PM’s positive way forward

Positive or negative? Pompous and respectful or argumentative and informal? Our Parliament can do both. For regular politics watchers, the contrast is especially striking during the ceremonies that accompany the start of a new government.

Contrast the negative tactics of the opposition on Wednesday as it seemed to trick the new Government into a deal over select committee numbers with the ‘‘relentless positivity’’ Labour aspired to on the campaign trail. Then consider the high ideals of another traditional feature of a new government, the speech from the throne.

The Governor-General delivers the speech that outlines a vision to the new Parliament and a waiting nation. Written by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and read by Governor-General Dame Pasty Reddy at the State Opening of Parliament on Wednesday, the speech was akin to a mission statement of the next three years.

It promised an ambitious programme, with ‘‘major investments in housing, health, education, police and infrastructure’’ by a Government that aims to ‘‘protect the environment, create more jobs and lift the incomes of families to reduce child poverty, while running surpluses and paying down debt’’.

So far, so predictable. Most incoming governments would make the same noises. But it is also easy to detect social change that has not featured before. ‘‘No-one should have to live in a car or on the street. No-one should have to beg for their next meal. No child should be experiencing poverty. That kind of inequality is degrading to us all.’’

These sentiments were not merely a feature of the election campaign. In fact, poverty and inequality appeared less often than some expected. Instead, they were a backdrop to the past nine years as child poverty and homelessness grew from being semi-mythical or highly contested to inescapable realities. Even a National government that refused to measure child poverty found itself announcing that it could substantially reduce it. Now a new coalition will be scrutinised to see if it can do better.

The speech also promised to revise economic thinking. Progress and success will be measured in broader terms, the new Government promised. It will develop ‘‘a comprehensive set of environmental, social and economic sustainability indicators to better show how we are doing as a country’’. Wellbeing can be considered in these indicators.

And finally, it recognised the climate change challenge by setting a target of a net zero carbon emissions economy by 2050 and creating an independent Climate Commission. An extra $1 billion goes into low-carbon industries, thanks to a Labour-Green Party deal.

Climate change policies and action on water quality was central. As a vision, the speech as a whole seemed to reflect Green Party priorities as much as it reflected the ideas of NZ First. This suggests a greater policy cohesion and political harmony than some media coverage of the coalition has suggested.

Cynics are right to say that vision is the easy stuff and practice is much harder. The opposition has already signalled that it intends to make life more difficult than usual for the Government, but it must be very careful not to alienate the public as it does so.