Our PM Jacinda Ardern (and the government)

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#2885985 14-Mar-2022 13:32

Scott3:

To be fair, the government was limited in it's first term by NZ first, which blocked some key legislation, and they have now passed the likes of the clean car discount / clean car standard. But that legislation is going to be quite slow to kick in.

"The government was limited by the coalition partner it was always going to need to govern" shouldn't be the get-out-of-jail card some people keep spinning it as. Managing your coalition partners seems like a pretty basic expectation for the leader of a coalition government. And it didn't stop them making a balls-up of things before they even reached the cabinet table, as the previous discussions around Light Rail have alluded to.

And it's not like the government has managed much of note since they got handed the stonkingly huge majority in the last election, having totally ruled out things like a CGT as long as Ardern is leader, other than Light Rail getting even chonkier and the deeply unpopular Three Waters reforms and the reforms to collective bargaining.

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#2885986 14-Mar-2022 13:33

Scott3:

As a wide comment, early in the pandemic it was pretty clear that moves were made to avoid us having a financial crisis stacked with the pandemic (for examples reduction on the restrictions on lending for residential housing, massive government spending on wage subsides etc.). I think this was the correct move. A pandemic stacked with a financial crisis would have been terrible, even if we deferred an inevitable crisis to after the pandemic, I feel it was worthwile.

But it does leave us as a country in a tricky spot now. Those measures increased government debt, fueled inflation and pumped the housing market. All of which we will now have to deal with, and things that are becoming issues before we have emerged from the pandemic.

Ardern gets a lot of attention for being a good leader, I think she has been a good communicator (More recently less so). There has been a real vacuum of actual leadership, her real test is now, as it is for Robertson and the entire Government. They have no-one else to blame for their failures and no-one to steal the limelight in their successes.

As was mentioned in the article above, the likelihood is that they won't be in power when the longer-term impacts of the decisions made in the past 2 years will really become apparent.

Because Covid has been all-consuming I feel people haven't really had a chance to properly assess the impacts of the decisions made during that time, now it looks like within a few months we will be over the worst of this, people are looking around and wondering quite fairly, what the real situation is or will be.

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#2886049 14-Mar-2022 15:51

I do have to give Ardern credit though, they haven't let this fester like the 'Housing crisis isn't really a crisis' stuff did for the Nats, or when Labour MPs have talked about how they don't want to see prices come down. This one has resulted in some relatively quick reactions, even if it is purely reactionary in nature.

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#2886056 14-Mar-2022 16:00

GV27:

I do have to give Ardern credit though, they haven't let this fester like the 'Housing crisis isn't really a crisis' stuff did for the Nats, or when Labour MPs have talked about how they don't want to see prices come down. This one has resulted in some relatively quick reactions, even if it is purely reactionary in nature.

Well, sure, they have taken quick action, what do you do to quickly fix a housing crisis decades in the making? It obviously wasn't so easy as dropping some fuel tax to give some temporary relief (which will have ramifications later on)?

Labours attempts to do something about housing was akin to finding a roaring fire and pouring fuel on top of it.

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#2886060 14-Mar-2022 16:10

Must admit, I do applaud the decision to half public transport costs by 50%. I believe this will be an effective measure to people moving toward public transport. Public transport in NZ is expensive compared to just about every other country that I've been in (Australia is also expensive).

The only thing will be, do we have public transport capacity for a decent sized increase in uptake? Last time I made a thread suggesting such a move, it was panned by some who said the issue wasn't the cost but that we didn't have spare capacity to do it.

One wonders how the fuel companies will react to that drop and how much extra margin they might decide to take advantage of...

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#2886064 14-Mar-2022 16:25

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/inflation-fallout-arderns-future-and-internal-polls-claire-trevett-and-thomas-coughlan-answer-your-politics-questions/E4HR5XAOEUNRMIB7OOGVPHOS4I/ (paywalled)

Long (and interesting) Q&A about the Government, the PM's future, Luxon and the next election.

Also 25c a litre off + half price public transport = FTW!

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vexxxboy

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#2886067 14-Mar-2022 16:33

networkn:

Must admit, I do applaud the decision to half public transport costs by 50%. I believe this will be an effective measure to people moving toward public transport. Public transport in NZ is expensive compared to just about every other country that I've been in (Australia is also expensive).

The only thing will be, do we have public transport capacity for a decent sized increase in uptake? Last time I made a thread suggesting such a move, it was panned by some who said the issue wasn't the cost but that we didn't have spare capacity to do it.

One wonders how the fuel companies will react to that drop and how much extra margin they might decide to take advantage of...

it wont in Rotorua , the last time they made public transport free for a limited time usage never went up, it stayed the same and even now usage is dropping rapidly and it is haemorrhaging money. buses here run with nobody on board during off peak hours.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

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#2886185 14-Mar-2022 20:12

Yes but petrol prices are probably a bit higher compared to previously.

cruxis

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#2886199 14-Mar-2022 20:34

Anyone know if lime scooters are half price now?

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#2886205 14-Mar-2022 20:44

cruxis:
Anyone know if lime scooters are half price now?

Are they public transport or private transport? I'm guessing the latter. So no.

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#2886323 15-Mar-2022 08:41

vexxxboy:

it wont in Rotorua , the last time they made public transport free for a limited time usage never went up, it stayed the same and even now usage is dropping rapidly and it is haemorrhaging money. buses here run with nobody on board during off peak hours.

I find that odd. Not disputing the comment, just wondering why that could have been? Do you have insights into why you think that was?

Is it because the public transport network isn't effective in Rotorua? IE not enough of it to make it practical? If there were for examples only 1 bus every 30 minutes during peak times, then it's not going to be a reliable method to ensure you get to work on time every day, as some days capacity will be lower than demand? Or is that it wasn't widely publicised or enough time given for people to adjust to the new plan?

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#2886331 15-Mar-2022 09:21

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128047599/why-i-am-thinking-of-ditching-labour

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#2886338 15-Mar-2022 09:30

quickymart:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128047599/why-i-am-thinking-of-ditching-labour

Funny, I was thinking of posting the same link, but I thought I better not. I did think it contained some interesting insight from a Labour voter.

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#2886340 15-Mar-2022 09:31

networkn:

vexxxboy:

it wont in Rotorua , the last time they made public transport free for a limited time usage never went up, it stayed the same and even now usage is dropping rapidly and it is haemorrhaging money. buses here run with nobody on board during off peak hours.

I find that odd. Not disputing the comment, just wondering why that could have been? Do you have insights into why you think that was?

Is it because the public transport network isn't effective in Rotorua? IE not enough of it to make it practical? If there were for examples only 1 bus every 30 minutes during peak times, then it's not going to be a reliable method to ensure you get to work on time every day, as some days capacity will be lower than demand? Or is that it wasn't widely publicised or enough time given for people to adjust to the new plan?

Pretty much the same in Hamilton in my experience. Buses run pretty well empty most of the time, at least the ones that we see in our area. No doubt some school routes are busy at school times but that's about it.

I don't think it's a Rotorua thing but more a product of population density and also the lack of perceived benefit from using public transport.

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#2886370 15-Mar-2022 10:06

quickymart:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128047599/why-i-am-thinking-of-ditching-labour

This is a great article and outlines the issues Labour is facing, also the fact it comes from a young centre left voter probably gives it more weight.

I love the line about the boat shoes and immigration too.

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