This was National’s campaign slogan last election and it is appropriate to consider how they are going in achieving what they promised.
They have been very busy, very very busy. With a 100 day plan and a recently announced three month plan they have been doing a lot of planning. But has it made the country a better place? And if so who for?
How about this list of the Government’s achievements so far. It has:
- Proposed that gang members be required to wear foundation when they go out into the public.
- Proposed more lung cancer so that landlords can get a tax cut.
- Planned to cut tobacco excise duty.
- Delayed changes to vape rules in a move that allowed Phillip Morris to get rid of its excess stock.
- Abandoned the promised Working for Families abatement adjustment so that landlords can get a tax cut.
- Cut fair pay agreements even though they were warned the removal would disproportionately impact women, Māori and Pasifika and young people.
- Ordered a pathetic increase in the minimum wage, well below the rate of inflation thereby giving minimum wage earners a wage cut. Brooke Van Velden wanted it to be even less than Cabinet agreed to.
- Attacked the use of Te Reo by the public service by europeanising Ministry names and stopping payments for Public Servants gaining proficiency in Te Reo.
- Scrapped the Māori Health Authority using urgency.
- Acted to remove references to Te Tiriti from laws including the Oranga Tamariki Act;
- Insulted Ratana.
- Cancelled Three Waters on spurious racist grounds and caused Councils to have to plan for significant rates increases to pay for necessary upgrades. And relaxed consultation and audit requirements for Councils so they basically do not have to talk about how much they may have to put rates.
- Implemented $7.4 billion of cuts and savings many affecting core services.
- Gleefully announced thousands of public service job cuts just before Christmas.
- Raised the prospect of hospitals and schools and roads being built using PPPs.
- Introduced 90 day fire at will legislation for all companies under urgency just in time for Christmas.
- Wound back RMA reforms and gave the Minister extraordinary powers to rewrite planning documents.
- Cut funding for cultural reports despite the important role they play in determining what is a just sentence for an offender.
- Repealed under urgency the Tax Principles Reporting Act so that IRD no longer had to report to us on how our tax system is functioning and if rich people are paying a fair amount of tax. Interestingly this urgent action did not appear in any of the coalition agreements or in the Government’s 100 day plan.
- Proposed making English an Official Language, as if it wasn’t.
- United Māori in a way not seen before while at the same time insulting Kiingi Tuuheitia.
- Increased congestion by starving Auckland of necessary funds through the Regional Fuel Tax.
- Increase unemployment by changing the Reserve Bank’s focus on inflation and employment to one of inflation only.
- Stopped blanket speed restrictions and decreased safety.
- Canned Auckland Light Rail and Let’s get Wellington moving.
- Suspended the preparartion of Regulatory Impact Analyses for some of its proposals so that proper analysis of its proposals did not happen.
- Advanced work on Act’s Dog Whistle Treaty Principles Bill.
- Had Shane Jones claim that the previous Government’s approach to climate change was hysterical, that mining of the DoC estate including Stewardship land would be fast tracked and that “if there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy“.
- Made gas guzzling utes and large vehicles cheaper thereby undermining the previous Government’s attempt to make the country’s vehicle fleet more sustainable. The number of EVs entering the fleet has subsequently plummeted.
- Released a draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport that did not have climate change as a priority consideration.
- Stopped work on policies that would provide transport alternatives to private cars.
- Started work to justify the gutting of Kainga Ora and the wind back of the provision of social housing by the state.
- Planned to increase sanctions against beneficiaries despite there being no evidence that they work.
- Announced a review of gun laws which may increase the number of semi automatic weapons in the country.
- Required teachers to return to the halcyon days of the 1950s by requiring them to teach reading and writing, something they do anyway.
- Brought back Pseudoephedrine. The gangs are rejoicing.
- Gave Shane Jones a $1.2 billion slush fund also known as the Regional Infrastructure Fund.
- Offered the Police less than Labour had previously during wage negotiations, an offer described as an insult and a joke.
- Started work on resuming block offers for offshore oil drilling at a time where any serious climate scientist says we have to leave undiscovered oil in the ground.
- Stood by and did nothing as the media sector was decimated.
- Planned to cut significantly into the budget for free school lunches despite these being a very effective way of assisting families with cost of living pressures and positively contributing to attendance and academic performance.
- Proposed shutting the Suicide Prevention Office.
- Had the Minister walk back the proposed shutting of the Suicide Prevention Office. And I thought Ministers were going to go through Ministry budgets line by line to cut waste.
- Reversed the ten year bright line test. First home buyers will now have to fight more landlords to buy homes.
- Underestimated the cost of the Landlord Tax cut by $800 million.
- Overestimated the tax raised by the Offshore Gambling Tax by $500 million.
- Diverted money needed to address climate change into tax cuts for landlords.
- Scrapped the groundbreaking Living in Aotearoa study which collected important data needed to measure child poverty.
- Told Te Papa to take down the defaced Treaty of Waitangi display even though the Minister has no power to direct the Museum on what it should display.
- Scrapped the proposal for a Sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands a proposal that actually started with John Key. According to Jones “[t]here’s far too much misinformation, and I’ve had to put up with green muckery over this issue. There is already a host of protective measures there.”
- Announced brutal cuts to the Ministry of Pacific People which may see the numbers working there being slashed by 40%. I guess this is not surprising when you remember that before the election David Seymour threatened to blow the ministry up.
- Had an absolute melt down on the fact that Auckland University has a space for Māori and Pacific students. Winston Peters claimed rather bizarrely that having the spaces was comparable to the Klu Klux Klan. Not to be out done David Seymour claimed that the spaces were segregationist.
- Simeon Brown extending his tacky little culture war on cycleways by extending the attack to public transport with proposals that will increase the cost of living for all users of public transport.
- Imposed retrospectively compulsory referenda on Councils that had exercised their right to decide what shape their electoral system took but only if they established Māori wards.
- Announced savage cuts to disability payments that sent the sector into turmoil and then walking back the news because the Ministry had done an “inadequate job in conveying changes to disabled people’s funding”.
- Introduced legislation that would give Shane Jones, Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop unprecedented powers to grant consents for things such as mining in Doc land and not including the list of projects in the draft bill released for consultation.
- Suffered a number of leaks of sensitive Cabinet Papers.
Is that enough? Let me know if I have missed anything in the comments.
And if you have had enough get involved. Join your union. Join Labour. Join the Greens or Te Pati Māori .
National, after years of being that conservative yet quite respectable relative at family gatherings, have become the xenophobic drunk waxing lyrical about things most are horrified by.
Here might be something better to wax lyrical about instead.
For more on the proposal to shut the Suicide Prevention Office, see yesterday evening's one news – first item:
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/one-news-at-6pm/episodes/s2024-e97
So the ministries are being forced to take all the blame for the “confusion” around decision making? I smell a smokescreen around ministerial bungling and incompetency in carrying out their functions.
They tried to do the same with the Disability cuts. This is a pattern.
Yes and there will be more of them. That is inevitable. Someone needs to start a list of them as they happen for future use.
They don't know what they're doing.
Right. And the previous government did know what they were doing? What did they touch that didn't turn to cack? They handled the pandemic OK, but apart from that … How many ministers did they lose in embarrassing circumstances during their last year in office?
You mean they had the decency to resign for their errors of judgement, as opposed to the current administration which places no value on competence or integrity, and does not punish malfeasance but seeks to cover it up.
"They handled the pandemic OK, but apart from that …"
Hilarious!
That wee pandemic thingy; they done okay…I suppose…if I have to give them anything, BUT!!!
One of the things they are doing..is something the left should also do..
That is tell the punters what they will achieve/do in the upcoming quarter/three months…and into the future..and then having to deliver on those pledges..
(This is something the last gummint failed at)
..they didn't explain to us what they were doing..and so didn't take us with them…
In fact this could be taken to the degree of the left parties going into the next election campaign not only with a unified/coherent voice/policy-planks…but with a timetable for those policies to be enacted..
For the left to win they must do this…so the voters know exactly what they are voting for..and when they can expect those promised changes to happen…
Its not so much they didn't explain, but rather their explanations were too long and too academic in nature. Labour governments going back decades have tended to over estimate the ability of the average voter to absorb complex policy proposals.
Helen Clark understood this, and she boiled down her election pledges at one election to 5 or 6 simple one liners that hit the bullseye. Think it was the 2002 election. That was going to the other extreme of course but it worked.
I agree totally with this. I am not sure who was doing their Comms around Three Waters in particular I suspect those in the policy management mould. With the greatest respect to my former fellow colleagues Policy people are not skilled communicators. They are two different disciplines.
I know when I mentioned, on here, my experience in the nexus between Policy & Communication and the advice we were given to aim for the comprehension of a pre secondary school reader I was slammed a little.
The other good way is to listen to how someone who knows the topic explains it verbally to say pre secondary schoolers. Often these explanations can be worked up into press releases/explanations.
Another thing to do is to pretend that you are at a public meeting, what questions are asked? Then go through any material to make sure these questions are answered within the release.
Looking at the huge rises in our rates (16.4% in Wgtn) because of water related issues, I rue the fact we don't have 3 Waters and that Labour did not seem to follow basic best practice comms in getting buy-in on this flagship work.
One possible approach is to meet somewhere in the middle where top-down and bottom-up deliberation through extensive consultation synthesises explanations and policy proposals that can be understood by most people if they want to.
Here’s just one illustrative example of what might be achieved: https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/04/05/chosen-aucklanders-change-minds-in-favour-of-time-of-use-charging/
Yes we did similar many moons ago when I was in one of the better iterations of the health reforms.
We found that we needed time so staff in time-,staff- and cost- cut depts may not be able to do this.
We also found that we needed to confidence build in those that we wanted bottom up from.
It worked.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/labour-to-campaign-with-pledge-cards/MYXBAG2DO7QB7Y2WR264J5VUXQ/
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/national-launch-campaign-eight-point-pledge-card
Its not so much they didn't explain, but rather their explanations were too long and too academic in nature.
This is Labour's problem in a nutshell.
There is a level of intellectual snobbery in the top ranks. And they want 5 page discussion documents instead of three bullet points.
Absolutely. Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene II is a perfect demonstration. Brutus gives a closely-reasoned academic analysis of why he and his band believed it necessary to assassinate JC. Antony responds with a shameless appeal to the emotions and baser instincts of his audience. And who wins out?
Intellectual snobbery? Then you get "Labour didn't explain it well enough". I hope you are taking your point to the policy discussions going on. If you can three dot points out of members having a say, well done.
What I hope our lot don't do when they get back in in 2026 is to embark on the tiresome refrain of 'we're doing this because they did it'.
I hope we don't have 3 monthly or 100 days of nasty creepy OTT stuff over innovations that may have been good for NZ, their constituencies, included
What I hope they will do is to look carefully at whatever has been put in place from the point of view that it may not have been exactly what we would have done but it does benefit the wider group of people of NZ. (I know hard to imagine but I am sure over the next few years by luck there may be something) This concept is called 'throwing the baby out with the bathwater'.
What I hope they will do is to get some quick hit runs on the board of innovative/creative ideas.
These ideas are put forward on the basis that not everything done by a group or person is bad
We should not be bad mouthing those who went before, especially as they were elected by NZers. This based on comms theory that it is a reputational loss making venture to do what the Nats are doing and bad mouthing those who went before all the time. It makes them look petty.
The comms theory is that we shouldn't do this as these people were responding to a different set of drivers ie the beat of a different drum.
We should be concentrating on signalling a way forward and then giving priority to the actions that will effect positive change.
Taking to the Nats I know, don't know any ACT followers, there is a sort of sighing at the level of pettiness of some of the actions (like the Maori names for Depts, the allowance for translator type expertise in Te Reo, the bald slashing of PS budgets like the sinking lids of old)
The Nats seem to think the cuts are like a household budget where some use the mantra of 'look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves'. We are a million miles away from running a country as if it was a household budget or we should be.
"That is tell the punters what they will achieve/do in the upcoming quarter/three months…and into the future..and then having to deliver on those pledges.."
Nah. They're bullshi**ing.
The Left shouldn't adopt the Right's cynical, misleading strategies, or they'll become … the Right!
Agree with this.
I find it OTT and creepy and worrying at the same time. Worrying because in many cases they've ruled by fiat without genuine select committee submissions /hearings etc.
The excuse for doing this is that it was in the manifesto or the coalition agreement.
This fact has never stopped Govts in the past from seeking submissions etc on the basis of democracy etc. Also the reason the one that depts found great, and that was that some submissions would present a new way of thinking about legislation or a better way of expressing it. Thus reinforcing that Govt, Ministers & departments are not the sole repositories of knowledge
Most of which, while arousing hatred in the political opposition, goes down rather well with their core constituency.
What will be interesting is to see if/when their policies start to impact on their voters.
"It's the economy, stupid" – is just as important between elections as it is in an election year.
Whose economy?
The one the individual concerned is experiencing…..
"It is the economy stupid" if you believe all these destructive Policies and unexpected moves are to improve the economy then I have a bridge to sell you.
"It is about power and wealth, not the country's health.
Agree with both Belladonna and Patricia.
Also lowering farmers' methane target by end of year, completely sidelining the Climate Commission despite its statutory role.
Announcement yesterday.
Could they do this to other departments with a statutory role?
Can the Govt/Ministers be taken to court?
Well firstly it's not illegal for a government to go advice shopping. Climate Commission advice isn't binding.
Even if they'd done something illegal, there's no that many NGOs would have the capacity. Maybe: Lawyers for Climate Action, Greenpeace, and Forest and Bird's legal team. It would need a good coalition to win that's for sure.
Pretty impressive list… at least if you were a Nat NZ1st or Act voter / donor.
Cant say they havent been effective.
Yea, if you want to see who they owe their allegiance and funding too, then it's pretty clear.
Effective for the top 5% Crickle, and negative for the rest of us. Except even the top 5% will be affected as the planet burns.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/06/simply-mind-boggling-world-record-temperature-jump-in-antarctic-raises-fears-of-catastrophe
Micky’s excellent post illustrates that this Coalition of Cuts is trying to do too much too quickly, and many of the things it is doing are not widely popular. This is a recipe for disaster and for a one term government.
Dunno, i'm thinking theyre moving fast with the unpopular stuff so it'll be forgotten by the time the next election rolls around. Helped by a bunch of populist policy and lollies targeted at the middle class and gold card holders.
I don't think people will have forgotten the 352 school building projects being put on hold by this government. For instance this one in Alexandra.
https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/central-otago/%E2%80%98devastated%E2%80%99-after-build-paused
"Devastated." That is how Alexandra Primary School principal Fi Mackley described the school community’s reaction to the decision to put two property projects under review — just weeks before they were due to start……Data released by the Ministry of Education to RNZ last week shows 352 building projects across 305 schools around the country are on hold as they are reviewed for "value for money".
What those schools / hospitals / ferry terminals need is a canny landLord
What I’m learning from this CoC is when Labour/Green/TPM get back in power just go for it. Make sure policy is in place, and ram it through.
And David Spendmore running around moaning about government spending whilst wasting tax payers & rate payers money left right and centre
What annoys the hell out of me is that the Minister for Regulation hasn't taken a knife to the costs of Parliament.
He could:
Reduce MPs/Ministers salaries to the living wage.
Reduce Parliamentary services by 10%
Make Parliament sit 40 hours a week
Have Members pay for their own transport/accommodation
Why stop at Ministers' and MPs' salaries? Reduce the number of MPs! (Wasn't there a referendum one time, with a thumping majority in favour of doing just that?) And why don't we forget the absurd fiction that Cabinet has to number 20-odd? Everyone knows there's never any more than about 5-7 ministers who really matter.
Minimum wage etc always sounds good, but you do know it means only the well off could ever become MPs? If you want the rich dominating, that's the way to go about it. And perhaps you don't realise, but Parliamentary Services includes cleaners who get the living wage, thanks to Labour. More importantly, did you realise that Ministerial positions are now up to 25% of our entire parliament – with multiple associate ministers and new Ministries/Ministers in things such as Guns, Space Minister, Hunting and Fishing Minister? And a whole new Ministry for Mr Seymou's baby for Regulations?
I'm curious. How many hours do you think MPs work now?
That's not what I said. We all know that they claim to put in many many hours "work" outside sitting time but their sole focus should be in the House
Why?
Select committee is where the most important work is completed
"Reduce MPs/Ministers salaries to the living wage."
100% in my opinion our MP's get paid far too much. I think it's gotten so high that you start to get people attracted to the job for the high pay as a major consideration.
I would make it equivalent to the median wage though. That way it is clearly transparent to everybody and it also gives MP's a great helpful incentive for increasing the median wage.
This may also help in starting to get parliament looking more representative of the population it is supposed to represent.
This government is proceeding exactly how we knew it would.
Luxon is the public smile and wave front man, the power behind the scenes is Seymour and Peters.
A weak National Party bereft of ideas and solutions themselves, but beholden to the directions of rich urban yuppy corporates and ranting conspiracy theorists.
If Seymour had as much power as you're suggesting, and if Luxon were merely a frontman, we would be facing a referendum on treaty principles, and the demographic ministries would be gone – not just trimmed. What we're seeing is the result of agreements negotiated between the three parties in government. Peters has pandered to the anti-vax lobby, but the current government is hardly "beholden" to covid conspiracy theorists.
No, they're not. They're beholden to life-destroying industries.
Much better, I'm sure you'll agree.
Time will tell. A national MP once wanted to ban water.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mp-tries-to-ban-water/XM4GJ7XG3WC4ANBIFP2IVFNANE/
And there's lots of conspiracy theories other than COVID-19.
Taking our guns, handing the country over to Maori, 15 minutes cities, cashless society, government surveillance through facial recognition, chemtrails, flat earth, child sex rings, earth is only 6,000 years old, the rapture is coming…..
Help me, Jesus!
The algorithms are at it again. Mention the rapture in this post and what appears in my feed.
Fuck didn't realise it was tomorrow. I haven't even packed.
I haven't finished that netflix series..
Now I'll never know..
(ahem..!)..
I put the 'ure' into 'rapture'..
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/rapture
An oldie, but a goodie.
And so? You have evidence that Luxon, Seymour and/or Peters believe in "chemtrails, flat earth, child sex rings, earth is only 6,000 years old, the rapture is coming….."?
Forgot to mention trickle down economics.
@dolo.. correct me if I am wrong..
But my understanding is that luxon is part of a fundamentalist religion..
..that pretty much has bags permanently packed..
…in anticipation of the rapture..
…and that believe that earth has had a much truncated existence…(which flies in the face of accepted sciences…)
N'est ce pas…?
It is indeed so, Phil.
Ad reminded me of Luxon's attendance at *The Upper Room.
*Not a place to which Gaia has been invited
In the tangled web of National politics and favours another member of his congregation is Ian Grant's daughter.
They of the 2.4 million dollars largesse for parenting courses. Still haven't seen an evaluation of them.
Paula Bennett’s Ministry of Social Development will pay $2.4 million to Parents Inc for “parenting courses for the caregivers of vulnerable children”. This contract was untendered and previously unknown.
https://thestandard.org.nz/parents-inc-its-peda-redux/
That doesn't smell…much..
They should ban protium hydroxide – it's well known to be capable of dissolving more stuff than any other solvent.
FWICS, the Nactzis are delivering to the people who matter to them – the very rich. Unlike Labour, the Nats and ACT don't even pretend to care about people outside their base. They do need votes from people who are not rich but that's what the culture wars are all about – a distraction and a diversion. NZ First is slightly different because their voters are getting shafted by the government their Party is propping up. But that's where the culture wars apply – it's easy to ignore the fact you're getting shafted if another group (Maori, Pasifika, people with disabilities) are getting a good kicking. So I think the Natczis are pretty safe where they are, not least because Labour is totally unfit for office and isn't taken seriously.
The thing is National isn't fit for office either.
I guess another thing is the back-breaking bureaucracy of getting the ECE rebate. If anything gives away that they have no idea about scale and still have small business mindsets then that is it.
They cancelled the much needed Interislander Ferry upgrades, when the project was already half completed, thereby burning a couple of billion, just for spite.
Our Minister of Regulation is planning to relax the rules for building materials, because he thinks another leaky homes disaster would be a laugh.
We can’t afford another leaky homes crisis | The Spinoff
Leaky homes was a design issue not a materials issue.
We’ve been getting absolutely ripped off in building materials prices and availability for decades so anything that may help to change this is welcome
Not entirely correct. 'Underdone' (treatment/drying-wise) framing materials were also part along with the no eaves design, no adequate sub flooring/ventilation/drainage.
They are getting rid of free vaccinations and Seymour wants more sick children to take their germs to school
Changes to free flu vaccine eligibility are a missed opportunity to close NZ’s health equity gap
Some long overdue upgrades to schools just got shitcanned too.
Rotting classrooms as Govt hits pause on school rebuilds (1news.co.nz)
Onslow Lake hydro project, future-proofing the nation's electricity supply – canned.
Back on Track
In a Cadillac
Passing urgent legislation, I'm a power pack
Yes, I'm in the NATs
With some twats
Helping landlords put cash in their vats
'Cause I'm back on track
Not just a management hack
Gonna hurt the poor, gonna give them a whack
So look at me now
Making the bottom half pay
Don't try to push your luck, just get out of my way