Jerry Flay
It's always rewarding, as a columnist, to provoke a reaction, never more so than when that reaction manifests itself in the form of a veteran political commentator showing there is life in the old dog yet and getting a tad uncharacteristically excitable in their response.
Entertaining as this may be for readers, it does potentially obscure the facts, and at the time of an election, when important decisions are being made which will influence our futures, facts are surely what we should focus on.
In his column for this paper on Saturday, Mike Williams suggested that Labour's vote-catching free driving lessons for all bribe was similar to an existing government policy. The fact is that they are significantly different.
In May of this year, Māori Development Minister Te Ururoa Flavell announced a new initiative, Passport to Life - Taiohi Ararau, that will assist Māori aged 15-24.
He said that the $4 million programme will help pay for young Māori to get their driver licences in a bid to get them into work and keep them out of jail. It also aims to equip them with other official documents like birth certificates and passports.
Given its focus, and the identity of its announcer, one can safely assume it is an initiative of the Maori Party.
As Mike will discover, should his Labour Party enter a coalition with the Greens and NZ First, part of the deal is acknowledging the interests of your partners and allowing aspects of their policy demands to become law. Think Power companies' compulsory shares repurchase, an avowed goal of NZ First, possibly at the price they were sold at, thus damaging the savings of thousands of mum and dad investors, or possibly at market value, which will require some $11 billion dollars to be found; either by diverting funds from budgeted expenditures, or of course through higher taxes.
Whilst Taiohi Ararau seems, on the face of it, an entirely worthy idea, it is materially different from Labour's costly and unnecessary scheme - both in content and intention, and most importantly in the manner and timing of its announcement. Had it been announced by Bill English, at this stage of the campaign, it too could have been construed as an electoral bribe. But it wasn't.
Mike obviously has a lot of time on his hands these days, because it appears he has been able to poll the entire population of New Zealand on this issue, as evidenced by his claim that everyone agrees Labour's idea is a cost-effective investment in our shared future. I did a bit of polling myself yesterday, albeit on a much smaller scale, and asked 10 people if they could remember agreeing such a thing. Strangely, none could, but perhaps that's just forgetfulness on their part.
Whilst it is always fascinating to read one writer's opinion of another, especially when it is slightly scurrilous, I can't help thinking that readers might have found more value if Mike had taken this opportunity to explain why giving free driving lessons, rather than making the test more robust, is the best way to make our roads safer. Because safer roads is what we want.
And of course, some insight into the timing would also have been fascinating. I am quite prepared to accept the possibility that such an offer of free stuff, and the fast-approaching election, were entirely coincidental, doubtless an epiphany experienced by some Labour policymaker that free driving lessons will solve the road toll, and not, as widely but mistakenly construed, an election bribe.
This is, of course, election time, and it is only robust debate which will enable us voters to sort the wheat from the chaff. We must play the ball, not the man, and we must, above all things, recognise spin for what it is. That way our votes can be cast in the full knowledge of their consequences.
Jerry Flay is a freelance writer based in Hawke's Bay. Views expressed here are the writer's opinion and not the newspaper's. Email: editor@hbtoday.co.nz