Three-quarters of the way through this government’s year of delivery and here are some promises Labour made in their 2017 campaign that they have failed to deliver on.
This is the first in a series of Labour fails which will continue under various categories. It is not necessarily a comprehensive list – please feel free to add to it.
Housing promise: Build 100,000 affordable homes over 10 years, half of them in Auckland.
Delivery: Instead of scrapping KiwiFail, a KiwiwBuild reset with a build target of zero and the introduction of a $400M co-ownership model coat-tailing off private models was introduced. Habitat for Humanity is an example of shared equity housing providers for low-income families. But will coat-tailing work this time around when it failed in KiwiBuild?
Housing promise: Take serious action to end homelessness.
Delivery: More promises but no delivery. In May 2019 homelessness was worsening: Phil Twyford said: “the past three winters have seen record numbers of homeless on our city streets throughout the country.”
Housing promise: Require all rental homes to be warm, dry, and healthy and invest in warm dry homes and make life better for renters.
Delivery: Private sector housing providers left the market in droves after the threat of a CGT, tenants being incentivised by thousands of dollars to dob in their landlords and the cost of improving rental housing to government standards without government assistance. The result was a decline in rental housing, increased rents and an overall worsening life for tenants.
Health promise: Make sure all New Zealander’s get world-class cancer treatment, no matter where they live, by investing $8 Billion and establishing a National Cancer Agency.
Delivery: Allocated $60M to be spent on Pharmac to purchase new drugs including new cancer drugs $20 million this year and $40 million in 2020/21. Instead, patients whose cancer was misdiagnosed or not diagnosed quickly enough can claim ACC and these claims have increased.
Health promise: $200M for rare disorders.
Delivery: Not delivered and now a bribe of $200M allocated to cancer drugs if Labour is returned to government in 2020.
Health promise: Increase government funding for all practices to lower doctor’s visit fee by $10 a visit.
Delivery: Government broken promise. Instead of lower fees for all, phased subsidies were introduced predominantly for Very Low Access Cost (VLAC) practices.
Health promise: Health services in every secondary school.
Delivery: Government broken promise. In the Waikato Decile 1-5 secondary schools have access to a GP with registered nurses in decile 1-4 secondary schools.
Education promise: $6 billion over four years including $1.8 billion to deliver more teachers, better professional development and more learning resources.
Delivery: Teacher strikes from August 2018 to June 2019 by burnt-out teachers demanding better working conditions.
Education promise: Three years of fees-free tertiary education by 2024.
Delivery: The $2 billion for fees-free tertiary subsidy resulted in fewer students enrolling for university and so the government cut $200 million off the funding allocation in the 2019 budget leaving the door open to scrapping the whole scheme.
Transport promise: Fast track light rail from the CBD to Auckland airport.
Delivery: In August 2019 NZTA refused to release information on progress of this project to Stuff. If this is fast track what is slow?
Transport promise: Create a passenger rail service linking Auckland, Hamilton, and Tauranga and, if justified by demand, upgrade it in stages to a rapid rail network throughout the Golden Triangle.
Delivery: By 26 August 2019 rail plans were slammed for going only as far as Papakura to Hamilton and will be slower than driving by car.
Transport promise: Wellington was promised a Congestion Free Network plan and to fast-track a feasibility study on rapid transit to the airport, which considers light rail.
Delivery: Compliments of JAG, Wellington got the kibosh on a second Mt Victoria tunnel with worsening congestion.
No new taxes promise: No new taxes until after 2020.
Delivery: A new fuel tax and very nearly a capital gains tax which in the end was rejected because of its complexity and a strong lack of public appetite.