100 days of chaos

• mickysavage
• 5 months ago
• Categories: act, auckland supercity, climate change, employment, national, nz first, science, unemployment

So National has released its 100 day action plan.  In an effort to address what it says is an underperforming economy and a cost of living crisis it will do a number of things.

It will:

• Increase congestion by starving Auckland of necessary funds through the Regional Fuel Tax.
• Make workers poorer in the long term by repealing the Fair Pay Agreement legislation.
• Make rents cheaper by giving retrospective tax cuts to landlords.  Yep that makes as much sense as it did the first time you read it.  Why would a landlord would cut rents after being given some extra money?  Market forces will again rule and the market will decide rents in the vast majority of cases.
• Increase unemployment by changing the Reserve Bank’s focus on inflation and employment to one of inflation only.
• Stop blanket speed restrictions.  Going slow must make you poor somehow.
• Can Auckland Light Rail and Let’s get Wellington moving.
• Make gas guzzling utes and large vehicles cheaper thereby undermining the previous Government’s attempt to make the country’s vehicle fleet more sustainable.

The only item that will contribute positively to the cost of living, at least for Aucklanders, is removal of the regional fuel tax.  But this will mean that there will be a significant hold in the budget needed to achieve goals that have been agreed to previously by the Government and Auckland Council.  And the effect will be minimal except for those who drive a great deal.

The rest of the list feels like something a group of angry old men who had been in a pub for too long would come up with.

The bullet points cut this, prevent that and roll back sophisticated reforms created over a long period of time.

Teachers get a slap down.  All they have to do is return to the halcyon days of the 1950s and use teaching techniques from then and everything will be fine.

And the financial crisis does not prevent the Government from establishing a billion dollar slush fund for Shane Jones to tour the country seeking political relevance by splashing the cash around.

The next hundred days will be rough.  Nicola Willis will show her complete lack of understanding of how Government finances work by claiming that the Government’s books are in bad shape and there are nasty financial surprises.  And this will give them justification for deeper cuts to be made.

The rhetoric about economic conditions is strong.  But I cannot see how any of the headline announced policies will help.