National Party Playbook Revealed

So the MRP sale isn’t going to bring as much $$ as thought. Is anyone really that surprised? 73% of the New Zealand income tax payers earn less than 50,000 a year. I don't know who can afford to buy shares but it certainly isn't me. I blogged about how National was trying to shift the focus on Sky City to the Opposition and they are running exactly the same playbook on asset sales. Basically they are trying to present Labour as committing 'economic sabotage'. Once again it's "Labour are bad economic managers". 

Asset sales is a political and ideological policy. It is not designed to fix a problem. (No, it is not designed to build schools and hospitals, I wasn't born yesterday!) So why are they surprised that the Opposition has a response to their policy? They are not winning the policy argument so they are blaming the Opposition for having an alternative. If the opposition didn’t have an argument they would have been branded as incompetent. Somehow Labour is responsible for economic sabotage by suggesting an alternative but National are great managers of the economy despite not being able to predict that the opposition would find alternatives. That they would OPPOSE. 

I’m going to be fair. On paper this Government has not been a catastrophic failure. They have shepherded the country through tough times but that’s just it. That is all they have done. We have had 6 years of a center right government and we have not had a single innovative policy idea. Not one single innovating form of governance. New Zealand hasn't been a pioneer in anything. They have attached themselves to the successes of others and that’s about the extent of it. No matter what John Key does, he did not win the Rugby World Cup and he did not give birth to George. 

Despite their only election policy being a monumental failure, they are going to continue to push through and blame the Opposition, which by design has extremely limited capacity to affect anything. It is the Opposition’s job to come with alternative policy ideas. Imagine if they attacked the National Government but didn't provide and alternative. Imagine if they didn't acknowledge that gambling was bad? Imagine if they didn't acknowledge that folks were hurting because of high power prices. Give me a break!

In my last blog, I gave the Opposition some lines. In this one I am going to talk about risks. If my time in politics has taught me one thing it is that repetition works. No matter how many times you tell the public something, you can always tell it to them again. This tactic of National is going to work. They will weave the 'bad economic managers' into every policy. And it will stick in the minds of people. If Labour and Greens think that they have said all they have to on asset sales. They haven't. They could say more and they could say it over and over again. And this isn't economic sabotage. National are terrible economic managers. That is the only conclusion that you can make about a Government that didn't see this coming.