What did we learn?
Luxon congratulated himself for cutting taxes and lowering interest rates. No one clapped. The first were trivial and the gains already partly eroded by inflation and the second is due to the Reserve Bank, worried at the anaemic economy, easing up to prevent deflation. So. Well done, Mr Prime Minister. I guess?
The rest of his speech was aspiration rather than achievement. Luxon spoke with eloquence of plans to “power up” the economy because “a growing economy means more money for…”. For what? For more government spending. Because that is how we measure success in this country.
And look. National and Luxon have made real achievements.
Simeon Brown has proved exceptional and been rewarded with a promotion. Work behind the scenes on the reformed Resource Management Act is, I am repeatedly told, progressing well. Chris Penk is proving effective in the construction sector and Mark Mitchell consistently looks impressive on television.
Ministers such as Andrew Bayly, Simon Watts and Judith Collins are on top of their portfolios and, critically, competent. Competence, however, isn’t enough.
A consistent criticism of Luxon and his finance minister, Willis, is a reluctance to seriously cut spending and it is instructive that the prime minister boasted of large increases in the budget for health. It was more instructive that he’d just fired his health minister.
Why, the prime minister may want to ask, is the performance of the ministry falling despite the increase in spending? The data is complex, but the Health New Zealand performance report released last month shows a number of key metrics deteriorating; including the critical wait time for first specialist appointment.
Equally, there is little evidence that the work done by Education Minister Erica Stanford is changing behaviour on the ground in a meaningful way. It is early in his term but Luxon has failed to correctly diagnose the problem and, consequently, his prescription will prove ineffective.
The problem isn’t incompetence, nor a reluctance to put in the work. He claimed he rises at four thirty and I believe him; but that is the problem. Luxon is under the belief that a successful economy and government sector relies on him, and the excellent senior staff around him.
He is wrong.
Let’s start with education. Erica Stanford is a competent minister but she will share the same fate as Shane Reti and for the same reason. You cannot reform a dysfunctional government sector by improving the management structures and setting optimistic targets.
Both health and education are primarily single-payer regimes where the taxpayer covers almost all of the cost while the consumer is impotent. The most powerful tool to allocate resources effectively and efficiently is the price mechanism and when this is prevented from operating you get failure.
The fallacy Luxon is operating under is that better management will deliver results when he needs to change the model. Parents, and not the cadre of failed sociology majors that run the Wellington establishment, should decide where kids go to school and what they learn.
There is no point in banning cell phones or chasing truants; our children won’t be learning effectively in a classroom where teachers face no accountability to anyone but their peer group.
Simeon Brown faces an impossible burden because the Ministry of Health runs the same unresponsive model. Patients are not customers. They have no economic power. You will be told to wait until you are treated or deceased. There is no financial impact on those running the hospitals either way and unless that changes the system will underperform.
Luxon will continue sinking billions of borrowed cash into the failing welfare state and claim the increase in spending a success while literacy rates fall and waiting lists grow. There isn’t even a willingness to confront the absurdly of borrowing money to pay billions in welfare to millionaire retirees.
The highlight was Luxon’s claim that he can increase foreign investment by tweaking the Overseas Investment Act and copying Ireland’s active engagement with foreign capital.
Ireland set corporate tax at 12.5% for decades and has almost no rules on foreign direct investment. Setting up a new agency to greet Blackstone executives at the airport isn’t the same as creating an economic environment that allows for a competitive return on capital.
Under this prime minister’s leadership we will see the agencies of the state performing better than they have in a generation and many will view that as progress. Even success. It is not.
National are, again, squandering an opportunity to reshape our faltering economy and dysfunctional welfare system because they lack either the courage to do what is necessary or, worse, the imagination to comprehend what is possible......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
The rest of his speech was aspiration rather than achievement. Luxon spoke with eloquence of plans to “power up” the economy because “a growing economy means more money for…”. For what? For more government spending. Because that is how we measure success in this country.
And look. National and Luxon have made real achievements.
Simeon Brown has proved exceptional and been rewarded with a promotion. Work behind the scenes on the reformed Resource Management Act is, I am repeatedly told, progressing well. Chris Penk is proving effective in the construction sector and Mark Mitchell consistently looks impressive on television.
Ministers such as Andrew Bayly, Simon Watts and Judith Collins are on top of their portfolios and, critically, competent. Competence, however, isn’t enough.
A consistent criticism of Luxon and his finance minister, Willis, is a reluctance to seriously cut spending and it is instructive that the prime minister boasted of large increases in the budget for health. It was more instructive that he’d just fired his health minister.
Why, the prime minister may want to ask, is the performance of the ministry falling despite the increase in spending? The data is complex, but the Health New Zealand performance report released last month shows a number of key metrics deteriorating; including the critical wait time for first specialist appointment.
Equally, there is little evidence that the work done by Education Minister Erica Stanford is changing behaviour on the ground in a meaningful way. It is early in his term but Luxon has failed to correctly diagnose the problem and, consequently, his prescription will prove ineffective.
The problem isn’t incompetence, nor a reluctance to put in the work. He claimed he rises at four thirty and I believe him; but that is the problem. Luxon is under the belief that a successful economy and government sector relies on him, and the excellent senior staff around him.
He is wrong.
Let’s start with education. Erica Stanford is a competent minister but she will share the same fate as Shane Reti and for the same reason. You cannot reform a dysfunctional government sector by improving the management structures and setting optimistic targets.
Both health and education are primarily single-payer regimes where the taxpayer covers almost all of the cost while the consumer is impotent. The most powerful tool to allocate resources effectively and efficiently is the price mechanism and when this is prevented from operating you get failure.
The fallacy Luxon is operating under is that better management will deliver results when he needs to change the model. Parents, and not the cadre of failed sociology majors that run the Wellington establishment, should decide where kids go to school and what they learn.
There is no point in banning cell phones or chasing truants; our children won’t be learning effectively in a classroom where teachers face no accountability to anyone but their peer group.
Simeon Brown faces an impossible burden because the Ministry of Health runs the same unresponsive model. Patients are not customers. They have no economic power. You will be told to wait until you are treated or deceased. There is no financial impact on those running the hospitals either way and unless that changes the system will underperform.
Luxon will continue sinking billions of borrowed cash into the failing welfare state and claim the increase in spending a success while literacy rates fall and waiting lists grow. There isn’t even a willingness to confront the absurdly of borrowing money to pay billions in welfare to millionaire retirees.
The highlight was Luxon’s claim that he can increase foreign investment by tweaking the Overseas Investment Act and copying Ireland’s active engagement with foreign capital.
Ireland set corporate tax at 12.5% for decades and has almost no rules on foreign direct investment. Setting up a new agency to greet Blackstone executives at the airport isn’t the same as creating an economic environment that allows for a competitive return on capital.
Under this prime minister’s leadership we will see the agencies of the state performing better than they have in a generation and many will view that as progress. Even success. It is not.
National are, again, squandering an opportunity to reshape our faltering economy and dysfunctional welfare system because they lack either the courage to do what is necessary or, worse, the imagination to comprehend what is possible......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
5 comments:
The biggest problem is the NZ voter. Ask any one of them and they will complain about most things, but who will they vote for for to change things around? Labour, and inexplicably The Greens.
The only party with a clear roadmap to fundamentally changing NZ is ACT. Fine, you don't have to agree with everything they propose. But at best they get about 10% of the vote.
And therein lies the problem. 90% of voters are either too apathetic, too dependent, too unwilling to change or have just lost the will to engage their brains.
And that's why they settle for a PM who continually disappoints, over-promises and has no clear direction.
This 'tinkering around the edges' is definitely not what I voted for!
National need to take a hard look at the DOGE as lead by Elon Musk, because that's what Wellington needs a dose of. Or maybe the Argentinian option.
My suspicion is that Luxon and Willis are reluctant to sort out the bureaucracy because the loss will be reflected in the GDP numbers.
"National are squandering an opportunity to reshape our faltering economy".
Maybe its by design?
I didn't vote ACT because National has a stronger management team. It is almost unbelievable Stanford has rewritten the curriculum, changed reading/ writing/ and maths methodologies, and introduced national standard testing, with minimal protest from the unions.
Simeon Brown's transport successes have already earned him a promotion, Mark Mitchell has made huge strides with effective policing, and Todd McLay has already signed a significant trade agreement with UAE..... etc.
Of course, the person most responsible for these successes is PM Luxon. Without Luxon's remarkable turn around of the National Party to win the election, Hipkins would be joining the multi millionaire status of the hapless Adern, gangs would still be running amok (see my previous point as to the unexplained wealth of the Labour hierarchy if you are wondering why the gangs had such a great run under Labor),
And last but not least, your support of ACT's free market at all costs ethos, will lead to the rich getting richer and the rest suffering (as it has in all free market economies to date). If you aren't wealthy, you are voting for a reduction in your living standards.
The danger of the NZ voter today cannot be underestimated - and may cause democracy to be replaced by another form of government .
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