Surprise! Surprise! Right-Wing think Labour and the Coalition generally faring well; Left-Wing not so sure

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As the Coalition enters its second year in government, most right-wing and neutral commentators surprisingly gave Government a thumbs up. Even Mike Hosking gave it a 9 out of 10 for  "cohesiveness, professionalism, staying on message and keeping out of most coalition-type trouble." I had to read this twice to make sure I'd read it correctly. 


Colin James, RadioNZ, thought Government "well placed in the second year of government." Jacinda Adern's popularity compares with John Key's at his most popular. A Colmer Brunton poll  shows Labour on 45%, two more than National and a major reversal of a year earlier, and the Greens on 7%, enough to rule alone. 

Right-wing negative views were expressed by John Gerritson on education,  and Eva Corlett who said the policy on housing was "hot on rhetoric"and weak on change. "Government knows what change looks like and it's afraid ... because real people get hurt."  

Auckland University's Jennifer Curtain disagreed, saying the slow pace of change showed that Government was aiming for "true transformational change. It is not tinkering with the status quo."

If I was surprised with the overall thumbs up from the right, I was even more surprised with the thumbs down  from some on the political left. Trade union leader Joe Carolan said workers felt betrayed because of high costs, and  left-winger  Martyn Bradbury in The Daily Blog tore into the Greens, awarding them only a C+ on performance, said they "lacked strategic skills" and that TOPS had a better chance of election. He gave Labour a miserable B- and NZ First a somewhat better B+. And then criticised the Coalition on most of its policies.

The cartoons are from his article

He awarded the Coalition a D on Education, an F on Correction/Police, a D- on Welfare, an F on HousingNZ, and a D- on Climate Change.  Somewhat better were International Affairs A-, Immigration B-, the Economy B+, and relations with Maori A--. His reasons are provided on this link.

I think he was expecting too much, too soon.

Dr Bryce Edwards in the NZ Herald  provides the best summary on most of the opinions expressed.

--ACW