Today may be the day we have a new Government, that is as long as Act and NZ First can resolve their fight over who is to be Deputy Prime Minister.
If ever you wanted
Lloyd Burr at Newshub has released this 8 minute video montage showing Christopher Luxon saying repeatedly “strong and stable government” over the past three weeks.
From the article:
It’s been 39 days since the election, 19 days since the final election results were released, and there’s still no Government.
That’s despite a constant chorus of “we’re making progress”, “we’re going as quickly as possible”, and “strong, stable Government” from National, ACT, and New Zealand First MPs.
It’s a chorus that’s teased the nation throughout, right from November 2 when ACT Leader David Seymour said a “deal could be done in a matter of days”.
In hindsight, that was beyond wishful thinking from Seymour. If only he knew then what we all know now.
On that same day, National Leader Christopher Luxon was saying “we’re moving with tremendous urgency”, confident he could “move through this very quickly”.
Hindsight’s taught us that quickly isn’t that quick at all.
We also heard aspirations of a “strong and stable Government” on repeat for a month.
Newshub’s cameras caught Luxon saying it at least 42 times. His MP Simeon Brown said it 10 times in the space of 3 minutes. Even Seymour, Shane Jones, and Winston Peters rolled out a varying version of the line.
Time will tell if that wish comes true.
This delay has shot holes in National’s plans. Remember talk about a mini budget and National’s hundred days action plan?
From National’s website:
We will get started on a big Parliamentary agenda by introducing legislation to:
- Remove the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax which adds 11.5 cents per litre of petrol.
- Remove the Reserve Bank’s dual mandate to get the Bank focused on putting the lid back on inflation.
- Restore 90-day employment trial periods for all businesses.
- Extend free breast cancer screening for women aged up to 74.
- Repeal Labour’s Three Waters legislation.
- Repeal Labour’s RMA 2.0 laws.
- Ban gang patches, stop gang members gathering in public, and stop known gang offenders from communicating with one another.
- Give police greater powers to search gang members for firearms and make gang membership an aggravating factor at sentencing.
- Stop taxpayer funding for cultural reports which can be used for weakening sentences for offenders.
- Extend the eligibility for remand prisoners to access rehabilitation programmes.
- Crack down on serious youth offending.
- Encourage more virtual participation in court proceedings.
In our first 100 days we’ll also cancel Labour’s planned fuel tax hikes, repeal the Ute Tax, stop work on the Jobs Tax, instruct public sector Chief Executives to start identifying back-office savings and report their spending on consultants, ban cellphones in schools, require primary and intermediate schools to prepare to teach an hour a day each of reading, writing and maths, stop Labour’s blanket speed limit reductions, stop work on the Lake Onslow scheme, introduce a fast-track consenting regime and establish a Priority One category on the social housing waitlist to more quickly move families out of emergency housing and into permanent homes.
Many of these actions would be disastrous. They also show how lacking in imagination National is. All many of them promise is reversion to shittier pre Labour policies with some raw meat law and order policies thrown in for good measure.
Time will tell if they are able to achieve all or any of these goals. Or if NZ First will allow them to do so.
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