Those who vote for a government have every right to expect it to carry out what it campaigned on, certainly its main policy planks. In the past there has been no end of criticism of governments who have failed to do so or, worse, have done something entirely different.
This government is to be congratulated on its first hundred days during which it has implemented most of what it campaigned on. Much of it repealing Labour’s legislation designed to hold the country back. Legislation to implement the present government’s agenda is being worked on at pace.
After six years of endless talk and little walk from Labour this course of action is much appreciated. This government was voted in to get the country moving, hence the policy around the ‘roads of national significance’. The other policy of national significance people voted for was tax cuts. These are something National are determined to deliver, despite the fiscal hole pointed out by Winston. It was an election promise and National is not of a mind to resile from it, nor should it.
This has got the left, and indeed some commentators on the right, in a bit of a lather. Last Tuesday afternoon two emails arrived in my inbox, both from commentators on the left. The first from Bryce Edwards headlined: Why Nicola Willis Needs to Resign. This was based on her pledge while campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget and it’s seeming less and less likely that, given the economic position she inherited, she will be able to do so, resulting in a broken promise to the electorate which in itself could be enormously costly politically. He suggests one way to mitigate it would be for her to fall on her sword. But then – who is to replace her?
About three hours later the second one arrived. It was from someone on the left I do have some time for; Chris Trotter. His headline read: “National’s governing for (crony) capitalists – not capitalism”.
He was bemoaning the fact that National was not interested in the poor end of town: WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off?
Forgive me for thinking that’s exactly what the tax cuts were designed to do, put more money in hard-working families’ back pockets.
I was left in a state of some amusement that two emails from the same side of the political pond had arrived within hours of each other with essentially opposing views. No doubt Bryce and Chris will argue that is not the case. Regardless of their opinions, it is a fact that the only answer the left side of politics has to economic woes is to raise taxes.
It is interesting to note that the UK Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Nicola Willis are on the same page regarding tax cuts and, indeed, the two governments are similar when it comes to broad economic policy. Writing in the International Express Leo McKinstry quoted from the Chancellor’s recent budget speech where he said, “We need a more productive state, not a bigger state.”
McKinstry went on to write: “those wise words puncture the vast hot air balloon of indignation and sentimentality that hangs over the debate about the public sector in modern Britain, where the effectiveness of a service is held to be completely dependent on the level of funding it receives”.
He writes that despite the gargantuan sum of almost £1.2 trillion spent on the state sector, public needs are not being met. Hunt argues a key part of the explanation for this lies in low productivity due to weak management, lack of innovation, outdated working practices, bureaucratic structures and a remorseless focus on procedures rather than outcomes. Jeremy Hunt could well have been talking about New Zealand after six years of a completely hopeless Labour Government.
Now, speaking to the likes of Bryce, Chris, Matthew Hooton, those sitting in the high towers of academia and the left wing in the MSM who have the cheek to call themselves journalists, this is the hole this government is trying to get us out of.
Low productivity, excessive red tape, and all those other things Hunt mentioned are wrong in Britain and holding it back, are the same things holding this country back. We are in a malaise brought on by six years of inertia from a Labour (apology for a) Government.
This is what Luxon, Seymour, Peters, Willis and Jones are referring to when they say they are a government that wants to get things done. The left appear bewildered, confused and predictably critical because this is not how they operate. No fast-tracking with them. It’s talkfests, working groups, consultants, iwis in charge; anything and everything designed to halt the productivity and growth the country needs.
Now it’s mining, oil and gas exploration, innovation, economic reform including tax cuts, anything and everything that will show we are indeed open for business.
Where necessary, legislation will be fast-tracked even at the expense of frogs, snails and dolphins. This is what people voted for and this is what they expect. There is sufficient economic nous on the government side of the House to achieve this while at the same time dealing with the financial mess they have inherited.
This is in sharp contrast to the triumvirate of the left.
This country is sorely in need of a kick in the posterior and with this government, it will most likely get it.
It can’t come too soon.
