Garner: National’s report card of fails
When the Nats took command nine years ago they might as well have been presented with a smelly, decaying hedgehog to welcome them into the Beehive. It would have been more attractive than the paralysing decade of deficits dished up by Labour.
Thanks for nothing. No money. Few options.
Labour Party ministers slung their manbags and handbags over their slumped shoulders and took an open-ended ticket to obscurity - otherwise known as opposition. It’s a soul destroying pit. The phone stops, and days are spent in meaningless strategy meetings between free meals at the taxpayer-funded Koru Club.
Labour’s never-ending golden economic summers had crashed, burned and disappeared. National’s promise of a ‘‘brighter future’’ was being ravaged by international economic cancers. Businesses closed, jobs were lost, house prices went backwards.
Mortgage interest rates reached 9.99 per cent. I certainly remember how my debt stayed scarily stagnant, but my salary kept being taken by the bank. I sold my house for $40,000 less than I’d bought it for four years earlier. Crash, bang and crunch.
The cowards, cowboys, the unskilled and the vulnerable were cleaned out by the global financial crisis. A $50 billion revenue hole was discovered in the Government’s books. National was borrowing $250 million a week to pay the most basic of our country’s bills. Teachers, nurses and our police were paid by swiping the country’s credit card.
National absolutely did the right thing by borrowing. All welfare entitlements were kept, the public service faced budget cuts and workers faced wage freezes. Bill English told the country we all had to tighten our belts. Asset sales were touted as being for mums and dads. Cute. If you had the spare money. But was this the ambitious Brighter Future?
Businesses in chaos, nine-day fortnights and a housing collapse. All with a smile. And a cycleway.
Because in a universe in a faraway land, then prime minister John Key smiled, twerked, selfied, hugged, cried, wrote cheques, modelled clothes, borrowed money, pulled the odd ponytail and danced between the rain drops to lock himself in as our most popular prime minister.
National topped a 3 News poll at 59.5 per cent for the party vote. Key was untouchable.
Tax cuts were handed out to those who barely needed it. GST was increased, a nasty little secret revealed, felt more harshly by those who couldn’t afford it.
Next came the massive Christchurch earthquake, felling a city, its people and its economy. The strongest of people collapsed, tears turned to anger. Key threw himself at it. Politically, crisis worked for him.
Tragically, 29 men then died in the Pike River Mine explosion, a disgraceful cover-up of corporate and government agency negligence. But still despite years of curve balls, crises and collapse, National’s Brighter Future marched on.
To its credit, voters enter the polling booths in 28 days knowing there’s a strong economy, low interest rates, low unemployment and solid economic growth. National have been solid managers.
The recently knighted Sir John and Lady Bronagh are holidaying in Croatia, leaving English with second prize – the prime minister’s job and his second chance to test his popularity with the country. Timing may not be his strong point.
National didn’t reform or change or do too much. But they were more than competent. And the economy ain’t broke. Or is it?
Because the list of blind spots for National is too long. If this is success then our standards have slipped.
We have families living in cars. I saw one woman and her two kids the other night at the top of my street. It’s not how we do things in New Zealand. Except now it is.
We have a Government that is too hands off. Let the market sort it. But markets fail. Markets don’t build emergency, social, state and affordable houses.
Governments, in partnership, lead and build. National utterly failed this group of struggling and increasingly bewildered and powerless New Zealanders.
The Government now buys entire motels to house the homeless and English says that’s a good thing, it’s unprecedented. Sure is. It’s National’s emblem of failure. The gap between the haves and have-nots appears starker than ever.
National also packed the immigrants in to the rafters in record numbers. Wages as a result have been suppressed.
They also forgot to plan where everyone will live. More than 140 people arrive in Auckland every day, sadly housing is provided for just 80 of them.
The poorest Kiwis have been squeezed to the sidelines. Auckland needs 14,000 homes built a year to meet demand.
After nine years of National the past year has seen just 7000 homes finished. Our infrastructure is creaking. The average price of a house in Auckland is more than $1m. Good luck. First home buyers should be marching in the streets. They face renting for life. Or buying in Huntly or Levin.
National is also ambivalent on climate change, dirty rivers and our waterways. Action is needed now, not another kick for touch.
Polluters should pay. Get this into law. They do in Britain. Emissions have reduced. Why the free pass for our polluters?
Yes the headline numbers around the economy look good. And they are. But the family tree underneath is stressed and in some instances broken.
Over the next 28 days ask yourself this question: AmI living that promised Brighter Future? And if you’re not, what are your options – and are they credible?
Wehave a Government that is too hands off.