Paula Bennett: Labour mothballs RNZ/TVNZ merger, social unemployment insurance to gain popularity

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was one of the three designers of the Government’s policy agenda, says Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Amazing what happens when you are staring down the barrel of defeat. All the principles that PM Hipkins had purported to hold over the past five and a half years have just flown out the window. Or have they?

The internal polling late last year would have told then PM Jacinda Ardern that she was no longer an asset to Labour’s chances of winning the election but had become a liability. Politics is brutal, what people initially loved you for can quickly become what they end up disliking.

That polling would also have told Labour that many of their policies are deeply unpopular. If they had listened earlier to the people they may have been able to salvage some of their work. The problem with much they want to do is that they haven’t explained it well and brought the public with them.

To be fair most people weren’t listening too closely to what they wanted to do because they didn’t believe they could actually deliver anything. It was a waste of time listening because the reality of it actually happening was slim to none. Except then the media and opposition started doing their job and asking questions about costs and consultants. The numbers were staggering.

Not many people cared about the RNZ/TVNZ merger until they heard that tens of millions had already been spent and it would then cost another $350 million. The wasted money on investigating the harbour bridge cycleway and light rail was already over $100m. They may not be able to deliver but they sure can spend money on nothing.

Hipkins was one of the three designers of the Government’s policy agenda. He wasn’t a spectator who just did as Jacinda Ardern wanted as he now wants you to believe. He was an integral part of policy development and design. His backtrack this week on a few initiatives is cynical politics at its best.

He helped design bad policies that they failed to sell to the public. They wasted millions of dollars in consultancy fees and public service time. He believes in these policy initiatives that he cancelled this week and has only postponed them because polling told him they are unpopular. He believes in social unemployment insurance and the RNZ/TVNZ merger. As such, you have to believe that these are on hold and not cancelled. You cannot trust that these policies will not be back on the Government’s agenda if they are back in government post-election.

Paula Bennett is a former Deputy Prime Minister and National Party politician who now works at Bayleys Real Estate as national director-customer engagement.