If I only have 1 complaint about the Ardern Govt, it's not so much what it did but what it didn't do. On the 1 hand, it resisted the temptation to auto-golpe like Orban, Trump & Erdogan; on the other hand, it wasted a golden opportunity to implement a CGT and/or LVT.
Ardern swapped out a raft of not-very-radical Labour policies during the 2020 campaign for 'trust us we'll see you right' non-entity platitudes. Presumably she (or rather the neoliberal 'deep-state' of Treasury officials) thought Labour needed a free hand to do whatever was necessary to regulate the economic aftermath of the crisis.
Mucking about with a re-allocation of $600m sounds like 'deckchairs on the Titanic' regardless that it was woefully managed as the linked doc. explains. Labour's adherence to Treasury advice that the aftermath could be resolved using the weak tool of interest rate policy rather than the WW2-proven supertax regime (tbh no-one in Labour HQ has the inventive capacity or historical knowledge to even imagine the possibility) resulted in their presiding over a doubling of bonds on issue from 80bn to 160bn, representing an ongoing additional transfer of $3 or 4bn p/a of public money to bond investors. Note that the Nat+ coalition has no such qualms around defying Treasury in pursuit of a purely ideological goal, but from the opposite extreme, with unfunded tax-cuts resulting in a further increase of bonds-on-issue to $210bn, but then again- "bankrupting the country" to force Crown asset sales is their goal.
I'd say Labour would definitely have lost were it not for Covid 19. At that time the media narrative followed western propaganda (flowing largely from the US/UK) to take an authoritarian approach to stamping it out and Jacinda/Labour were happy to pick up the mantle leaving the debacle of lack of National party leadership decidedly "out to lunch". When people are scared for their safety they'll vote for "strong leadership" every time. History will record the foolishness to attempt, for so long after the "horse had bolted", an elimination strategy in this country, given that it was known very early on (by no later than around April 2020) that it was only dangerous to a very well defined subset of the population (i.e. the very old and infirm plus certain comorbidities). Therefore what won them the 2020 election also played a large part in its demise as people started to realise they'd been "had" - and this will continue.
Kind of reminds me of the Springbok tour in 1981. At the time the country was divided virtually 50/50 in favour of it. Now days very few people would still argue in favour of it (but would rather stay silent about their prior view). In the case of Covid 19 the narrative was so strong I'd guess it was 80/20 in favour of strong Covid measures at the start. Note sure where we're at now but the more time passes and the truth filters through the lower the number drops. Probably closely correlated with the % of people that still trust MSM and certain institutions...
Thanks for the comments, Malcolm. I'd guess it would be much harder now to get 2020's levels of compliance with lockdown policies if a new and similar pandemic hit us.
Difficult to vote in your Jacinda poll. I would say one of the best during the years of crises but only average when it came to developing workable policies and seeing them through.
If I only have 1 complaint about the Ardern Govt, it's not so much what it did but what it didn't do. On the 1 hand, it resisted the temptation to auto-golpe like Orban, Trump & Erdogan; on the other hand, it wasted a golden opportunity to implement a CGT and/or LVT.
What about their failure to take the opportunity for drug reform (i.e. Cannabis etc). And we wonder why societal advancement is soooo sloooow.
Ardern swapped out a raft of not-very-radical Labour policies during the 2020 campaign for 'trust us we'll see you right' non-entity platitudes. Presumably she (or rather the neoliberal 'deep-state' of Treasury officials) thought Labour needed a free hand to do whatever was necessary to regulate the economic aftermath of the crisis.
https://oag.parliament.nz/2023/pgf-reset
Mucking about with a re-allocation of $600m sounds like 'deckchairs on the Titanic' regardless that it was woefully managed as the linked doc. explains. Labour's adherence to Treasury advice that the aftermath could be resolved using the weak tool of interest rate policy rather than the WW2-proven supertax regime (tbh no-one in Labour HQ has the inventive capacity or historical knowledge to even imagine the possibility) resulted in their presiding over a doubling of bonds on issue from 80bn to 160bn, representing an ongoing additional transfer of $3 or 4bn p/a of public money to bond investors. Note that the Nat+ coalition has no such qualms around defying Treasury in pursuit of a purely ideological goal, but from the opposite extreme, with unfunded tax-cuts resulting in a further increase of bonds-on-issue to $210bn, but then again- "bankrupting the country" to force Crown asset sales is their goal.
Good points, Kevin!
I'd say Labour would definitely have lost were it not for Covid 19. At that time the media narrative followed western propaganda (flowing largely from the US/UK) to take an authoritarian approach to stamping it out and Jacinda/Labour were happy to pick up the mantle leaving the debacle of lack of National party leadership decidedly "out to lunch". When people are scared for their safety they'll vote for "strong leadership" every time. History will record the foolishness to attempt, for so long after the "horse had bolted", an elimination strategy in this country, given that it was known very early on (by no later than around April 2020) that it was only dangerous to a very well defined subset of the population (i.e. the very old and infirm plus certain comorbidities). Therefore what won them the 2020 election also played a large part in its demise as people started to realise they'd been "had" - and this will continue.
Kind of reminds me of the Springbok tour in 1981. At the time the country was divided virtually 50/50 in favour of it. Now days very few people would still argue in favour of it (but would rather stay silent about their prior view). In the case of Covid 19 the narrative was so strong I'd guess it was 80/20 in favour of strong Covid measures at the start. Note sure where we're at now but the more time passes and the truth filters through the lower the number drops. Probably closely correlated with the % of people that still trust MSM and certain institutions...
Thanks for the comments, Malcolm. I'd guess it would be much harder now to get 2020's levels of compliance with lockdown policies if a new and similar pandemic hit us.
Difficult to vote in your Jacinda poll. I would say one of the best during the years of crises but only average when it came to developing workable policies and seeing them through.
Fair comment, Helen. The result of the straw poll is looking very polarized!