, and reinvigorating the Roads of National Significance, this regime is having a n impact that isn’t quantifiable but is collectively powerful.
Luxon, for his part, remains a chief executive. One individual alluded to his belief that good governance was about getting the right person in the right role. This, some readers will have twigged, is from Jim Collins impactful Good to Great; a book Luxon has certainly read.
Collins emphasised the importance of getting the right people in the right seats on the company bus as a means of getting results. This makes sense where the objective is efficiency and profit. Ineffective managers are exposed by poor numbers.
Where Luxon struggles is that government isn’t a business. Competence isn’t enough. Some of those holding a ministerial warrant are effective; they are just doing things inconsistent with small c conservative values.
One criticism is that he lacks a vision for New Zealand but maybe we should stop looking to politicians for that sort of guidance and merely demand that they fix the roads and keep the streets safe. Which Luxon is achieving.
And yet... next week the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, HYEFU, is released. The expectation is that Crown revenue has fallen, transfer payments are on the increase and sovereign debt will be higher than the liquidator of a Medicinal Cannabis business. All of his micro reforms risk getting overwhelmed by fiscal drag.
What I can glimpse from the periphery of his realm Luxon is more Jim Bolger than Roger Douglas, or to put it in terms that may resonate; more Paul Poleman than Jack Welch.
If he wishes to effect an enduring real turn-around, rather than be remembered as a cautious custodian of a well-run welfare state, Mr Luxon needs to confront the difficult fiscal legacy he has inherited and explain to a wary nation how he intends to bring the Crown accounts to order.
Given the complex political and economic environment he has to operate in this is a hugely difficult assignment but Luxon actively sought the office he now holds.
He may fail if he tackles this issue but the real failure will be to do as Prime Ministers have done since 2007 and leave a n escalating debt crisis to the next holder of that office.....The full article is published HERE
Damien Grant is an Auckland business owner, a member of the Taxpayers’ Union and a regular opinion contributor for Stuff, writing from a libertarian perspective
I think we should be selling hospitals and issuing vouchers for education. Most Kiwis believe these ideas verge on lunacy so I shall not dwell on these gripes but rather report on how the regime is perceived from those close to it.
Luxon’s approach to politics is technocratic and not based on conservative political ideology.
I doubt he has read anything by Milton Friedman and if you asked him about Grover he’d assume you were referring to a Muppet. He perceives no problem with Goldsmith’s adoption of Willie Jackson’s law to compel Google to pay money to the domestic media and is happy for Andrew Bayly to pursue actions against the supermarkets for alleged anticompetitive behaviour.
Act lives in a different intellectual universe and recoils at such measures but for muddle New Zealand such issues are esoteric irrelevances.
Meanwhile, supporters of Luxon gripe that his achievements are not acknowledged, portrayed as failures or claimed by the minor parties.
Most of them, such as the mercy killing of Three Waters, scrapping the Fair Pay legislation and reversal of Labour’s version of the Resource Management Act were easy wins that undid the worst aspects of the past regime.
These are not trivial, however. Had Labour’s Natural and Built Environment Act, and its two unwieldy siblings that formed David Parker’s answer to the Resource Management Act remained law building would have been subject to restrictive environmental and treaty constraints.
The economic burden of this, combined with the reintroduction of compulsory collective bargaining in the Fair Pay Act and the handbrake on overseas investment under Labour meant that doing business was beginning to feel like wading through a swamp of molasses.
There are many smaller developments. From the mundane, such as constraining the Marsden Fund to science, forcing the Ministry of Health to focus on a person's medical needs and not their ancestry, and reinvigorating the Roads of National Significance, this regime is having a n impact that isn’t quantifiable but is collectively powerful.
Luxon, for his part, remains a chief executive. One individual alluded to his belief that good governance was about getting the right person in the right role. This, some readers will have twigged, is from Jim Collins impactful Good to Great; a book Luxon has certainly read.
Collins emphasised the importance of getting the right people in the right seats on the company bus as a means of getting results. This makes sense where the objective is efficiency and profit. Ineffective managers are exposed by poor numbers.
Where Luxon struggles is that government isn’t a business. Competence isn’t enough. Some of those holding a ministerial warrant are effective; they are just doing things inconsistent with small c conservative values.
One criticism is that he lacks a vision for New Zealand but maybe we should stop looking to politicians for that sort of guidance and merely demand that they fix the roads and keep the streets safe. Which Luxon is achieving.
And yet... next week the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, HYEFU, is released. The expectation is that Crown revenue has fallen, transfer payments are on the increase and sovereign debt will be higher than the liquidator of a Medicinal Cannabis business. All of his micro reforms risk getting overwhelmed by fiscal drag.
What I can glimpse from the periphery of his realm Luxon is more Jim Bolger than Roger Douglas, or to put it in terms that may resonate; more Paul Poleman than Jack Welch.
If he wishes to effect an enduring real turn-around, rather than be remembered as a cautious custodian of a well-run welfare state, Mr Luxon needs to confront the difficult fiscal legacy he has inherited and explain to a wary nation how he intends to bring the Crown accounts to order.
Given the complex political and economic environment he has to operate in this is a hugely difficult assignment but Luxon actively sought the office he now holds.
He may fail if he tackles this issue but the real failure will be to do as Prime Ministers have done since 2007 and leave a n escalating debt crisis to the next holder of that office.....The full article is published HERE
Damien Grant is an Auckland business owner, a member of the Taxpayers’ Union and a regular opinion contributor for Stuff, writing from a libertarian perspective
3 comments:
You claim Luxon is "forcing the Ministry of Health to focus on a person's medical needs and not their ancestry, ".
Really ? Read the article on Point of Order today 16 Dec 24 by Jerry Coyne. Luxon seems to be reverse gear !
I would love to find out what his subordinate colleagues think of his performance. Certainly there are many electors who voted for National who are far from pleased with his achievements to date.
The draining of the swamp doth progress at a snails pace
I'm beginning to wonder whether all NZ political commentators and reporters are deaf.
Every time Luxon stands in Front of NZ reporters responding to mindless, repetitive "can't quite get ya" questions, he repeats his vision for NZ.
Rebuilding the economy
Restoring law & order
Improving our schools & healthcare
All politicians should be "disinterested in re-engineering our public services". A quick check of the Cambridge dIctionary will help you understand why.
And last but not least, drastically reducing spending and tackling debt whilst in the middle of an economic downturn was the cause of the great depression. I prefer Nationals "steady as she goes" plan to restore the surplus in 2028.
Damien please stop bringing the standards of the NZ media to Breaking Views. We read breaking views to get away from that drivel.
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