Audrey Young writing in the weekend newspaper headlined her article – “Ardern’s AAA team has one member – and a vital one.” Grant Robertson is the vital one and her article discusses what he has done and what he has to do. Unfortunately, Audrey misses the point – and a vital one. Vital to the extent that had the point been attended to, she probably would be writing a completely different article.
The vital point she misses is what the Government missed, which was the opportunity to close the borders early. Had this happened, the Government and the country might not be in the economic mess we are currently in. Robertson said the compressed time-frames the Government is working under have meant that what might have taken a month took a week, what took a week took a day and what took a day took an hour.
Well there’s an admission! Why should it take a crisis of such magnitude to get these overpaid Ministers to get their posteriors out of first gear? Why can’t they work at this speed in normal times?
But back to Audrey’s article. It says that as a close friend and mentor, Finance Minister, and confidante to Ardern, Robertson has been an integral part of her political career at every step of the way. The nearest Robertson has got to finance previously was managing the New Zealand aid programme to Samoa at MFAT. Hardly the required experience for a Minister of Finance. That makes him about as much use to Jacinda as Finance Minister as her cabbage leaves were when learning to wrap the fish and chips.
Audrey would disagree. She says his record, from his three years of meticulous preparation in Opposition to his two years in the job, is eroding the accepted wisdom that National are always better economic managers. It’s a shame you didn’t supply the proof for that statement Audrey. According to Audrey, with each passing month in the job, his incumbency is a growing advantage. In terms of length Audrey maybe, but not in terms of increased ability. Audrey says that the COVID-19 crisis has compounded his advantage but nothing could have prepared him for it. Unfortunately, to our cost, we are finding that to be true.
Increasing the minimum wage was dumb, as indeed was increasing the welfare payments. Also, he needs to answer for the initial inefficient targeting of aid monies. Because of his and Jacinda’s inaction at the start, he now has to present a very different budget. Gone is the well-being nonsense. He now has to focus on the deficits that he has inflicted on the economy. Audrey says that, in the short term, rising deficits and debt won’t be a problem for Robertson. The public expects it. I’m not so sure Audrey. A lot of this pain could have been avoided had they not prevaricated early on.
Audrey mentions that during the COVID-19 crisis, they have been more joined at the hip than ever. They are both across every aspect of the pandemic and nothing gets done unless it is agreed on by both of them. If the leader accidentally fell under a bus, it would unquestionably be Robertson who would take over. You’d just have to hope it wasn’t Grant’s husband who was driving it.
It would appear to be the blind leading the blind. That is a frightening thought.
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