Five good things and five bad

Labour has been in government for seven years and three months. That's a good long time and as one would expect, some things have gone well and some things have gone badly in that time - for the country, for the party and for the government.

One of the hard things about being interested in day to day politics and blogging etc, is that you do get caught up in the mad rush of events. It is hard to sit back and take a longer term point of view at times. Being off shore and talking to expat friends does give the chance to think about things a little more abstractly. I took advantage of the chance.

What is good about it? Here are five things on the domestic record that I particularly like:

• Having the courage to withstand the pressure for major tax cuts, and instead save for the future and invest in public services.
• Fairer labour laws which have helped see unemployment to record low levels, and employment to record highs, as well as better income growth esp for unionised and low paid workers.
• Focused investment in things like student support improvements and income related state housing rents, and large land transport investments.
• Working for Families, boosting household incomes for those who need them most.
• A more active hands on role in economic development, including new regulatory frameworks in some areas.

There are lots more but I think these are probably the most durable and important achievements of the time in government to now. If Labour wins another term I think Kiwisaver and the stuff around better savings rates will have to join the list.

What about bad things? There are five in particular:

• Poor information. Whether it is knowing what happens in the health system, better information about crime rates, or demanding accountability for every single dollar spent in the public service, the information available to the public on what tax dollars are achieving for them have been below par.
• Climate change policy to date - one major failure and a continued worrying inability to translate important goals into meaningful policy with traction. This now seems on the mend but could have been more, earlier.
• A lack of focus on Auckland's development and governance. It would be great to see a subway system under way now, and the Stadium idea should have just been done.
• NCEA. I am convinced that the new system will end up better (testing what people know, not their rank, is a no-brainer), but the implementation of it and the utterly appalling inability to communicate and sell the system to parents and employers are a real downer.
• Too little focus on the poorest New Zealanders. Benefits are still too low; social exclusion is still too much --- and the current tax/spend policies, focus on working families for improvements etc, mean that after eight years the situation is nowhere near as good as I would have liked to see it.

I am sure that others can think of different strengths and weaknesses based on their experience and their values.

As those who know me offline would understand, I am not a blind defender of anything, let alone a government. One of the weaknesses of Labour and National governments is an apparent inability to admit mistakes and to change tack where required, either because of the forces of public opinion, because a policy is not delivering or whatever.

It is a great flaw in our political culture that you could never expect to see a politician admitting that their own government isn't perfect. It's obvious to everyone, including politicians themselves, but the constant desire to score points so often seems to outweigh a constructive or at least civilised discussion about what works and what doesn't, and whose interests should be promoted and why.

The comments threads on this blog are a great example of this point-scoring attitude. So I would like to issue a challenge. Comments below are welcome on the topic of the post: five good things and five bad about what Labour's done since 1999. If there are no bad things, or no good things, or the comment is astray, deleted it will be.

See what you can do...

Comments

[Tony Milne]

Bad: Housing and Home Ownership policy - hasn't been bold enough to address the inequalities that exist and a generation is being priced out of owning their own home.

Bad: Justice policy. Too much focus on keeping people in prison and not enough focus on preventing them from getting there in the first place.

Good: Focus on the arts/culture/heritage. We were attacked vigerously for our investment in this area - but there has been a huge turnaround in New Zealand pride and identity under this Government.

Good: Primary Health Care. Recognising that most things that make us healthy have nothing to do with our health system. Things that happen outside the health system (employment, housing, an honest and open approach to HIV, clean air etc) are more important than the health system.

[maria von trapp]

Agree with both of you (although Tony I'd like to see Arts funding go further)

Good but could be better: Student Loans. The interest free policy and increase in access to student allowances is a start, but students are still under a mountain of debt. Needs to continue to improve - my wish list would include universal student allowances.

Very very very good: rebuilding the Public Sector with a strategic focus in mind.

Excellent: The Civil Union Bill (well, those Labour MPs who actually voted for it!).

Bad: Public Transport improvements. Especially the Governments failure to act on the almost-removal of the Overlander.

[Billy]

Five bad things:

1. No tax cuts. A record surplus and nothing to spend it on, but still they won't give it back because, well, they're the government and they get to decide how much of our own money we get to keep (mainly because if you have money they suspect you don't deserve it).

2. The "we know best" smugness allied with the attempts to cast themselves as 1930's England-style class warriors. ("Tory charity", for example).

3. Saying they'd include the pledge card spending in their return before the election, and then changing their minds when they thought they could get away with it.

4. Not waiting until the Courts had finished dealing with the foreshore and seabed before taking away maori property rights.

5. Turning more and more New Zealanders into beneficiaries via working for families.

Five good things:

1. Not tinkering with the fundamentals they inherited: benefit levels (WFF aside); Reserve Bank Act; student loan scheme; limited tinkering in the economy (justified in Air NZ's case and the reasonably small amount to keep Jum Underton amused).

2. Parakura Horomia's amusing use of the English language.

3. Abolishing the privy council.

4. Being involved in Afghanistan (war on the Al Quaeda-harbouring Taliban being justifiable) but staying out of Iraq (war against whom was just dumb).

5. Giving us right wingers something to rail against to keep us young, vital and intersted.

[Luke]

Good:

Public Transport funding has seen massive percentage increases

Bad:

800% of 0 is 0 and that's about how much money is being spent on Public Transport relative to new Roads.

Good:

Interest Free Student Loans

Bad:

Less people getting student allowances where is the Universal Student Allowance.

Good:

Civil Union Bill. Enough Said

Bad:

Race Relations - Resuming the land confiscations of colonial times.

Good:

No more smoking in pubs.

Bad:

Not reversing Benifit Levels and Working Condition legislation. Taking part in a war for oil in Afghanistan. Not speaking out on much worse human rights abuses (some closer to home).

Good:
Claiming want to be carbon netural

Bad:
*cough* Yeah Right *cough* Even the Greens think this is unobtainable. Oh but it is when Carbon (apparently) doesn't include Methane (CH_4 ???) which breaks down into CO_2 in the atmosphere. (WTF!) This claim is backed up with no clear policy which will lead to a massive Kyoto Blowout. Public Transport spending, See point 1, has resulted in the "biggest roading program in New Zealand's history since the 19th centuary" which has lead to a continuance of New Zealand's car culture. More Cyclist's dead. More Children driven to school. More Emissions. More Energy Use. More destruction. Not putting most of New Zealands Frieght back on trains or ships. Not sticking with the burp tax (cause that's where the methane comes from not farting)

[Spirit Of 76]

Bad:
1 - Welfare For Families as opposed to tax cuts - incentive destroying.
2 - The Kyoto clusterfuck - resulting in the largest deforestation in NZ in decades.
3 - Ignoring the 1999 referendum on Justice & Crime
4 - Election overspending & stealing, vote cooking in Sth Auckland, Taito, Gross wastage of cash etc
5 - Labour is a dictatorship, ruled by Klark and no one dares to dissent.

Good:
1 - The Cullen Fund - at least it's a start
2 - No more smoking in pubs
3 - Klark getting stuck in to Mugabe at CHOGM mettings.

That is all...

[tim barclay]

They have been like a pig in muck regarding public money. They have indulged on a $20 billion spending binge with little or no results. Not once has the Labour Party questioned whether their spending has been effective. They focus on the input and then forget whether it has done anything at all. That $20 billion binge represents the amount in income tax middle NZ pays. I bet everyone who is paying income tax could have spent that money more effectively than the Labour Government. It has been the worst Labour Government we have had. I concede the Muldoon Government especially 1981-4 was probably worse.

[kiwi_donkey]

Good
(1) Staying out of Iraq. I might have supported the USA for other reasons, but it was a great stand by the PM. History will record her voice having spoken the truth at a difficult time.
(2) The Cullen Fund.
(3) Alleviating poverty - state house rents, pension increases (also great Keynesian economics).
(4) Advances in social policy (civil unions, prostitution law reform, and anti-smacking).
(5) Improving the status of women (pay rises for female professions, and government appointments),

Bad
(1) The Pledge card rort.
(2) Welfare for the middle class.
(3) Divisive politics - the return of class warfare into the economic debate.
(4) Neglect and poor management (school dental service, corrections, health, forestry carbon)
(5) Third term arrogance and inflexibility.
- Although to be fair the PM has got better on this, only to be Undermined by Steve "Fourth Term, Tory Charity" Maharey at every opportunity.

[Tony Milne]

Good - I forgot about this one, but it is actually really important - banning smoking in bars/cafes. In the long run that will have a bigger impact on NZers public health than billions of extra dollars being spent.

[Peter Cresswell]

I've taken up your challenge over at Not PC this morning.
http://pc.blogspot.com/2007/03/it-was-best-of-times-it-was-worst-of.html

Cheers, PC

[peter mck]

Bad
1. Working for Families (communism by stealth
2. $20b extra spending with little improvement in services
3. Massive surpluses ($11.5 b in 2005-06 - typical socialist thinking my hard earned money is theirs as of right
4. Election pledge card fraud and then lying about it
5. PC Social engineering -
there are of course so many other things but time does not permit. The main issues revolve around too much nanny state and interference in lives of NZers

Good
1. Smoking in pubs banned
2. Clark representation at Rugby World Cup
3. bringing in preventative detention (but could go much further)
4. Extra construction of roading infrastructure (but RMA gets in the way of real progress
5. now i am struggling - so i suppose that is it.

[Aj]

Good - tax cuts for business

[DS]

Good:
1. The end of the Employment Contracts Act.
2. Wiping interest on student loans.
3. The Cullen Fund.
4. Increase in minimum wage
5. Kiwibank, and the return of Air NZ and the rail-track to public ownership.

Bad:
1. Too cowardly to address a broken monetary policy.
2. Too slow in addressing the failed bums-on-seats funding of universities and higher education.
3. Too little success in improving public transport.
4. Failure at restoring TVNZ to the status of a proper public broadcaster, instead leaving it as a half-corporate, half-public-service mess.
5. Poor communication of ideas (especially on the tax debate).

[phillip john]

Good:

1) Working for families (It will mildly address issues of poverty in New Zealand).

2) Civil Unions Bill: More work needs to be done though, especially in the area of gay parenting rights.

3) Banning smoking in pubs.

4) Strong stand against Neo-Con invasion of Iraq.

5) Keeping the Tories at bay for 3 terms!

Bad:

1) The Employmnet Relations Act doesn't go far enough to protect vulnerable workers. After 7 years union density is the same as it was when National was in power.

2) Wage inequality is worse than it was when Labour took power.

3) Lack of focus on improving public transport despite the public being overwhelmingly in favour of it.

4) Lack of preperation for inevitable (medium-term 5-10 years) increases in oil price as demand outstrips supply. (when price reaches a critical point there will be a global recession, how will we deal with that?)

5) Lack of focus on replacing non-renewable forms of energy with renewable forms.

[Mainly Politics]

GOOD:
1. Major steps to increase participation and decrease costs in education (free ECE, interest free student loans, student allowances etc.)
2. The focus on ensuring economic prosperity 'lifts all boats' with things like increases in the minimum wage, working for families, the employment relations act, etc.
3. The reassertion of the role of government in some areas where there was market failure (eg. Air NZ, the railways)
4. Primary Health Care Strategy, ban on smoking in pubs etc. These policies will have a significant impact in the longer term.
5. Maintaining an independent foreign policy (ie. not going to Iraq, staying nuke free etc)
6. Sticking with responsible economic policies even when this has led to unpopularity.

BAD:
1. The Pledge Card. Shouldn't have been paid for out of parliamentary funds (although I maintain National aren't as lilly white as they would like us to believe).
2. Public Transport. We own the railway tracks again now, so how about we put them to use?
3. Justice policy. Labour should have shown more leadership rather than adopting the 'lock em up throw away the key' knee-jerk stance.
4. Performance information - we need better information on how government is making a difference. The Social Report is a good start in this area.
5. Climate change - the rest of the world is going to leave us behind if we don't step up the pace soon...
6. Being willing to debate - too often we either don't stop to debate an issue before we do something or we change course when something becomes unpopular rather than engaging in debate.

[Jordan Carter]

Well done on a very constructive and interesting set of ideas. I am impressed!

[dad4justice]

Helen Clark said the underclass was "extrapolated from an anecdote."

Is this a good or bad thing from government ?