The 8-point personal pledge card released by Christopher Luxon reads like a Captain’s Call. We have had enough of ill-thought-out and ignorant ‘Captain’s Calls’ from the regime of the “be kind” patronising leader of the Labour Government and we surely do not want to go down that path once again. We have been treated like idiots for the past six years and we want a bit of substance behind the promises of the politicians hellbent on re-election.
The one word missing from seven of Luxon’s eight points is “by”.
How is he going to achieve these lofty goals?
“The card revealed at National’s election campaign promises a National Government would:
- Lower inflation and grow the economy
- Let you keep more of what you earn
- Build infrastructure
- Restore law & order
- Lift school achievement
- Cut health waiting times
- Support seniors
- Deliver Net Zero Carbon by 2050”
None of these points are more than pie-in-the-sky promises designed for feel-good votes. The books are yet to be opened so we can all see the reality of the terrible damage inflicted on our economy and our people, and so it is surely premature to make such generous and uncosted pledges, promises and undertakings. We have had enough of promises that cost taxpayers billions of dollars with nothing to see. Dollars that have vanished like the Cheshire cat, leaving behind just a smirk in the place of a smile. Promises that have been lies. We are held to ransom and we can do nothing – except pay more ransom on demand.
The Labour Government has failed every pledge and promise disguised as policy it made to its voters and the general public. Whichever metric you choose to measure their outputs and outcomes, there is none that will provide a positive and meaningful return on investment. A return measured against qualitative metrics as well as quantitative. A return on the investment of OUR money, not the government’s. They have none without us, the patient taxpayers waiting for hospital appointments, for police to protect us from ram-raiders and opportunistic theft and thugs armed with knives and guns, for our children to have an education that results in their being able to read and write and add 2 + 2 to get 4. To be able to see the demonstrable end of childhood poverty as the late and unlamented leader of the Labour Party exalted as the reason she entered politics. The reason she left politics was that she not only failed to end childhood poverty but had also destroyed the country and was finally unable to face members of the public. She has ridden off on the broomstick of her undeserved and unjustifiable damehood.
And now the National Party executive, its leader and presumably its marketing department all think it is an excellent idea for Mr Luxon to promise eight things to ensure we vote for him and his party. Well, think again all of you. How are you going to do this? Restore law and order by…? Build infrastructure by…? Support seniors by…? Etc.
And now he promises 10,000 EV charging stations, to be purchased and installed by the ICE taxpayer for the exclusive use of the EV luvvies who pay no RUC. It is yet another insult.
This election should now be National’s to win in a landslide, but polls are not showing that this will be the case. ACT is picking up support. NZ First is picking up support. National is losing support. That National finds itself in this position should, months ago, have led to a re-think by the executive of leadership, of election campaign strategy, of promises or pledges or ideas plucked from the air, call them as you will. They are nothing but smoke. In the absence of mirrors. How did the pledge card work out for Helen Clark? It’s not even original thinking and neither the leader nor the National Party seem to be able to read the room. We are sick and tired of broken promises.
Luxon brings a significant cringe factor with his promises and pledges and power trip – and that is another massive issue for the 10,000 charging stations by 2030 – just where is the increased power generation and the transmission and storage capacity to come from? And the health and safety issues that surround EVs and their charging. Are apartment dwellers with underground parking garages going to find themselves sitting atop a towering inferno when things go wrong? Very likely.
Luxon has stated that “National would do away with the need for resource consent because the installation of electric chargers will be a permitted activity […]”
Hardly reassuring.
And “Luxon said in line with a policy previously announced on renewable energy, National was committed to doubling the amount of renewable electricity produced to make it ‘abundant, cheap and freely available’”. (emphasis added) Freely available like more taxpayer dollars?
Consents for the likes of solar and wind farms will be approved within one year. (And when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow, then what?)
National Party transport spokeman [sic] Simeon Brown said the new policy will be given to the new national infrastructure agency to handle, red tape will be cut, the rollout of the chargers will be nationwide, and “will make a huge difference to New Zealand’s future”.
Watch: National Party will deliver 10,000 electric vehicle chargers by 2030, leader says | RNZ News
Forgive my scepticism. And my concern.
A pledge is not a policy.
How much tax is enough? For the Labour party whatever they take will never be enough to satisfy their insatiable hunger for more and more and more.
The National party is promising (that word again) to let us keep more of what we earn and to give pensioners $7.50 more a week. How those reliant on superannuation alone manage I have no idea. And they are to be grateful for $7.50 a week. A cup of coffee and a bite of a scone.
We continue to support those who have no wish or inclination to support themselves. A business I know had a recently-employed staff member leave without discussion or warning because “it was easier not to work”. And so, he is once again paid by our largesse to do absolutely nothing. A steady, reliable, non-demanding job for a conscientious employer paying over minimum wages. Wrong, just wrong. And before you pile on me and blame the employer – he is supportive, generous and a decent bloke. How is it that freeloaders are not required to help themselves and the country? A jobseeker allowance should be on the basis of the active seeking of a job – but it is not. There are jobs but there are not enough job seekers, with the result that we have to support the sofa-sitters and import labour. A shameful situation that has been encouraged and supported in a country that once had a number-eight-wire mentality and achieved and lived well.
The election cannot come quickly enough. How many sleeps to go?
But will we just get more of the same? That is the question.
