Ipsos polls the popularity of professions. The most untrusted profession is politicians. Business leaders are more trusted. Just 17 per cent of the electorate trust politicians while 28 per cent trust business leaders.
Reminding us that Christopher Luxon is the former CEO of Air New Zealand is PR gold. When Luxon was CEO, Air New Zealand was judged top in the Kantar Corporate Reputation Index for trust, leadership, fairness and responsibility in five out of the eight years of his tenure.
Ironically, if Luxon acted like a politician, he would probably say: “I am not a politician. I am a businessman who successfully led Air New Zealand to be this country’s most trusted brand. It is politicians who created the cost-of-living crisis, put the country into a recession, ran down education and health and run up debt. We need a business-like approach to turn the country around.”
Luxon has never exploited his huge advantage. We tend to devalue the skills we have and envy the skills we do not have. Luxon gives the impression he would like to be a politician. He should not.
No other MP has Luxon’s experience.
Roger Douglas had credibility because he was not a politician. He often spoke in numbers. The press gallery had little idea what he was saying. The reporters decided that when Douglas was wearing his red smoking jacket it was good news. When Douglas learned this, he only wore the jacket when it was good news.
The Prime Minister should emphasise his business experience. Speak to us as if we are shareholders and to the press gallery as if they are analysts. He could not get worse press. What it would gain him is respect for not being a politician.
A 100-day 36-point plan is the way a CEO would focus a company on what is important. If you do not know where you are going, you end up going in circles. When Labour abandoned Steven Joyce’s goals for the civil service that is what happened.
The 100-day plan is setting the agenda. Not all goals will be achieved. Getting pupils back to school, getting on top of the crime wave and restoring the health system cannot be achieved in 100 days. What can be achieved is momentum towards the goals.
The concern is what is not on the list and how much is on the list.
The cost-of-living crisis is the biggest issue. Crushing inflation is not on the 100-day plan. Nothing reduces the electorate’s confidence in the Government more than the dollar losing its value.
The Reserve Bank acts as if its remit is unchanged. If the bank again fails to achieve its rosy forecasts, the Governor will say monetary policy needs a fiscal friend.
No one will thank the coalition for tax cuts that are undermined by inflation.
The business decision would be to make solving the cost-of-living crisis the number one objective.
The 100-day plan continues with all of Labour’s programmes but to do so spending 7 per cent less money and delivering the programmes more efficiently. Only a politician could claim this is possible.
The business decision would be for the 100-day plan to include stopping programmes that the Government does not need to do. The plan should be to do well the programmes that only the Government can do.
If Luxon was a politician, he would know that being a good government is unbeatable politics.
Labour and the Greens are advising Luxon to stop being a businessman and become a politician so they can defeat the coalition. Politics is what Labour and the Greens are good at.
Luxon only needs to read Swarbrick’s Herald article. She has political skills he will never have. Her article demonstrates she can do invective, one-liners and has mastered the art of sounding profound while saying nothing.
Luxon should not even try to do politics. If the Prime Minister were to run the country as if it were a company and he is the CEO, New Zealand will have never been better governed.
- Richard Prebble is a former leader of the Act Party and a former member of the Labour Party
