Delighted today to see that John Banks is slashing spending in Auckland. Obviously this has been a plan for a while, but would have been criticised under a Labour government. Public transport, water treatment, and various other money-suckers are all to be slashed.
Hopefully this means my rates will drop very shortly!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Maori Party
I don't think any of us really counted on the Maori Party being involved on any level with a National-led government. I hope Key keeps them out of it. ACT and National are all we need right now.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Key and Hide make things formal.
Hide will be appointed a minister outside of cabinet.
The 'outside of cabinet' bit is a bit disappointing but I guess we have to take what we can get at this stage. Roger Douglas will be able to make his presence felt regardless.
The 'outside of cabinet' bit is a bit disappointing but I guess we have to take what we can get at this stage. Roger Douglas will be able to make his presence felt regardless.
Post-Coital Bliss
It was interesting to sit down last night and watch John Campbell with John Key. I had always figured Campbell was a serious leftie but I'm now convinced that he's been a Key supporter the whole time (or else he's just gone very soft on his interviewing). Getting some insight into Key's childhood and his career goal to be Prime Minister was a nice change from constant policy talk. We finally have a PM who men want to be and women want to be with!
I wish the NZ public would get over the Roger Douglas thing, though. They clearly wanted a Nat/ACT coalition. And who do they think created the ACT Party in the first place? It certainly wasn't Rodney Hide. Douglas has a lot he can contribute to this government and it seems slightly ridiculous that Key has to pretend he isn't going to have a serious amount of input via Rodney Hide, even without a cabinet post. Obviously Key has to play down the truly right-wing nature of the government for a while, so people don't get too alarmed in these early stages, but at some point we're going to have to open up and let people know that this is a properly right-wing government. Key was put forward as leader because he appears to be more of a populist centrist than Brash. But the Nats have remained otherwise intact for a long time now, and aside from Key it's business as usual.
Cullen's resignation yesterday was like being given a second helping of a very sweet dessert. Now we wait excitedly for Key to assemble his cabinet- McCully will be Finance Minister for sure, and this is a very good start. I'm just anxious for things to kick in now - we need to stop dawdling round with the health system for a start, and bring in Kaiser Permanente as soon as possible. At least we are finally on track to achieving some pure objectives without interference from minorities.
I wish the NZ public would get over the Roger Douglas thing, though. They clearly wanted a Nat/ACT coalition. And who do they think created the ACT Party in the first place? It certainly wasn't Rodney Hide. Douglas has a lot he can contribute to this government and it seems slightly ridiculous that Key has to pretend he isn't going to have a serious amount of input via Rodney Hide, even without a cabinet post. Obviously Key has to play down the truly right-wing nature of the government for a while, so people don't get too alarmed in these early stages, but at some point we're going to have to open up and let people know that this is a properly right-wing government. Key was put forward as leader because he appears to be more of a populist centrist than Brash. But the Nats have remained otherwise intact for a long time now, and aside from Key it's business as usual.
Cullen's resignation yesterday was like being given a second helping of a very sweet dessert. Now we wait excitedly for Key to assemble his cabinet- McCully will be Finance Minister for sure, and this is a very good start. I'm just anxious for things to kick in now - we need to stop dawdling round with the health system for a start, and bring in Kaiser Permanente as soon as possible. At least we are finally on track to achieving some pure objectives without interference from minorities.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
A Very Happy Day
Today is the dawning of a new era; one we have been waiting for. Today is the day after the 2008 NZ election in which National were elected as the leaders of what will be a right-wing coalition government, with the ACT Party and perhaps United Future. Of course I voted for National (although ACT were very attractive as well) and it was a very proud feeling to watch those votes flow in last night. More than a few toasts were made!
I've decided to chronicle the next three years (and hopefully three more after that, and three more after that...) in this weblog, so that the changes that our country so desperately needs can be comprehensively profiled as they occur. I, and many people I know, feel quite certain that we will look back on this election as a defining moment in New Zealand, one which gave power back to the people who deserve it (successful, hard-working, Pakeha men) and stopped pandering to the whims and desires of ethnic minorities, women and gays. It is not that the country wishes harm to any of these minorities, per se, it is simply that their interests are not in line with the interests of those of us who operate businesses and keep this country moving along - we are the people who make or break this country, so we are the people who should ultimately be listened to.
To begin with, I think it's pertinent to make note of some of the areas in which we so desperately need change and look at National's plans for the next few years in this area:
Tax Cuts: National will pass their tax package into law before Christmas, and cuts will be come effective from 1 April 2009. This is an excellent development. While some low-middle income families might find they are a few dollars worse off a week, this will be off-set by the wealthier members of our society having significantly more money which they can pump back in to the economy. This will create a trickle-down effect and poor people shouldn't have any complaints in the end.
Infrastructure: A Minister of Infrastructure will be appointed right away, who will oversee the implementation of National's Infrastructure plan. At this stage, that seems to involve borrowing large amounts to build a lot of roads, which will hopefully be good for the economy and will obviously give us a lot more roads which will be wonderful as well. The other component is restructuring the Resource Management Act, which is nothing but a hindrance anyway. Maori people are constantly using the Resource Management Act to argue ridiculous things, like you shouldn't build a road through the graveyard on the land that was stolen from them. Now of course that won't be a problem and people will be able to build and develop with very little consultation with key stakeholders. All round, this is really great for economic growth and has been a long time coming.
Public Spending: All of the public service execs are going to be called in and told to cap and cut spending wherever possible. There will also be a Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee who will be told to cut departmental spending, with a focus on the front line. This should free up more money for further tax cuts later in National's term.
Deregulation: A regulatory review programme will begin the deregulation process, hopefully in a similar way to the Bush administration.
Law and Order: The worst violent offenders will no longer be eligible for parole. It's unclear at this stage how 'worst' will be defined, and how much it will cost the taxpayer to keep them in jail for three times as long as they are now. It's also not clear what will happen to them while they are in jail - while many people believe that prisoners should be rehabilitated and have their reoffending targeted by psychological intervention, the money for this might need to be diverted simply into housing the inmates. While they may not be rehabilitated by the time they finally are released, at least the public will be safe for longer.
Tough new laws against gangs and their drug dealings are also planned. Gangs are notoriously difficult to police, and some argue that zero tolerance in this area will simply push the gangs underground even further, but I personally can't see any reason why this would happen. Gangs are already underground so where else is there for them to go?
Every person ARRESTED (not charged, or found guilty - just arrested) for an imprisonable offence (such as 'unnecessary display of speed' in a motor vehicle or murder) will be required to provide their DNA to the state. This means that the state will be able to create an enormous database of not just criminals, but also just ordinary people who might have been mistaken for a criminal or been the victim of a false allegation. The government will then have a massive store of DNA information about hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and this will be a great aid in solving crime.
Criminals will also be required to pay money into a Victims Compensation Scheme. I'm not sure where they will get the money from, but it seems to be common sense that victims should have some right to private compensation that doesn't come from the government and is instead levied from the people who made them victims in the first place.
Education: Apparently there are no national standards for literacy and numeracy?! National will change this and make sure that reports are written so that we can understand them, like the sorts of reports we got when I was a schoolboy.
Apparently $500 million of 'capital investment' will be pumped into schools in preparation for National's first budget - I presume that this will assist in the development of some private-public partnerships in the education sector, but I guess we will have to wait and see what they mean by that. Sounds a bit welfare state to me, but I'll over look it for now...
Health: National will begin looking at how to restructure the DHB's and involve the use of private hospitals in delivering healthcare, hopefully moving us towards the US's private system eventually.
And of course the Electoral Finance Bill 2007 will be repealed, so that big political parties can continue to receive anonymous donations from wealthy overseas donors in the US and various other places which NZ interests.
Some people have said to me that they don't think National will do anything notable in their first three years of power, but I believe that this information (which comes from their post election action plan) demonstrates quite clearly that National has a lot of work to do in getting the country back to how it was in the 80s and 90s and they're not going to stop for anyone. Expect some quite big changes, quite quickly - while we may not immediately feel the full force of all this new legislation, policy, and spending cutbacks, it won't be long before things start to change quite dramatically in New Zealand. National has pledged to roll out these changes in their first 100 days of government. This blog will do its best to document the changes as they happen.
I've decided to chronicle the next three years (and hopefully three more after that, and three more after that...) in this weblog, so that the changes that our country so desperately needs can be comprehensively profiled as they occur. I, and many people I know, feel quite certain that we will look back on this election as a defining moment in New Zealand, one which gave power back to the people who deserve it (successful, hard-working, Pakeha men) and stopped pandering to the whims and desires of ethnic minorities, women and gays. It is not that the country wishes harm to any of these minorities, per se, it is simply that their interests are not in line with the interests of those of us who operate businesses and keep this country moving along - we are the people who make or break this country, so we are the people who should ultimately be listened to.
To begin with, I think it's pertinent to make note of some of the areas in which we so desperately need change and look at National's plans for the next few years in this area:
Tax Cuts: National will pass their tax package into law before Christmas, and cuts will be come effective from 1 April 2009. This is an excellent development. While some low-middle income families might find they are a few dollars worse off a week, this will be off-set by the wealthier members of our society having significantly more money which they can pump back in to the economy. This will create a trickle-down effect and poor people shouldn't have any complaints in the end.
Infrastructure: A Minister of Infrastructure will be appointed right away, who will oversee the implementation of National's Infrastructure plan. At this stage, that seems to involve borrowing large amounts to build a lot of roads, which will hopefully be good for the economy and will obviously give us a lot more roads which will be wonderful as well. The other component is restructuring the Resource Management Act, which is nothing but a hindrance anyway. Maori people are constantly using the Resource Management Act to argue ridiculous things, like you shouldn't build a road through the graveyard on the land that was stolen from them. Now of course that won't be a problem and people will be able to build and develop with very little consultation with key stakeholders. All round, this is really great for economic growth and has been a long time coming.
Public Spending: All of the public service execs are going to be called in and told to cap and cut spending wherever possible. There will also be a Cabinet Expenditure Control Committee who will be told to cut departmental spending, with a focus on the front line. This should free up more money for further tax cuts later in National's term.
Deregulation: A regulatory review programme will begin the deregulation process, hopefully in a similar way to the Bush administration.
Law and Order: The worst violent offenders will no longer be eligible for parole. It's unclear at this stage how 'worst' will be defined, and how much it will cost the taxpayer to keep them in jail for three times as long as they are now. It's also not clear what will happen to them while they are in jail - while many people believe that prisoners should be rehabilitated and have their reoffending targeted by psychological intervention, the money for this might need to be diverted simply into housing the inmates. While they may not be rehabilitated by the time they finally are released, at least the public will be safe for longer.
Tough new laws against gangs and their drug dealings are also planned. Gangs are notoriously difficult to police, and some argue that zero tolerance in this area will simply push the gangs underground even further, but I personally can't see any reason why this would happen. Gangs are already underground so where else is there for them to go?
Every person ARRESTED (not charged, or found guilty - just arrested) for an imprisonable offence (such as 'unnecessary display of speed' in a motor vehicle or murder) will be required to provide their DNA to the state. This means that the state will be able to create an enormous database of not just criminals, but also just ordinary people who might have been mistaken for a criminal or been the victim of a false allegation. The government will then have a massive store of DNA information about hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders and this will be a great aid in solving crime.
Criminals will also be required to pay money into a Victims Compensation Scheme. I'm not sure where they will get the money from, but it seems to be common sense that victims should have some right to private compensation that doesn't come from the government and is instead levied from the people who made them victims in the first place.
Education: Apparently there are no national standards for literacy and numeracy?! National will change this and make sure that reports are written so that we can understand them, like the sorts of reports we got when I was a schoolboy.
Apparently $500 million of 'capital investment' will be pumped into schools in preparation for National's first budget - I presume that this will assist in the development of some private-public partnerships in the education sector, but I guess we will have to wait and see what they mean by that. Sounds a bit welfare state to me, but I'll over look it for now...
Health: National will begin looking at how to restructure the DHB's and involve the use of private hospitals in delivering healthcare, hopefully moving us towards the US's private system eventually.
And of course the Electoral Finance Bill 2007 will be repealed, so that big political parties can continue to receive anonymous donations from wealthy overseas donors in the US and various other places which NZ interests.
Some people have said to me that they don't think National will do anything notable in their first three years of power, but I believe that this information (which comes from their post election action plan) demonstrates quite clearly that National has a lot of work to do in getting the country back to how it was in the 80s and 90s and they're not going to stop for anyone. Expect some quite big changes, quite quickly - while we may not immediately feel the full force of all this new legislation, policy, and spending cutbacks, it won't be long before things start to change quite dramatically in New Zealand. National has pledged to roll out these changes in their first 100 days of government. This blog will do its best to document the changes as they happen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)