pn966. The Parties' Standings, National, Labour, ACT, Greens

Christopher Luxon must step up or step down  as National Party leader if National is to win the next election.  This seems to be the opinion of of both left- and right-leaning commentators reported by Bryce Edwards in today's Political Roundup. Opinion is that he should be replaced  by his high performing deputy Nicola Willis. But the problem could be more than Luxton. National needs to flesh out its policies. It is not sufficient to say what it thinks Labour is doing wrong.  It needs to spell out what it would do instead.

The recent NZ Taxpayers' Union Curia poll (2-9 February) showed both major parties on 34.3% (Labour up  +2.7%; National down -2.8%) with Greens on 7.8%, down -2.8%, and ACT on 11.7, up +0.9.  The Greens seem to be losing support to Labour and ACT gaining support from National.  With these results National-ACT would win just enough seats to form the next government.  

pn899. ACT's proposed alternative budget incredibly selfish —damn your neighbours; damn the planet

The high moral ground

This article is based on an excellent article by Russell Palmer. Read the full article here and/or read on for my synopisis...

The ACT Party's "alternative budget" announced today brings no surprises. It is predictably right-wing with most benefits going to the wealthy and most of the burden to poor and average New Zealanders. Consider, for instance, the number of job loses with itsproposed cuts and  restructuring.

ACT's  main aim is to cut taxation for  the rich paid for though a wide range of cuts on government expenditure, and an increase to the superannuation age, to return the government to surplus within a year. The age of superannuation eligibility would be increased at a rate of two months per year until it reaches age 67, at which point it would be indexed to life expectancy with no allowances made for different ethnic life expectancies.

The only increase in spending would be on defence to 2 % of GDP, an increase of about $61.3 million over four years., and a new $250 million-a-year fund called the Teaching Excellence Reward Fund,fund which will allow school principals to garnish their best teachers' wages, the assumption being that present awards reward the unworthy.

Overall, the rich will benefit most and the rest of us will pay for it.

pn847. Sir David Galahad Seymour Comes Clean in his State-of-the-Nation Address

Sir David Galahad Seymour

Too clever by far, many of his listeners would have wondered what he was talking about when he mockingly called the PM the "Red Queen" and said  "the Taliban (has) now been given the outsourcing of New Zealand’s maternity care."  

He was a little more down to earth in talking about what he saw as Jacinda and Labour's major shortcomings  but continued to attack her character rather than the issues (argumentum ad hominem).

Here are the five issues he raised (with my comments in brackets):

pn818. Polls, not much change but BEWARE ACT, WAKE UP Greens

David Seymour as Prince
Charming

Two political poll results were published last week, the first conducted by 1News Colmar Brunton (see pn812), the most recent by Newshub-Reid (this posting.)  Both follow on from earlier polls by Curia and Talbot Mills reported in my posting pn809.

All four main polls showed similar results:  Labour is down a little or unchanged, National and Greens up or down a little but no real change, and ACT, the real winner, is steady or with significantly increased support.  

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Come election time next year Labour, or possibly National, will become the next government but Labour may need coalition support from the poorly performing Greens. National will definitely need ACT.

pn777. New Zealand and Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and Pacific Islands Forum Snippets

Punakaiki, West Coast

NEW ZEALAND. Three West Coast Conservation Board members have resigned citing conflicts of interest between conservation and Ngai Tahu interests, the privatisation of public assets and instances of racism when they tried to uphold conservation interests. 

What has brought the matter to a head is the proposed construction of a $26 million Punkaiki visitors' centre funded by the provincial growth fund. 

The accusations are denied by Board member Kara Edwards and Poutini Ngai Tahu. 

pn760. What David Seymour and the ACT Party are really about

 Got a spare $10,000? Have lunch and a tour of Parliament with ... guess who? David Seymour. TradeMe Advert.

Much of the  ACT party's recent increase in popular polls seems due to the unflappable leadership of David Seymour, with more than a little help from National Judith Collins' raised eyebrows and muttering as she bores even more voters with her wild tales about the Labour's supposed "separatism" policies to share legislature power with Māori.

Some of those polled seem to have forsaken  National, some shifting left to Labour; others right to ACT.  

I suspect most of the former will move back to National, but many who moved to ACT will probably stay there.  A weak National Party (Collins's attempts to retain National Party leadership comes after over 12-months of  internal party blunders) has made ACT stronger. 

pn752. NZ Government's "raft of measures" to help the poor citicized by ACT

The NZ Government has announced a raft of measures, including a weekly $20 increase for those on the main benefit, which will help at least 355,000 of our poorest people (see link.) 

Finance Minister Grant Robertson  says it's the "biggest lift in a generation."  ACT's Karen Chhour says it is "an insult to middle New Zealanders who are working hard to get ahead but being squeezed in every direction to increase benefits today