New Zealand Listener – August 10, 2019

AUGUST 10 2019 LISTENER 15

LIFE

Nothing doing

Provincial New

Zealanders

generally can’t

catch a train

to where they

want to go.

ST

EV

E (^) B
OL
TO
N
BILL
RALSTON
W
inston Peters, who has fea-
tured on numerous Listener
covers over the decades, is
not in the top job, but he’s
close enough to make a huge differ-
ence to government policy. Indeed,
you could argue it is his presence, and
that of his New Zealand First party
automatons, that has led to the cur-
rent administration being a triumph
of style over substance. Every time
there’s a demand for action on an
issue, Labour simply tells its support-
ers, “Winston won’t let
us do it.”
After nearly two
years of the Labour-NZ
First-Greens coalition,
it is hard to highlight
any significant achieve-
ments. True, first-year
tertiary students now
pay no fees, which
will be a relief to their
parents, most of whom
would otherwise be
paying, but it has not
led to any explosive
growth in university and
polytechnic rolls.
NZ First’s Shane Jones
has been touring the
regions with a sack of
cash, doling out millions
to supposedly worthy
schemes in the hope of
attracting support for his
The Government
has taken
administrative
lethargy to a new
height.
“But look at the flags! New Zealand is only a four-star
country! Australia gets a solid six!”
party, but the most recent opinion poll shows his
Santa Claus act is having the reverse effect.
The Government drew itself up to its full height
on the issue of a capital gains tax, only to collapse
again in a heap. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was
forced to declare it would never happen while she
was in the job.
Then-Housing Minister Phil Twyford’s big prom-
ise of KiwiBuild, to provide affordable homes for
the needy, evaporated like the mirage it was. The
teaching unions extracted the last drop they could
get of government cash for higher wages, but it was
nowhere near as much as they wanted. And the
occupation at Ihumātao, which is largely a clash
over land between different age groups of Māori
into which the Government has allowed itself to be
dragged, proves a century and a half of racial argu-
ment is still not behind us.
The Greens have ensured there is to be a signifi-
cant disinvestment in new highways, because cars
and trucks use them, and a bigger spend on rail,
because they think that’s a better way to move
goods. That’s possibly good news for freight, but
it’s bad news for provincial Kiwis,
because they generally can’t catch a
train to where they want to go. Don’t
get me started on Air New Zealand’s
fares. Outgoing chief executive Chris-
topher Luxon has a lot to answer for
and might want to think twice before
exposing himself to regional voters’
wrath.
Probably the Government’s biggest
achievement is that it banned plastic
shopping bags. Woohoo!
M
eanwhile, the economy is
behaving like a jet airliner
that’s run out of gas and is
gracefully but gradually losing height
as it goes forward, until such time as
it crash-lands in a recession.
It’s obvious Labour came to power
never believing it would have to
govern and therefore without a plan,
policy or strategy. Two years on, it
is still mired in dozens,
if not hundreds, of
working groups trying
to figure out the policies
the Government lacks.
When a working group
finally submits its report,
it’s almost inevitable
that it will be knocked
back by Peters, who
doesn’t agree with its
findings.
The Government is
staggering in its torpor.
The previous National
Government was hardly
a lightning rod for
growth, and in opposi-
tion appears moribund,
but the past couple of
years prove the Gov-
ernment has taken
administrative lethargy
to a new height. l