Kiwis love their rail

• Steve Pierson
• 16 years ago
• Categories: assets, polls, transport
• Tags: Kiwirail

A poll on TV1 shows that Kiwis overwhelmingly support the Government move to bring rail back into public ownership. Despite a question that explicitly states the cost of Kiwirail but none of the benefits, respondents still voiced very strong support for the purchase- 68% in favour vs 24% against.

The Government has acted in a way that makes economic and environmental sense. The only opposition has been from the ‘free market is always right’ lobby and National. Their childish comments about buying a train-set have fooled no-one.

I think this issue and the growing questions around John Key’s leadership qualities, including his broken promise not to use Crosby/Textor, have been the catalysts for Labour’s resurgence in the polls. The 90 Day No Rights policy and ACC privatisation, despite National’s attempt to release on the quiet, have also gone down very badly with the public but they were released too recently to affect the latest polls. That may mean more bad news for National in the next round of polls.