Fine rhetoric from our PM does not allay my fears that this government will introduce new taxes to pay for their gargantuan 50 billion dollar loan. “Know us by our deeds”? What rhetorical codswallop.
The entranced media, like possums stuck in the headlights, print her responses but do not challenge her ridiculous words.
We know you well Jacinda. The evidence does not match your rhetoric. The government introduced seven new taxes in this term despite saying there’d be none. Could you be misleading us? Should we believe a word you say? Or are you just a virtue signaler extraordinaire?
LET ME COUNT THE WAYS THE GOVERNMENT’S DEEDS HAVE FAILED!
First on the list is KiwiBuild, the largest public policy failure this country has ever seen! The government tried but failed to lift children out of poverty; to adequately carry out the 2018 census; to start the (cancelled) light rail; to get buy in for fees-free education; to curb rising emissions; to introduce (promised) capital gains tax; the list is long…
The rhetoric was there but the deeds failed to follow; just announcement after announcement followed by working groups ad nauseam, all at the taxpayers’ expense.
Shovel ready projects but no shovel in the ground. They cancelled all National’s planned “Roads of National Significance” (only to reintroduce them under pressure), due to their polarised views and their refusal to take on the previous government’s projects. So predictable and small-minded, like the Democrats in the US who consistently oppose funding for a border wall and security and yet when in power put up billions.
Jacinda, on her first public outing since the lockdown, also accused National of ‘cynical politics’. She took umbrage at them referring to her officially named precious “COVID response and recovery fund” as her “election slush fund”.
A fund by any other name would be as sweet, PM, when it will be your magic bullet for re-election. With an electorate drunk on all the hand outs and passively waiting for the next one, they can forgive the tragic track record of your incompetent clown show, aka Government!
The secret squirrel nature of the so-called COVID response and recovery fund is yet another way the government is holding the sword of Damocles over New Zealanders; in particular, business owners and workers. These hard-working New Zealanders who daily are making difficult life-changing decisions, need more support and certainty, now.
Being allowed to ‘sort of’ open but not really, because there are so many restrictions, means restaurants are operating at half pace which is putting unbelievable pressure on thousands of businesses. They are in truth not properly ‘open for business’ at all, but struggling to break even after an enforced 2-month closure.
Rigidity and refusal to plan and reassess daily (let’s call it incompetence) has been the Achilles heel of this government who have adopted a ‘make it up as you go along’ approach. Pretty much how they have run their many failed programmes since gaining office.
Having relented on numbers at funerals, the next issue they are facing is growing outrage at the small numbers allowed in places of worship. The cynic in me says that as there aren’t a large number of Maori agitating on this one; the urge is not so great to be benevolent as there aren’t votes in it for them. Another fine deed, PM?
The government must be in seventh heaven with all this lovely money to play with and the fact that their failures until the COVID-19 crisis won’t be people’s key focus anymore.
To put it bluntly, the so-called ‘rock star economy’ of the former government was but a distant memory as we entered 2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic hit us.
The government’s hope will be that their flawed performance to date can conveniently merge into the current crisis and be confined to history forever. Sadly for them, I fear that may not happen.
That’s what we have an Opposition for. To constantly remind us.
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