Spare a thought for the intellectual titan that is Steven Joyce. He is getting something of a bad rap lately …
Yesterday the High Court ruled that National’s use of a piece of music for its 2014 election campaign described as being “eminem esque” was actually really eminemesque, that eminemesque that it breached Eminem’s right to copyright. Joyce’s assertion that use of the song was pretty legal was pretty wrong.
Also yesterday he said he had a sneaky feeling that his assertion made during the recent election campaign there was a $11 billion hole in Labour’s budget will be proven right.
From Radio New Zealand:
National’s finance spokesman Steven Joyce is sticking to his guns about Labour not having enough money to carry out its promised programme.
Before the election, Mr Joyce claimed Labour had an $11 billion hole in its budget after it had mistakenly not accounted for rolling out operational allowances year on year, despite a series of economists saying he was wrong.
Speaking to Morning Report today, Mr Joyce said he hoped he was wrong about the $11 billion calculation, but he feared time would prove him right.
He said the new government was already promising more money than it had.
“Grant Robertson has a major problem – he’s like that guy who is going away on holiday and trying to fit three suitcases worth of stuff into one suitcase. That’s his problem.
“It’s not just that, it’s really important for New Zealand. It’s not about a ‘he said/she said’, I don’t care if I’m proven right or wrong. In fact, I’d rather be proven wrong, because then New Zealand’s expenditure would be under control. But sadly, I have a sneaking suspicion I will be proven right over time.”
Poor Joyce. Sticking to a view which shows that, disturbingly for a former Finance Minister, he does not understand crown accounts. And continuing with a line even though pretty well everyone with any understanding of the subject disputed his version.
Politically it might have worked. Labour’s surge in the polls stalled when the allegations were made. But it was a giant fib and Joyce should have the decency of admitting this.
Maybe he believes that what he is saying is true. Maybe he really just does not understand. After all he is a serial failer of economics papers
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