National slams 100 days of Labour backflips
National Party leader Bill English has attacked the Government’s performance in its first 100 days, accusing it of no less than 17 backdowns, and the creating of 10 working groups and inquiries.
It was the hallmark of a ‘‘weak and confused Government’’, he said.
But Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has disputed the claims, saying ‘‘not at all’’.
English said the Government had failed to deliver on a range of promises it made during the campaign.
That included policies to repeal all 90-day trials, unequivocal reentry of the Pike River Mine, slashing migration by up to 30,000 and an idea to use migrant police to meet its target of 1800 new officers.
However, National’s claims also included a ‘‘backdown’’ on NZ First minister Shane Jones’ push for a ‘‘work for the dole’’ scheme, and a backdown to support the TPP – now known as the CPTPP or the The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The monster free-trade deal with 10 other nations was opposed by Labour under former leader Andrew Little, but Ardern campaigned on renegotiating parts of the deal, including the issue of foreign ownership, which it has done.
The introduction to Government had been characterised by ‘‘a number of policy backflips as the three disparate parties try and work out who is on top’’.
‘‘Sometimes the backflips have even occurred as a result of differences within a single party as they have with Stuart Nash’s GST on low-value goods or special visas for police,’’ English said.
‘‘On top of that, we have seen the creation of 10 separate inquiries and working groups that are the hallmark of a Government that has no idea what to actually do across a range of policy areas.’’
That included an inquiry into mental health, and an inquiry into historical state abuse.
English said the Government’s promises on child poverty had fallen short of expectation.
‘‘The Government has overseen a large fall in business confidence, failed to set meaningful targets for action on child poverty and done away with the social investment approach that would have delivered real improvements in the lives of New Zealanders.’’
Speaking to media from Waitangi, where she is holding talks with iwi leaders before the national day, Ardern said she wasn’t surprised by English’s comments.
‘‘I really doubt the leader of the Opposition would have held a standup to congratulate the Government on its first 100 days, so in Opposition you do what you do.’’
Asked if her Government had backed down on a total of 17 policies she said: ‘‘No, not at all.’’
And she had no regrets about what the Government has been able to achieve so far, including compromises to introduce what’s considered a conservative bill on medicinal cannabis reform.
‘‘We formulated the 100-day plan as a Labour Party, we formed a coalition Government.
‘‘We have made more progress than what was the status quo on medicinal cannabis and we’ve created a bill that we’ve got the numbers for in the House and that was important,’’ she said.
‘‘There will have been people who want us to go further but that’s MMP and that’s democracy.’’