Paul Little: Shadbolt's wind-up, English's odd numbers

Tim Shadbolt knows social media should cost nothing. Photo / Getty Images

All the reassuring noises that John Key and Bill English made before last year's election - about the steady hand steering the economy - have been revealed as so much hot air.

Every week, the numbers look worse. This week came the news that a trifecta of tax takes from GST, income tax and corporate tax were all lower than projected in the seven months to January.

But English isn't worried.

"By the end of the year it could be a billion ahead," he said. "Who knows?"

Good question. The Finance Minister's attitude to the economy appears increasingly relaxed.

At least the falling tax totals are real numbers. We also have to do our accounts with numbers that don't exist.

Just a couple of weeks ago, English admitted that the prediction his key economic policy - partial asset sales - would raise about $6 billion was based on little in the way of hard numbers. The figure was "not our best guess, it's just a guess. It's just to put some numbers in that look like they might be roughly right for forecasting purposes."

But the chaotic state of affairs only highlights how misguided the partial asset sales policy is. There's no shortage of reasons to stop the process now. Not least is the unpopularity of the policy with a majority of the population. It turns out New Zealanders really believe they have a right to own core assets collectively.

Divesting yourself of an income source for a short-term gain is not common sense. When the PM reminded sales critic Winston Peters that he had supported the privatisation of Auckland Airport, he raised an interesting point. That sale was also misguided and Auckland could be the proud owner of a sterling performer today if it had not gone ahead.

If Peters were the sort of person who could admit he was wrong, I'm sure he would admit he was wrong back then.

There is no reason why publicly-owned assets cannot perform stunningly well - as Ports of Auckland has been doing since Bruce Jesson fought off privatisation in the 1990s.

The sum of $6 billion is a useful one, but there is no point shoring up a deficit if other parts of the economy aren't primed for growth.

So far the Government appears most excited about the prospects for an economic windfall to result from the Christchurch rebuild. Thank goodness we had that earthquake.

This is probably the Government's last chance to cancel its planned asset sales and demonstrate that not all decisions are made on a pinball principle of bouncing from one stopgap solution to another.

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You have to admire Tim Shadbolt - still able to wind everyone up after all these years. This week he voted against spending $50,000 on social media support for tourism down his way on the grounds that Facebook and such are a fad "like the hula hoop".

The bloggers went berko, raining scorn on his old head.

He's having a laugh, of course. Shadbolt knows full well that hula hoops are still with us - they even have a Facebook page. And he almost certainly knows that one of the advantages of social media is that it costs nothing, which may have led him to question the need for the expense.

His fellow committee members seemed unable to see past the sheer glamour of it all and the opportunity to shed $50,000 they didn't need to spend.

I'm sure there is some bright-eyed, techno-savvy pup in a back room at Venture Southland who would add social media to their current job description. It's the sort of thing we used to call an opportunity.