But Luxon was sold as the new John Key. His recent wonky political judgment has some checking the warranty.
Read the full story here
Time’s up for most inept Government ever - September 2
The Ardern administration has finally confirmed — were confirmation required — that it is the most incompetent New Zealand Government in living memory, and perhaps ever.
It’s a big call. Jenny Shipley’s shambolic National Government was propped up in 1998 and 1999 by a bizarre bunch of party-hoppers including one from the far-left Alliance.
Labour embarrassed itself in 1989 and 1990 with two changes of Prime Minister.
Yet, for better or worse, those governments had competently executed change and maintained some sense of direction even at the end.
National’s Muldoonist era might rival Jacinda Ardern’s circus. But, however controversial, the Clyde Dam, the Waitara and Motunui methanol plants and the Marsden Point expansion were built — in contrast to Ardern’s 100,000 KiwiBuild houses, the $30 billion Auckland tram, and the $6.4b Let’s Get Wellington Moving programme, for which the Government has allocated a further $120 million for yet another business plan.
Perhaps we’re better off those projects are doomed. But the Ardern Government’s inability to deliver anything it says it values is surely unique.
Read Matthew Hooton’s full column here
Wheels come off Govt’s spin machine - January 28
Let’s start by being charitable. If the Government wanted to spread Omicron through the community as fast as possible, its actions over the last six weeks have been exemplary.
Covid Minister Chris Hipkins’ so-called Omicron “plan” — I use the inverted commas so as not to insult readers the way politicians do when using that word — was released on December 21. It was all fence and no ambulance, being entirely about trying to keep Omicron out.
Back then, everyone already knew how contagious Omicron was.
The Government then disappeared. The Opposition claimed it had gone on holiday, which sounded hyperbolic but turned out to be true.
Read the full column here
Bureaucracy needs shaking into action - November 4
Ministers can make a difference.
After John Key’s Mr Fixit Steven Joyce was put in charge of Novopay in 2013, it wasn’t too long before it began paying most teachers broadly on time, roughly the right amount.
But the likes of Joyce, Helen Clark’s Michael Cullen, Jim Bolger’s Bill Birch and — to a much lesser extent — Jacinda Ardern’s Chris Hipkins are rare.
In a representative democracy, most MPs will always be a bit average and most ministers not much better. That’s something the structure, rules and personnel of the public service have to take into account.
The Ardern regime’s inability to deliver has become a national joke, with KiwiBuild the punchline.
But the endless failures, especially in sensitive areas of social policy, including mental health, have real-world consequences.
Read the full story here
Labour’s best bet for 2023? Dump Ardern - June 10
Jacinda Ardern remains Labour’s greatest asset. But if your best asset is heading towards certain insolvency, aren’t you best to dump it and invest in something else?
Ardern’s visit to the US was a triumph. So, too, will be today’s to Australia.
The Prime Minister will then host Samoa’s Fiamē Naomi Mata’afa in New Zealand, before strutting her new cold-war warrior credentials at the Nato Summit in Madrid. Kiwi officials hope her global brand will help liberal European leaders sell their voters a more pro-American foreign policy and higher defence spending.
In return, Ardern needs to report back home that our free-trade agreement with the EU is nearing completion. This is all great stuff for New Zealand.
The problem is that Labour strategists want to move on from the old St Jacinda brand to a more sleeves-rolled-up version, concerned primarily about your grocery bills, mortgage payments and the cost of kids’ shoes.
They judge, rightly, that after two years of lockdowns and the associated economic and personal pain — and with prices, rents and mortgage payments now rising faster than wages — voters want a more prosaic Prime Minister.
But Ardern can’t quite play the new role.
Read Matthew Hooton’s full column here
