Good work by Parker

Written By: - Date published: 9:34 am, August 25th, 2012 - 25 comments
Categories: david parker, economy, labour, national - Tags: , ,

David Parker got stuck in to the Nats’ lack of economic record last week. He has abundant material to work with of course, but he did a good job of it too:

Parker gives National’s economic policies a ‘fail’

Labour finance spokesman David Parker yesterday produced what he called a “road test” on National’s economic policies and gave it a”fail.” He argued that Labour had more substantial policy alternatives to National’s”micro interventions.”

Mr Parker said National had failed to close the wage gap with Australia; to create more jobs, to lift wages, to have 40 per cent of the NZ Super Fund invested in New Zealand, the reduce income equality, and to build a more prosperous and ambitious New Zealand.

“Instead of trying to complete its goal, this Government abandons them and creates new ones,” Mr Parker said. He said laundry lists are not strategy, citing Naitonal’s “120-point action plan;” 10-point better public services results target,” and the 11-point “Key commitments to you.”

Parker produced a 30 page report which is here (pdf). It is economically written, well presented, and well researched. It is packed full of quotes that damn National’s economic management out of their own mouths, with facts and figures, and with effective graphs. Everyone should read it.

But the report is not just a condemnation of National. It concludes with an outline of Labour’s alternative:


LABOUR’S SOLUTIONS
• Pro-growth tax reform.
• Changing tax incentives in the economy to promote growth in exports, with a capital gains tax and R&D tax credits.
• Growing our heartland, high-value manufacturing, processing
• A new vision for skills, education and training so that New Zealanders can take advantage of the job opportunities of a 21st century economy.
• Investing more in innovation and science.
• Modernising monetary policy. Labour remains totally committed to Reserve Bank independence, and the control of inflation.
• Saving more.
• Universal KiwiSaver.
• Tighter controls on foreign purchases of productive farm land and infrastructure.
• Prudent decisions about looming fiscal pressures, including age of eligibility for superannuation.
• Changing Gear – a new economy and a fairer society: labour.org.nz/news/changinggear

It will be good to see Labour put some flesh on those bones as the next election approaches. But for now, this was good work from David Parker.

25 comments on “Good work by Parker ”

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  1. Raymond A Francis 1
    25 August 2012 at 11:48 am

    As you say tons of material to work with especially if you ignore what is happening to the rest of the world
    I understand why Labour is not keen to “put some flesh on those bones” because that will allow the Right to gizump them but really they just read as more of the same except for capital gains tax and raising age of eligibility for superannuation.
    Neither of those were winner last time even though both ae going to be needed if NZ is to prosper

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      25 August 2012 at 12:05 pm

      As you say tons of material to work with especially if you ignore what is happening to the rest of the world

      That’s what worries me about Labour’s list. It reads as if the GFC and subsequent Great Global Recession hasn’t happened and is still ongoing. It reads as if setting up various ‘market incentives’ are going to deliver what NZ needs to prosper in this new environment. Economic retrenching in both Australia and China, plus the fact that the rest of the world is printing money like its going out of fashion, is really going to hit NZ hard.

      • Draco T Bastard 1.1.1
        25 August 2012 at 1:41 pm

        +1

        The BAU of the last century is no longer possible and making plans as if it is is in complete denial of reality.

  2. Bill 2
    25 August 2012 at 12:08 pm

    So Parker and ‘Labour’ still believe in export driven growth? And remain “totally committed to Reserve Bank independence”? (How the fuck does that square with ‘modernising monetary policy?)

    So ‘Labour’ are saying, quite simply, that they have learned no lessons whatsoever from 30 odd years of neo-liberalism. And they somehow think they’ll achieve an electoral ‘big thumbs up’ for a proposition that would be a ‘Labour’ managed Structural Adjustment Programme term of government…fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck

    Seriously and angrily dumbfounded that they have the sheer fucking nerve to contemplate this ‘same old, same old’ clap trap.

    Good work, my arse!

  3. Draco T Bastard 3
    25 August 2012 at 1:39 pm

    I’m still reading the PDF put out by Parker but this bit caught my eye:

    As the ANZ has said, these figures mean our economy is moving into the danger zone. It commented, “Our high investment income deficit and external debt underscore the need to lift nationwide saving.”

    The problem of which is our debt based monetary system. Saving actually reduces the money in circulation which will reduce GDP giving negative ‘growth’. This shows, quite clearly, that neither Parker nor the ANZ understand the present economy or they’re lying about it.

    • Colonial Viper 3.1
      25 August 2012 at 1:48 pm

      +1

      Broadly increased savings by individuals means decreased spending into local communities = economic slow down.

      • Bored 3.1.1
        26 August 2012 at 8:32 am

        Bill, Draco, CV, need I say anything more but just echo your comments? + a lot.

      • Richard McGrath 3.1.2
        26 August 2012 at 2:22 pm

        “Broadly increased savings by individuals means decreased spending into local communities = economic slow down.”

        So you’re saying that money invested in building societies, banks, credit unions and suchlike is like money hidden under the mattress?

        • Draco T Bastard 3.1.2.1
          26 August 2012 at 2:34 pm

          “Saving” for most people is actually “not spending”. So, even though a few people are putting more in the bank the majority of people aren’t taking out new loans to increase the money in circulation. The decrease in spending also affects business because they can’t justify taking loans as business decreases due to people not spending.

          And then there’s the fact that the banks print money so, in a very real sense, having money in the bank ATM is equivalent to having money stuffed under a mattress.

        • Colonial Viper 3.1.2.2
          26 August 2012 at 2:37 pm

          So you’re saying that money invested in building societies, banks, credit unions and suchlike is like money hidden under the mattress?

          Firstly, lets agree that the big 4 trading banks have over 95% of the market sewn up. Credit unions etc barely register on the scale.

          And yes, it is definitely money taken out of the circulation of the local community. And the only way it comes back is if the bank lends that money back into the community, taking as it does so interest and fees.

          That’s how ANZ-National is going to make a well over $1B profit this financial year.

    • muzza 3.2
      25 August 2012 at 4:01 pm

      Yeah, and until one of our politicians begins to speak in public about such realities, then you take crap like this from Parker, and use it like the toilet paper it is!

      Parker: Exit stage right!

  4. bad12 4
    25 August 2012 at 3:00 pm

    That inspires me not to the extent that i cannot even raise the energy to offer a criticism…

    • Colonial Viper 4.1
      25 August 2012 at 3:02 pm

      That’s quite a sentence construction

      • bad12 4.1.1
        25 August 2012 at 3:10 pm

        Yeah i manage to grind em out on occasion, needs, in my opinion, a comma after the word not to facilitate it’s perusal and comprehension…

  5. TighyRighty 5
    25 August 2012 at 3:28 pm

    I knew this was parker mouthing more bullshit policy promises that labour won’t honour post election, should they win (More likely though they’ll uturn per-election), with the announcement labour will save more. Lies, the lot of it.

    • Colonial Viper 5.1
      25 August 2012 at 3:36 pm

      more bullshit policy promises that labour won’t honour post election, should they win (More likely though they’ll uturn per-election)

      If they u-turn before the election and then stick to it, won’t they be effectively honouring their promises post-election?

  6. Draco T Bastard 6
    25 August 2012 at 3:35 pm

    After spending a couple of pages telling us that Nationals bullet points aren’t a plan Parker gives us – more bullet points.

    I really don’t see anything in there that is anything more than BAU and BAU doesn’t work as the collapsing financial system and global economy show. There’s no “new vision” there at all.

  7. Psycho Milt 7
    25 August 2012 at 3:55 pm

    After spending a couple of pages telling us that Nationals bullet points aren’t a plan Parker gives us – more bullet points.

    Worse – more bullet points that aren’t a plan. “Pro growth tax reform?” “Growing our heartland, high-value manufacturing, processing?” Yeah, if only the current govt was capable of coming up with brilliant, innovative ideas like this…

  8. Blue 8
    25 August 2012 at 4:24 pm

    I don’t know any swing voters who want to sit down and read a 30 page PDF put out by Labour.

    I also don’t know any journalists who’d bother themselves to write anything about it.

    What exactly was the point?

  9. Olwyn 9
    25 August 2012 at 5:56 pm

    The thing is, the seeds of mistrust are already planted. I do not know how widespread they are among the voting population, but they have taken root among the broad left, and I say broad left, not just the extreme left. And it will take more than speeches like this one, or the removal of roof-painting men from future speeches, to dislodge them.

  10. prism 10
    25 August 2012 at 6:48 pm

    I heard Parker speaking and he sounded well-informed and cogent with his points and facts.

  11. AmaKiwi 11
    25 August 2012 at 6:53 pm

    Here’s a right winger’s view of leadership choices comparing Labour and National by Jane Clifton (Listener, 24 August 2012)

    “Labour at least has succession options. Cunliffe, Robertson, Little, Goff again, and down the track Ardern and newcomer David Clark, could all be imagined as party leaders. National’s the party with problems there. Steven Joyce might seem the obvious successor to John Key, as he runs everything that isn’t nailed down. But despite his high profile, he is barely a household name. Judith Collins has undoubted dominatrix appeal, but would be intensely polarising. After those two, the cupboard is bare.”

  12. David H 12
    25 August 2012 at 9:18 pm

    Sorry Anthony but the first line should read
    David Parker got stuck in to the Nats’ lack of economic record for the first time, last week.
    Now if they can do that for another week or 3 then things maybe looking up.

  13. Nick K 13
    26 August 2012 at 4:24 pm

    David Parker is trying to get the Reserve Bank to control BOTH inflation and the exchange rate. The Reserve Bank has got only one instrument, and that’s monetary policy. You can’t deliver two objectives with one instrument, and David Parker at least should have the brains to know that.