Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: The Solemnity of the Day, in reply to Ben Austin,
National's economic management abilities
I'm not sure how it seems from afar but this government has been specifically clueless on that front - more of the same tired neoliberal magic beans and wishing and hoping that Bill English and chums brought us in the 1990s. Much like Cameron's UK, only more sly in the political and comms management this time here.
We've seen: the same core faith that 'the market will provide' (even in the face of one of its greatest global failures in a century); slashing of the public sector while telling the public you're "capping" job numbers and "transferring resources from the back office to the frontline"; proposing to sell core infrastructure against any evidence that it will produce results other than a warm feeling for Randians, a transfer of wealth from citizens to fortunate investors and (belatedly, the story changes) a slush fund to buy votes in the provinces. Some nice touches like putting the proceeds of those asset sales in the 2011 Budget as if they were already a done deal, to stave off the disapproval of global ratings agencies.
And ignoring the ignominy of two recent credit downgrades (which naturally no one has reminded us of during most of the shortened election campaign).
I guffawed the first time the phrase "economic credibility" slid from Key's lips during the infamous Chch Press 'leaders' debate. Sobered very swiftly when Goff had no rejoinder. And subsequently on the campaign trail when the Labour leader failed to get his party's economic basics right 3 days in a row under questioning.
All the whiile, Cunliffe (who does have good command of the detail and more oomph in debate) is kept firmly in the wings to avoid overshadowing the contender, and other parties are kept out of the centrepiece TV debates through duplicity between National, Labour and broadcasters. It would be great to see the Greens and Labour or Natonal and Act talking aobut how they would manage the economy together in an MMP government. Instead we get the pretence of FPP and the prospect of a government with no practical constraints.
I don't feel like New Zealanders deserve the poor accountability we're getting, though perhaps we do deserve the incompetent leadership we tolerate.
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Hard News: The Solemnity of the Day, in reply to Emma Hart,
you can always pick a winkler
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Bart Janssen,
the public interest
now only refers to what we pay
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Hard News: The Solemnity of the Day, in reply to BenWilson,
I've effectively made Facebook into a way for people to send me private messages
sounds more appealing already
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to hamishm,
the Australian finance industry has already had its palm crossed with gold
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Rich Lock,
What it effectively means is that any sort of resolution won't happen before Saturday
mission achieved
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to merc,
the voters need to know why the sales must be enacted in order to make an informed vote
I agree, but those reports were likely to contain commercial detail, not overall policy 'reasoning'.
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to merc,
if the information got out now it could affect the amount of money gained from these assets.
Fair argument. Shame TVNZ waited so long before doing any story at all.
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to merc,
The existence of considerable prep work for asset sales has not been a secret from the opposition. Nor the media. Just the public.
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Hard News: A week being a long time in politics, in reply to Kumara Republic,
the real reasons why the local sharemarket is flat
it's the opposite of ambitious that local investors need corporate welfare to provide a safe investment, but proper market governance is not something any politician is offering.