Editorial: What Luxon can do if he can’t make the wheels of governing turn faster

Editorial

EDITORIAL

Those holding their breaths for the new Government to take office with a hiss and a roar would be wise to exhale and hit the beach over summer.

With the Government being formed just weeks from the Christmas break, its “100-day plan” will need to be modest enough to be executed in a compressed timeframe.

Incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has already conceded that no amount of experience doing mergers and acquisitions can hasten negotiations between political parties jostling for power in government.

Sure, in the bigger scheme of things, it’s worth taking an extra couple of weeks to dot the “I”s and cross the “T”s to ensure the new government functions properly. Many people have in fact welcomed a break from the “usual” politics. But Luxon risks losing people’s confidence if he over-promises and under-delivers.

He needs to confront reality; recognise he can’t crank up the metronome that has for years dictated the rhythm of the machinery of the government sector.

Over the coming week, ministers will need to be sworn in.

They will need to hire staff, set up offices and draw up a legislative programme so they have material to work with when Parliament sits.

The absolute earliest this could get under way is Tuesday, December 5, leaving three sitting weeks before the holidays.

While Parliament typically only starts sitting after Waitangi Day (February 6), Luxon is keen to get cracking earlier - perhaps in late January.

Even if he cuts MPs’ holidays short, the fact much of the country (to some extent) comes to a standstill from late December to mid-January will prevent him from starting his term as Prime Minister with a bang.

For most people, this won’t matter. Life goes on.

However, in the absence of being able to make stuff happen, what the incoming Government could do is signal - as clearly as possible - what it plans to do. For example, when will tax changes take effect? What exactly will these changes look like?

People won’t worry too much about the new Government having a slimmed-down 100-day plan. What will irk them is a prolonged time in limbo.

This stymies progress and investment and creates inefficiencies.

Where this is perhaps most visible is around the revamped Three Waters.

National campaigned on getting rid of it straight away, no longer requiring councils to put their water assets and liabilities in new entities along with their neighbouring councils. Nonetheless, getting rid of Three Waters won’t automatically solve the problems that urgently need addressing. National will still need to figure out who pays what to upgrade the country’s wastewater, stormwater and drinking water infrastructure.

Where does the debt sit? How can both localism and economies of scale be achieved? How can decision-makers be incentivised to make long-term investment decisions? Councils, trying to meet competing demands using limited pools of revenue, are in the process of drafting their long-term plans and desperately need certainty.

This is just one example.

If the new Government truly understands not only business but what it takes to get stuff done, it’ll need to provide as much certainty as is practical.

This is more useful than saying it ticked off a long list of perhaps-inconsequential tasks in its first 100 days in office.