How will history judge the events of the last couple of months? Will it be judged by going hard and fast as our voluble Prime Minister and her mostly inept bunch of ministers would have us believe and therefore supposedly knocking the COVID-19 bastard off? Or will it be judged as an inexperienced and incompetent Government not understanding the economic ramifications of their decisions? Articles in the left wing global media would have you believe the former. Over the next few months it will become obvious that the latter is indeed the case.
This Government has no more idea of handling the fallout they have created than getting people off welfare and into work. As Damien Grant writes in an excellent article they do not understand economics and they do not understand business. A look at the background of both Ardern and Robertson will tell you that is a fact. Damien goes on to say that even more frightening they do not understand the importance of the institutional legacy they have inherited and are in the process of destroying.
They have paid scant attention to it because historically Labour Governments, with the exception of Roger Douglas, have never had a grasp on economic matters. All they know is borrow and spend to get themselves out of a hole which is exactly the path they have trodden with last weeks budget. Economic forecasts from Treasury seem way too optimistic. It’s hard not to come to the conclusion that these were manufactured to suit the document.
What they have focussed on was control, except initially at the border where it was most needed. Control of the populous is what this Government excels at. They locked us down, told us when and where we could and couldn’t go, told the Police to ensure that we were compliant and tolerated and assisted Iwi and gang members breaking the law while encouraging division in society by encouraging us all to dob each other in.
If they treated the economy with the same diligence as they have the people then both would have a brighter future in the long term. What we have been handed by Robertson is a bleak future certainly in the short term and probably in the long term. Subsequent generations will be paying dearly for the reckless amount of borrowing this Government has undertaken.
The Reid Research Poll just released has Labour predictably at an all-time high. One of the interesting points is that the figure Labour has gone up by is similar to what National has gone down by. It would be interesting to know how the questions were framed. It could well be that this poll was very much about the low numbers for COVID-19 and Jacinda is getting the credit. In no way would I regard this as a poll looking towards the September election. There is a lot of dirty economic water to go under the bridge between now and then.
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