The economy looks like it's coming right, in time to milk it all the way to the election.
So the Roads of National Significance reset is what you would loosely call a setback, if not a dead rat.
This country has become famous for talking big and doing little, for promising things that never happen.
As that reputation built up over many years and many Governments, you hoped we were slowly realising the futility of such behaviour and looking to bring it to an end.
Yet, no.
It's worse for National because they are the party of the economy. They are the party that gets elected historically after Labour cock it up.
They are the adults in the room.
So for Chris Bishop to tell us what they promised isn't happening the way they thought is a blow to the credibility.
Further, the admission that the promises were ambitious is not as big a problem as admitting the promises were driven largely by the construction industry wanting a pipeline of work.
That smacks of politics of convenience. It smacks of a party telling you what you want to hear.
For all the criticism of Labour and Let's Get Wellington Moving, or the light rail in Auckland debacle, National admitting they over promised is not a good look.
If you want the glass half-full, stuff is happening and things are being built.
But lets be honest; when they say five projects are in the "slow lane", the slow lane in this country is the "no lane" - they won't happen ever.
That’s before you get to the prospect of a Labour election win, which will lead to the old obsession with cycleways and bus lanes and so none of it will ever come to pass.
Government is about delivery. Elections are about choosing your path of choice and after that it's delivery. Labour are famous for lack of it.
With National on roads it turns out they're not as bad, but they're not what they said they were on the tin.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
As that reputation built up over many years and many Governments, you hoped we were slowly realising the futility of such behaviour and looking to bring it to an end.
Yet, no.
It's worse for National because they are the party of the economy. They are the party that gets elected historically after Labour cock it up.
They are the adults in the room.
So for Chris Bishop to tell us what they promised isn't happening the way they thought is a blow to the credibility.
Further, the admission that the promises were ambitious is not as big a problem as admitting the promises were driven largely by the construction industry wanting a pipeline of work.
That smacks of politics of convenience. It smacks of a party telling you what you want to hear.
For all the criticism of Labour and Let's Get Wellington Moving, or the light rail in Auckland debacle, National admitting they over promised is not a good look.
If you want the glass half-full, stuff is happening and things are being built.
But lets be honest; when they say five projects are in the "slow lane", the slow lane in this country is the "no lane" - they won't happen ever.
That’s before you get to the prospect of a Labour election win, which will lead to the old obsession with cycleways and bus lanes and so none of it will ever come to pass.
Government is about delivery. Elections are about choosing your path of choice and after that it's delivery. Labour are famous for lack of it.
With National on roads it turns out they're not as bad, but they're not what they said they were on the tin.
Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
National are not and do not have a track record of being competent with the economy. NZ never thrived better than under Clarke and Lange. Bishop and Luxon can’t even get in the same page about the property lobby, and they let Seymour shut down development in Epsom!
Mike lives in his own fantasy world.
And to add to that problem is National dropping to 28% in the latest RNZ poll. And Luxon in second place at 20% someway behind the odious Hipkins. But even then that number is impressive given Luxon is Mr Invisible.
Odds on, Gerry, Paul and Nicola are exiting parliament, at least!
Luxon remains THE best opposition asset, possibly ever.
Mike stop the vacuous economic commentary = NZers have lower real incomes & less wealth driven by a collapsing property market than three years ago. The Nats got into bed with the monopolists who designed banking & supermarket policy for them = throwing middle NZ under a bus = have you no clue whats been going on? You say Nats are party of economy? I thought my coauthor Sir Roger Douglas who did our pro market reforms & Sir Michael Cullen who ran surpluses & cut our public debt in half were Labour, along with Michael Joseph Savage?
The Nats will struggle to get re-elected since they did backroom deals that shafted middle NZ and engaged a comms team to do their compulsory Kiwisaver announcement whilst never once consulting a single economist nor former Finance Minister who'd been working out how to do it for tye padt two decades. It was a shallow nothingness by English major Willis who publicly declared her strident opposition to the same policy she now supports when she came on the Platform Show to attack me. How can Nats and ACT sink so low?
“They are the adults in the room.“ They are the ones who will sink the coalition because they are its weakest performers.
If people haven’t figured out by now that betting the house on a political party isn’t the brightest idea then we really are heading for the precipice. We are in desperate need of good people, fit for purpose, with their hands on the levers of power. But no. We love our electoral circuses too much!
It is a year to the day since Prof MacCulloch last contributed with his argument about funding NZ superannuation and healthcare by using the first 54K of individuals taxation to fund Superannuation Health and Insurance into their own private scheme administered by IRD.
Clearly it works and the fund multiplies rapidly, however then and now the "elephant in the room" is not discussed or case proven.
The Government needs the same taxation to fund NZ budget requirements annually.
The personal taxation has to be replaced with another form of funding the annual budget until the Superfund gains compound interest traction.
There could not be a better time pre election to simply and factually state the case for funding your policy. NZ needs the discussion badly.
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