Written By: advantage - Date published: 8:01 am, July 28th, 2019 - 138 comments

Categories: capital gains, child welfare, jacinda ardern, labour, public transport, tax, transport - Tags:

Despite the babies and the engagements, maybe it’s time to ditch the default Jacindamania.

Let’s not bother with the criminal waste of tax on hundreds of working groups, existing to successfully suppressing oppositional opinion through co-option.

Oranga Tamariki has got three investigations underway for removing children, and is being kicked all over the park by the media. Cue another year of paralysis by analysis.

There is no reform of the justice sector.

There’s no substantial reform of social welfare, in particular no raise in base welfare levels, so no improvement in poverty levels this term. That’s another generation of 25% of our children.

Transport remains a fully self-inflicted disaster, with light rail gone from even starting for at least another term, mortality and injury and traffic congestion all soaring, and the only items of note to open this term will be National-inspired motorways in the Waikato.

There are no new partnerships with Labour-led councils such as Christchurch or Auckland, and the ones there are like City Rail Link and Christchurch rebuild were started under National.

Tax policy is a full-throated policy wasteland, with no Capital Gains Tax and no other tax reform either as long as Ardern is PM, so National’s tax settings continuing to oppress most of New Zealand.

Teaching at both secondary and tertiary level is a policy disaster with massive untested reforms to demolish polytechs and removing secondary decile ratings, with little stable to replace them. Great they’re paid better.

Nothing about water charging, and won’t be in this government. Free money to business.

A weak-ass carbon reform, with little attempt to change the carbon pollution of the vehicle fleet or farming industries.

KiwiBuild is largely unrecoverable, although there is indeed sterling work with HNZ building new rentals. Maybe the Urban Development Agency will help, in a few terms.

And now, intervening via television into an iwi-Fletchers housing partnership, over the top of layers of court and local government mandating, the Prime Minister gets in to stop a Mangere housing development. Few other suburbs in Auckland need new housing more, and she stops it.

I don’t knock the successes, small though they are. Great to hear mental health, defence, and conservation are getting better funding. I’m also glad we have an emotionally astute Prime Minister.

But it’s a very partial leadership. It’s not ‘transformational’, it’s not the year of delivery. What is this government?

This is the weakest leadership on policy of any government since the last term of Holyoake, 60 years ago. That’s on Ardern.

It’s time, since we are now getting emails to volunteer and donate money on their behalf for the next election, to expect more from Jacinda Ardern.

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