Helmets or no helmets for cyclists. Which name comes first on the cover of our passports. A ban then reversal on marshmallows in hot chocolates from the coffee machine at hospitals.
Not a single one of these stories is significant on their own.
But they’re the kind of stories people remember because they either simply make no sense or appear to be a colossal waste of time.
Most working families can’t afford to even use their passports right now. A Hawaiian holiday - nope. The only ones dusting off travel IDs are moving across the ditch!
Is this the stuff your average punter wanting to feed their kids actually cares about?
No.
The Clark Government got bogged down by a bunch of these silly little things. Think the size of shower heads and light bulbs.
Instead of asking officials whether little Johnny should be allowed to ride a bike without a helmet (something no decent parent would allow anyway), why not keep your eyes on the big stuff? No shortage of that around.
Just yesterday Fitch warned our AA+ credit rating could be out at risk if we:
- Get slack on fiscal discipline
- See a further correction in the housing market (which isn’t completely off the cards)
- See another spike in unemployment (also not out of the woods yet)
Distraction is the enemy of progress.
Passports and helmets are distractions and lately, there’ve been too many of them.
Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Distraction is the friend of the covid Inquiry!
The auditor general says " Some decisions, it was very unclear how they were made - particularly in the shovel-ready project, and then in the NZUP, there were decisions made which subsequently required further investment to ensure they delivered.
Reporting on that at the time… wasn't at a level that I thought would give us the answers."
Nothing to see here?
Who benefitted from tax payers $66b?
We certainly didn't.
Exactly who is in charge of economic policy? Ms Willis is an English graduate with corporate experience in PR. This shows. Is she a National party pawn?
Whilst publicity and profile is important, much recent proposed legislation is likely to lose as many votes as it might gain. Road user charges, relaxed building checks, imported building materials (at the cost of NZ jobs), 15 storey blocks in now pleasant suburbs, building liability changes etc., Any publicity is not necessarily good publicity. Too many mps feel compelled to pass some legislation to show they exist(ed). Many modern mps are far removed from the everyday world and its people . Relying of selct committeesand their often commercially interested submitters to establish all the pitfallsis inadequate.
Adults should not be compelled to wear bicycle helmets, I’m sure David Seymour can juggle more than one thought in his mind at a time.
Anything that reduces government interference is a good thing and I hope we get a ton more of it before we vote in Labour again.
Definitely the government needed to roll some heads (likely to include some oversized Maori ones) over the 'vanished' $66,000,000,000, and balance their own books too if they were ever to regain confidence of a large swath of their traditional base. The government and all of its participants have shown neither vim nor vigour and time remaining to do so is simply too short.
yes!
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