Red Alert

Posts Tagged ‘broken promises’

Then and now: Key on public services

Posted by Chris Hipkins on March 10th, 2012

Yesterday I blogged about John Key’s pre-election promises about asset sales and pointed out how the post-election reality falls well short of his earlier rhetoric. Key’s pre-election promises on public services back in 2008 paint an even starker contrast. What National promised and what they’ve been doing are polar opposites.

“A new National Government is not going to radically reorganise the structure of the public sector…..Few problems are solved by significant reorganisations – in fact, many more tend to be created.  It is easy to underestimate the amount of energy and inspiration soaked up by institutional change, as well as the loss of personal and institutional knowledge.” (John Key, speech to PSA Congress, September 2008)

I’m not sure the staff at MFAT, where one on four could end up out of a job, would agree that isn’t radical restructuring. Under National, multiple agencies have been merged, over 2,500 jobs have been lost, regional offices have been closed, and now Key is promising even more to come.

“So let me reiterate National’s position.  We are in no way going to reduce the number of frontline staff.  Let me make this absolutely clear – under National the numbers of doctors, nurses, teachers, social workers, police and other frontline staff will grow.” (John Key, speech to PSA Congress, September 2008)

In the past few weeks we’ve seen DHBs talking about laying off medical professionals because of under-funding, education officials talking about bigger class sizes so that we employ fewer teachers, police being told they have to make massive savings, closure of frontline regional offices (eg. Housing NZ), and the replacement of frontline consular services overseas with an 0800 number.

“In additional (sic) to upholding the professionalism of the public service, we are also going to uphold its political neutrality….There has to be a clear line drawn between the political role of the Government and professional independence of the public service.” (John Key, speech to PSA Congress, September 2008)

I’m not sure how John Key appointing his own local National Party electorate chairman to broadcasting funding agency NZ on Air lives up to this commitment, particularly given said chairman’s role in deciding which political documentaries got funding in the lead-up to the general election.

“The New Zealand government is in a sound fiscal position.  We can afford to protect the vulnerable and maintain social services….”  (John Key, speech to PSA Congress, September 2008)

Quick, somebody tell Bill English. According to Key, NZ’s books were in good shape when they took office. Of course, having flushed our sound economic position down the toilet they’re now trying to blame the previous Labour govt, who paid back the debt and left the books in good shape.


Flashback – Key on GST rise

Posted by Grant Robertson on November 1st, 2011

To help refresh memories, here is exactly what John Key said on GST before the last election. Personally I don’t think there is any room for nuance here. He said he would not increase it, and he did.


Broken Promise No.15

Posted by Grant Robertson on February 8th, 2011

So the big idea to kick-start the New Zealand economy in John Key’s Opening Statement to Parliament today was to have a bash at public servants and propose the re-organisation of the public sector. Tired old stuff, and we won’t dwell on how this will actually create jobs, but more than that the second part of the “plan” is a huge break of the promise John Key made before the 2008 election. This is what he said to the PSA Congress in 2008

I also want to reassure people – and this is my second point – that a new National Government is not going to radically reorganise the structure of the public sector.Our focus is squarely on delivering services, not on changing the wiring diagram of the state sector to get a tidier conceptual model.

Few problems are solved by significant reorganisations – in fact, many more tend to be created. It is easy to underestimate the amount of energy and inspiration soaked up by institutional change, as well as the loss of personal and institutional knowledge.

Just as Labour has done, we will take opportunities to make changes to some agencies as part of the usual business of government. However, there will be no wholesale reorganisation or restructuring across the public sector.

Read his lips- no wholesale reorganisation or restructuring. I guess that sits along side the promise to cap but not cut the public service in the same speech, or not to increase GST or……


As you do the Saturday shopping

Posted by Grant Robertson on October 2nd, 2010

You saw it here first (well not quite first, but for the first time after the election), so a reminder as you look at the bill from shopping this morning that National campaigned explicitly not to increase GST.


Video: John Key on GST

Posted by Chris Hipkins on February 24th, 2010


Peter Dunne plays grinch

Posted by Chris Hipkins on December 20th, 2009

Last week I missed this little announcement from Peter Dunne that the threshold at which student loan borrowers have to start paying back their loan would not be increased. To my knowledge this has never happened before, the threshold is usually adjusted each year so that it stays the same in real terms. National promised at the last election to keep the student loan scheme as it is (keep interest free etc). This amounts to a broken promise, even if it is a very small one.

The amounts we are talking about are not huge, it will probably cost every student loan borrower about $20-$40 a year. But it does set a worrying precedent. Given National’s promise not to touch the loan scheme a statement from Dunne that talks about the “very significant cost of this $9.6 billion asset to the Crown” and noting this change is intended to “lower the overall costs of the scheme to the Crown” is particularly worrying.


Rhetoric vs reality

Posted by Clare Curran on May 11th, 2009

It’s a bit like extracting teeth. Or to be more accurate, a protracted and painful labour. And it’s becoming a bit of a recurring theme. What is you ask? Getting the National Government to slowly and painfully acknowledge that their rhetoric doesn’t match the reality. Or putting it even more simply, reveal their broken promises. On rushing through their plans for an Auckland supercity, taking away the rights of Aucklanders to decide what sort of governance they should have; tax cuts that put extra dollars in the pockets of only those who don’t need them; saying they’ll cap the public service, when what they’re really doing is cutting real people’s jobs. And now claims that they will deliver broadband into people’s homes. Well oops, sorry, it won’t be into their homes, it’ll be to their streets leaving families with the bill to connect broadband actually into their homes at anywhere between hundreds and several thousand dollars, depending on how far the home is off the street and how difficult the access is.

Now I can can hear the howls of protest from the apologists for the government. But hang on a minute guys. Let’s be clear here. Did the National Party, or did it not, promise before (and after) the election to deliver ultrafast broadband fibre to 75% of New Zealanders where they live, work and study within 10 years? They promised to spend $1.5 billion and the expectation was that this would be matched on a dollar for dollar basis by private investment, making the overall investment $3 billion.  John Key used this promise as a central campaign pledge. Maurice Williamson trumpeted it from the rooftops. And New Zealanders rightly expected that this is what the newly-elected government would do.

Now my understanding is that after the election, the new Minister for Communications &IT Steven Joyce found he had inherited a pup. A promise that would be damn hard to deliver on. Costing at least $4 to $7 billion and possibly up to $10 billion to fully deliver. And he had to go back to the drawing board. Now I’m not criticising the proposal the government has come up with to date, not in this post. What I am pointing out is that the objective; ultrafast broadband to 75% of NZ homes, is undeliverable at that price. Either that, or the people will pay. Which wasn’t part of the deal. And don’t tell me it was!

Two weeks ago in Parliament, Steven Joyce didn’t want to admit that ordinary people would face a cost. However, last week  Steven Joyce was forced to admit it when he said (for the first time to my knowledge) “there will of course be an element of cost…” in the consumer contribution. Well Huh? No mention of that pre-election to my knowledge. And I’m not the only one to comment on this publicly. A report to Treasury has said as much. Though Steven Joyce has tried to undermine it. The Dom Post has been commenting on this issue as has Computer World. It’s no secret that the major telcos think the same way. And I understand that the group of electricity lines companies led by Vector who are vying for the Govt’s $1.5b are asking for expensive extras before they get involved. So, um, there’s a few issues there for the government. Not to mention the pesky question of how to deliver ultrafast broadband to the remaining 25% of New Zealanders. A quarter of our population, mostly in rural provincial New Zealand. Now there’s a challenge.