On Sunday evening following Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation speech I browsed the comments on Backchat. Most were fixated on his announcement of a childcare rebate, calling it a policy more suited to Labour. On that point, it’s hard to disagree. However, following a comment from Carmel Sepuloni it’s doubtful they’ll be introducing it. She, not unsurprisingly, wondered how it was going to be funded. There’s an easy answer to that.
Elections today are won in the middle ground. I wish they weren’t but they are. The middle ground is the home of the swinging voter. They are the ones who decide an election, not those of us who comment on the BFD. If we accept that as a bottom line then Luxon was absolutely right to come out with this policy. It has the potential to capture a lot of swinging voters.
Even if we are politically against the policy – I for one am not – we need to admit that it is these types of policies that win elections. At the end of the day the bottom line is: do we want a right or a left-wing government in power. I can hear the cries now of ‘‘there’s no difference’’. There is in the bigger picture. National always wins on who are better managers of the economy.
If you don’t want Three Waters, if you don’t want centralisation of things like Health, if you don’t want a bloated public service, if you don’t want able-bodied people being paid a benefit not to work, if you don’t want wasteful spending, if you don’t want light rail, if you want improvements in roading and law and order, if you’re not happy that nearly half the children aren’t at school, among other things, then you can only vote either National or Act.
There are times when concessions have to be made in order to win the end game. I feel the concession of a childcare rebate will resonate with a fair slice of the swinging voters. A lot of those people will appreciate what is on offer. There is more than enough in Labour’s wasteful spending to fund it. Socialism it might be but those of us who disagree with it in principle will, at the same time, have to recognise it’s these sorts of policies that now determine the outcome of an election.
I predict this isn’t the last of policies of this sort that National will announce between now and the election. These are dead rats if you like we will have to swallow and then hold our nose at the polling booth. The country cannot afford three more years of ineptness and inaction. Those devastated by recent weather events will be hoping for a government that, as Luxon says, “get things done”.
