Back on Track?
This was National’s campaign slogan last election and it is appropriate to consider how they are going in achieving what they promised.
They have been very busy, very very busy. With a 100 day plan and a recently announced three month plan they have been doing a lot of planning. But has it made the country a better place? And if so who for?
How about this list of the Government’s achievements so far. It has:
- Proposed that gang members be required to wear foundation when they go out into the public.
- Proposed more lung cancer so that landlords can get a tax cut.
- Planned to cut tobacco excise duty.
- Delayed changes to vape rules in a move that allowed Phillip Morris to get rid of its excess stock.
- Abandoned the promised Working for Families abatement adjustment so that landlords can get a tax cut.
- Cut fair pay agreements even though they were warned the removal would disproportionately impact women, Māori and Pasifika and young people.
- Ordered a pathetic increase in the minimum wage, well below the rate of inflation thereby giving minimum wage earners a wage cut. Brooke Van Velden wanted it to be even less than Cabinet agreed to.
- Attacked the use of Te Reo by the public service by europeanising Ministry names and stopping payments for Public Servants gaining proficiency in Te Reo.
- Scrapped the Māori Health Authority using urgency.
- Acted to remove references to Te Tiriti from laws including the Oranga Tamariki Act;
- Insulted Ratana.
- Cancelled Three Waters on spurious racist grounds and caused Councils to have to plan for significant rates increases to pay for necessary upgrades. And relaxed consultation and audit requirements for Councils so they basically do not have to talk about how much they may have to put rates.
- Implemented $7.4 billion of cuts and savings many affecting core services.
- Gleefully announced thousands of public service job cuts just before Christmas.
- Raised the prospect of hospitals and schools and roads being built using PPPs.
- Introduced 90 day fire at will legislation for all companies under urgency just in time for Christmas.
- Wound back RMA reforms and gave the Minister extraordinary powers to rewrite planning documents.
- Cut funding for cultural reports despite the important role they play in determining what is a just sentence for an offender.
- Repealed under urgency the Tax Principles Reporting Act so that IRD no longer had to report to us on how our tax system is functioning and if rich people are paying a fair amount of tax. Interestingly this urgent action did not appear in any of the coalition agreements or in the Government’s 100 day plan.
- Proposed making English an Official Language, as if it wasn’t.
- United Māori in a way not seen before while at the same time insulting Kiingi Tuuheitia.
- Increased congestion by starving Auckland of necessary funds through the Regional Fuel Tax.
- Increase unemployment by changing the Reserve Bank’s focus on inflation and employment to one of inflation only.
- Stopped blanket speed restrictions and decreased safety.
- Canned Auckland Light Rail and Let’s get Wellington moving.
- Suspended the preparartion of Regulatory Impact Analyses for some of its proposals so that proper analysis of its proposals did not happen.
- Advanced work on Act’s Dog Whistle Treaty Principles Bill.
- Had Shane Jones claim that the previous Government’s approach to climate change was hysterical, that mining of the DoC estate including Stewardship land would be fast tracked and that “if there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy“.
- Made gas guzzling utes and large vehicles cheaper thereby undermining the previous Government’s attempt to make the country’s vehicle fleet more sustainable. The number of EVs entering the fleet has subsequently plummeted.
- Released a draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport that did not have climate change as a priority consideration.
- Stopped work on policies that would provide transport alternatives to private cars.
- Started work to justify the gutting of Kainga Ora and the wind back of the provision of social housing by the state.
- Planned to increase sanctions against beneficiaries despite there being no evidence that they work.
- Announced a review of gun laws which may increase the number of semi automatic weapons in the country.
- Required teachers to return to the halcyon days of the 1950s by requiring them to teach reading and writing, something they do anyway.
- Brought back Pseudoephedrine. The gangs are rejoicing.
- Gave Shane Jones a $1.2 billion slush fund also known as the Regional Infrastructure Fund.
- Offered the Police less than Labour had previously during wage negotiations, an offer described as an insult and a joke.
- Started work on resuming block offers for offshore oil drilling at a time where any serious climate scientist says we have to leave undiscovered oil in the ground.
- Stood by and did nothing as the media sector was decimated.
- Planned to cut significantly into the budget for free school lunches despite these being a very effective way of assisting families with cost of living pressures and positively contributing to attendance and academic performance.
- Proposed shutting the Suicide Prevention Office.
- Had the Minister walk back the proposed shutting of the Suicide Prevention Office. And I thought Ministers were going to go through Ministry budgets line by line to cut waste.
- Reversed the ten year bright line test. First home buyers will now have to fight more landlords to buy homes.
- Underestimated the cost of the Landlord Tax cut by $800 million.
- Overestimated the tax raised by the Offshore Gambling Tax by $500 million.
- Diverted money needed to address climate change into tax cuts for landlords.
- Scrapped the groundbreaking Living in Aotearoa study which collected important data needed to measure child poverty.
- Told Te Papa to take down the defaced Treaty of Waitangi display even though the Minister has no power to direct the Museum on what it should display.
- Scrapped the proposal for a Sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands a proposal that actually started with John Key. According to Jones “[t]here’s far too much misinformation, and I’ve had to put up with green muckery over this issue. There is already a host of protective measures there.”
- Announced brutal cuts to the Ministry of Pacific People which may see the numbers working there being slashed by 40%. I guess this is not surprising when you remember that before the election David Seymour threatened to blow the ministry up.
- Had an absolute melt down on the fact that Auckland University has a space for Māori and Pacific students. Winston Peters claimed rather bizarrely that having the spaces was comparable to the Klu Klux Klan. Not to be out done David Seymour claimed that the spaces were segregationist.
- Simeon Brown extending his tacky little culture war on cycleways by extending the attack to public transport with proposals that will increase the cost of living for all users of public transport.
- Imposed retrospectively compulsory referenda on Councils that had exercised their right to decide what shape their electoral system took but only if they established Māori wards.
- Announced savage cuts to disability payments that sent the sector into turmoil and then walking back the news because the Ministry had done an “inadequate job in conveying changes to disabled people’s funding”.
- Introduced legislation that would give Shane Jones, Simeon Brown and Chris Bishop unprecedented powers to grant consents for things such as mining in Doc land and not including the list of projects in the draft bill released for consultation.
- Suffered a number of leaks of sensitive Cabinet Papers.
Is that enough? Let me know if I have missed anything in the comments.
And if you have had enough get involved. Join your union. Join Labour. Join the Greens or Te Pati Māori .