Editorial: Government needs energy and new ideas

Opinion

The speech from the throne should set the tone for a Government's term in office. For a third-term administration, there is the opportunity to show that it still possesses fresh ideas and energy. This is the platform for proclaiming that the next three years will not be a sleep-walk to inevitable electoral defeat. Thus, it can only be counted an own-goal when the opportunity is missed, or if, as happened yesterday, the occasion is used to rule out "significant" tax cuts.

Clearly, Finance Minister Michael Cullen was keen to scotch any prospect of cuts at the outset of the term. To a degree, he has been painted into a corner by his own party's election pledges and the price of the government-forming agreements. So steep are those tags, with the likelihood of more to come with the scrapping of the carbon tax and suchlike, that the Government is having to review existing spending. Yet it was still surprising to see a policy that resonated strongly for the National Party being rejected so out of hand.

Dr Cullen's orthodoxy appears to allow no scope for tax cuts orchestrated, for example, by a small adjustment to the debt ratio. His stand, however, sits oddly with two other themes of yesterday's speech: the Government's wish to "work alongside a broad cross-section of New Zealanders", and the desire to spread the dividends of past economic prosperity more widely.

The Government may perceive that because it triumphed in the election, however narrowly, the thirst for tax cuts was overstated. Yet something approaching a broad cross-section appeared to believe cuts were not only affordable but due. The election was won despite, rather than because of, Labour's opposition to tax cuts. That same group of people also remains uneasy that the Government decides where relief will be allotted, rather than it being spread as widely as possible.

The speech contained nothing that might have deflected attention from the tax issue. Dr Cullen has talked of a more "administrative" than legislative Parliament which will concentrate on doing things more efficiently. In part, this reflects a Government wary of spending much of its time organising majorities for new legislation. Yet it also suggests an administration that, unfortunately, will devote itself almost solely to unfinished business, rather than plough new furrows.

This is apparent in the speech's reference to a more competitive telecommunications sector. In its first two terms, the Government wagged many a finger at Telecom but achieved little in practical terms. Now that the relatively low uptake of broadband has highlighted the product of such reticence, much-needed resolve must finally be shown.

The promise of "significant adjustment" in parts of the tertiary sector, will, likewise, be about repairing an unsatisfactory state of affairs. Courses on twilight golf and the like sprang from a system of state payments that, when not closely monitored, sponsored the artificial growth of some polytechnics. Some hard decisions must be taken if these institutions are to be placed on a rational footing.

The speech from the throne suggests the Government sees the rediscovery of consensus as its best chance of re-election in 2008. Throughout much of its first and second terms, it managed to attract a "broad cross-section" of support. Since then, however, that has been lost, and the Government has looked increasingly jaded.

Energy and new ideas might win back that support. An approach that eschews anything novel or potentially divisive will not. Yet, judging by the speech from the throne, that is what lies in store over the next three years.