Reading two articles relating to the Budget in the Weekend Herald served to illustrate the different thought processes of the right and the left on matters of a political and economic nature.
One was by journalist Claire Trevett; the other by Steven Joyce, a man with a good dose of both political and economic acumen. Their reflections on the Budget could not have been more starkly different. One asserted it would soon be forgotten about; the other presented a measured look at what was proposed and the possible consequences. No prizes for guessing which was which.
Claire’s headline was ‘Much ado about nothingburger’ which straight up gives you the approach that she has taken to her article. She, by way of her headline, reflects the mantra of the left: nothing to see here, let’s move on. She says the budget will not be dwelt upon for long, or talked about in offices or on shop floors.
Steven’s headline read ‘What if Labour’s heroic assumptions don’t come true’. Immediately you think – here’s an article with some meat to it: The writer has done some digging into the nuts and bolts of what was or wasn’t announced. Here the stark contrast between the right and the left is illustrated. Policy making by the right is thought through with attention to its suitability and consequences.
As Steven points out, not content with just recovering from Covid-19, the government wants to completely re-engineer our economy. Claire either hadn’t grasped this major shift in economic direction or preferred just to gloss over it. It is something that will affect all parts of the economy. Perhaps Claire is under the misapprehension that at the last election people voted for Labour wanting a change in economic direction rather than for their handling of Covid-19. 80,000 people didn’t die after all.
Steven says it’s hard to see how the increasingly squeezed people in the middle will be prepared to put up with nothing, in the form of income tax relief for example, for another three whole years. He says these are the people on low and middle incomes who are doing the right thing by working hard to support their families, and who are at the sharp end of electricity price increases, rates rises and the like. They have been completely ignored in this Budget, in favour of those who don’t work or who are unable to do so.
Claire’s take is that, while Ardern promised those who had not voted Labour before that she would remember them, their wishes and desires have not been cast aside – simply put on hold. How kind! Claire, of course, would have used the exact same words if it had been a National Budget, wouldn’t she? Not very likely. According to Claire, the Budget has not made the lives or livelihoods of working New Zealanders any better. But nor did it leave them worse off. How kind!
Claire’s view was that while there was not much to celebrate there was also not anything to get angry about and that voters will have expected little from the Budget, so will not be feeling cheated.
Earth to Claire, Earth to Claire. Read Steven’s article and find out what is going on. Like the total re-engineering of our economy. Read his comments on the migration clampdown that will have significant effects on the labour market and businesses over the next several years.
You might also learn about a return to centralised wage bargaining which, as Steven notes, will also have a negative effect on investment and employment as they roll it out.
In Claire’s world, there’s nothing to worry about. She says Opposition parties have made much of the ‘battlers’ of New Zealand missing out but voters tend to bank budget gains or get over losses fairly quickly.
Chalk and cheese really, isn’t it. The person on the right, who is more than qualified to write on the subject, writes a measured and knowledgeable piece while the one on the left simply breezes along apparently either quite happy or blissfully ignorant of the dangers ahead.
She reminds me of the woman running the country. The hills are alive with the sound of music sort of stuff. Ah well, birds of a feather as they say.
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