Key’s speech to the Menzies Centre
July 6th, 2012 at 10:00 am by David FarrarLast night John Key spoke to the Menzies Research Centre. I understand it was the biggest audience they have ever had to an event. His speech is here. A couple of extracts:
As John F. Kennedy once said, we in government are not permitted the luxury of irresolution.
Everyone else can debate issues forever but, in the end, the government has to cut through all that and make a decision, which will invariably please some and disappoint others.
In making those decisions, my Government is very pragmatic.
We are guided by the enduring values and principles of the National Party, but we are also focused on what is sensible and what is possible.
Partly, that is the nature of the political system in New Zealand. It is sometimes said that politics is about convincing 50 per cent of the population plus one, and that has never been truer than under the MMP system we have in New Zealand.
But, in any event, I think government is a practical business.
You don’t start with a blank sheet of paper; you start with the country as it is.
And by making a series of sensible decisions, which build on each other and which are signalled well in advance, and by taking most people with you as you go, you can effect real and durable change, which won’t simply be reversed by the next lot who come into government.
Over time, a series of moderate changes can add up to a considerable programme.
This is to some degree what John Howard did also. Rather than do a big bang reform, he did steady reform over a decade. To be fair Hawke and Keating did some useful reforms also.
In terms of the fiscal outlook, we have effected a significant turnaround.
The advice we had from the Treasury when we first came into office was that if we continued with the settings we inherited, net government debt was likely to reach 60 per cent of GDP by 2026.
Now, after all the changes we have made, net debt is projected to be zero in 2026, despite the Government also picking up much of the cost of the earthquakes.
And sadly almost every single fiscal change was opposed, as if one could run massive deficits for ever.
I want to stress, however, that while I think government is about practical, considered decision-making, it is not a technocracy.
In the end, the biggest, most fundamental decisions governments are called on to make are not reducible to calculation in a spreadsheet.
Those decisions rely on the judgements of politicians around concepts like fairness, opportunity, and the balance between individual and social responsibility.
As a politician, my own gut-level judgements have been hugely influenced by my upbringing and my life experiences.
Almost all decisions involved trade offs, and it will be your values and experiences that guide you on those trade offs.
The Party’s founders were not people who saw the world in terms of a fundamental class conflict, where people’s destinies were largely foretold. In fact the Party was set up to oppose that view.
Now the opposition seems to be more about identity politics.
It is extraordinary how many people, including a lot of Opposition MPs in New Zealand, think the economy is something separate from the normal life of the country – something that will just keep chugging along while Parliament worries about supposedly unrelated social issues, like employment.
In fact – as I am at pains to point out most days in Parliament – jobs are only created when business owners have the confidence to invest their own money to expand what they are doing or to start something new.
Giving businesses that confidence is the most important thing the Government can do to ensure people have jobs, and that those jobs are sustainable and well-paid.
It is worth recalling that every public sector job has to be paid for put the taxes paid by all those in the private sector.
Sometimes voters have been thoroughly surprised by the government they elected.
Those governments have never worked out very well.
So one of the things my Government has tried very hard to do over the past three-and-a-half years is to be predictable, consistent and upfront with voters.
This is where the Governments elected in 1984 and 1990 went wrong. Their policies were necessary, and generally good. But you need to keep faith as much as possible.
Related posts:
- Don’s Campaign Launch Speech
- Fisher & Paykel
- Maiden Speech for Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga
- Jami-Lee’s maiden speech
July 6th, 2012 at 10:09 am
In making those decisions, my Government is very populist.
We are guided by the inconsistent values and lack of principles of the National Party, but we are also focused on what will save face and what is possible to get away with.
And by making a series of money wasting decisions, which are ultimately costly for the country, and by taking most people with you as you go, you effect pretty much no change, which will only give the next lot who come into government the liberty to keep spending as well.
Over time, a series of unsubstantial changes adds up to a lack of balls on my behalf.
Sometimes voters have been thoroughly surprised by the government they elected.
Those governments have been the ones who change the world, Thatcher, Reagan, Douglas.
So one of the things my Government has tried very hard to do over the past three-and-a-half years is to be likeable, Left-leaning and non-offensive to the voters.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 10:32 am
“The advice we had from the Treasury when we first came into office was that if we continued with the settings we inherited, net government debt was likely to reach 60 per cent of GDP by 2026.”
This is the part most on the left do not understand. The problem was inherited! Yet they (the left) continue to try give National a hard time about making the hard decisions to fix the legacy of the previous left government.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 10:35 am
DPF: As John F. Kennedy once said, we in government are not permitted the luxury of irresolution.
Ah, that’s why John doesn’t look at the big ticket items on the balance sheet and only focused on borrowing $250 million a week!
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 10:37 am
Kleva Kiwi: The problem was inherited!
Oh really? These guys are in their 5th year, how long are we going to blame Labour that National is borrowing $250 million?
Which of Labour’s policies have been turned back? WFF? Free student loads?
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 10:44 am
You can only say so for a limited time.
Vote:What Labour lite should do is unravel the expensive giveaways its socialists predecessor instituted. Four years later NZ is still waiting.
July 6th, 2012 at 11:33 am
These guys are in their 5th year
They’re in their fourth year.
Major policies can take many years to flow through, especially when there’s little room to manouvre in a time of extended financial precariousness.
Labour commited to ongoing costs of things like WFF and interest free student loans and put a tax cut on top of that. We’d be in bigger crap now if National had immediately reversed all that.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 12:11 pm
Yeah like he has got rid of the bribes!
as for you DPF
“This is where the Governments elected in 1984 and 1990 went wrong. Their policies were necessary, and generally good”
their policies were necessary?
They ripped out the meaning of father and mother for gender neutral words, pushed their Homosexual social policies in stead of small business and ordinary families whilst spending up big and not dealing to supaannuation in 10years!
who do you vote for?
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 12:23 pm
Ohh I forgot the anti smacking law that Helen’s Dunne/Key jelped pass into law despite 80% of us not wanting it.
and that Key has lied about ever since.
So that was needed was it DPF?
maybe you should have a lunch with Bob Mckoskie and some of the families that have been traumatised.
have you been to
http://www.protectgoodparents.org.nz/
http://familyfirst.org.nz/2012/06/cases-reveal-cyf-ignoring-intent-of-anti-smacking-law/
I have to say DPF, in ignoring Keys behaviour over this matter you are supporting his behaviour.
Vote:and lets no pussy foot around the exact meaning of “criminalise” shall we.
July 6th, 2012 at 12:32 pm
What a nice long excuse note from John Key about why he can’t actually do anything.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
But Governments cannot just sit back and hope. They have to provide leadership as well, to get things going. It seems the only time we get investment is when the Government does some deal over taxation, regulation, or some sort of incentive usually a one-off.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 12:56 pm
I actually started feeling sorry for John Key after reading that heart-rending account of his difficulties.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 2:15 pm
Pete George, can you please pull off the blinders? Here a project National started, and now being headlined with ultraslow.
Don’t you realise that you’re just like the Green/Labour party supporters? They believe government can do anything it wants to do. You just believe John Key is even better at that kind of thing that the lefties.
One day you’ll wake up to the truth: John Key has not been good for NZ.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 2:55 pm
“..My father died when I was young. We had no other family in New Zealand and we had very little money. My mother was on a Widows Benefit for a time, before she started working as a cleaner.
The State provided us with somewhere to live, and ensured my mother had food to put on the table when we most needed it.
The State also gave me the opportunity to have a good education at the local high school and at university…”
i’m having an irony-o.d here..given this is all that he dosen’t want for struggling new zealand citizens now…
..what does he call it now..?..a ‘lifestyle choice’..dosen’t he..?
phillip ure whoar.co.nz
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 6:13 pm
Hang on Phil, don’t you continue to steal from the struggling and genuinely needy? Most of us don’t, we look after kids, work, pay tax, donate, support the meat farmers..
Vote:Never in the history of mankind has so little been comprehended, and so much taken, by you and your ilk.
Why don’t you get it?
Join us, get a life, you know you want to.. everyone else has rejected you and you love it here, the security of right minded people, offering you advice, jobs, steak…
But I do have a kind of respect, you take it on a daily basis, and come back for more.
Cheers
July 6th, 2012 at 6:25 pm
This is to some degree what John Howard did also. Rather than do a big bang reform, he did steady reform over a decade. To be fair Hawke and Keating did some useful reforms also.
Except that none of the aussies cleaned out the Labour movement nor did they flush out the ALP with cleaners.
At least some of ours have been flushed down the Dunny. More still needed and separation of industrial relation and politics shoul;d be advanced just as separation of the Church and politics should be inforced.
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 6:41 pm
Major policies can take many years to flow through, especially when there’s little room to manouvre in a time of extended financial precariousness.
and a lot,lot longer to stop.
Student loans were on the agenda before their first day in office and remain non viable today.
Smacking was on the agenda.
Youth rates, probably the most destructive law against young kiwi’s ever passed is still as it was.
The list goes on Pete and with the support of that prostitue from Wellington.
And I would like Key to put up in big letters the National Party foundation Statement,which, the in recent times remoived from their website and then explian to us all how that statement in anyway correlates to his remarks about the founders of the National Party.
They would cry in their graves.
I had to hunt around for this but fortunately I had blogged it on Roger Kerrs blog some time ago.
NZ National Party Founding Principles 1936
“To promote good citizenship and self-reliance; to combat communism and socialism; to maintain freedom of contract; to encourage private enterprise; to safeguard individual rights and the privilege of ownership; to oppose interference by the State in business, and State control of industry”.
http://rogerkerr.wordpress.com/2011/09/09/friday-graph-david-farrar-on-minimum-wage/
Todays version.
National’s Vision For New Zealand
The National Party seeks a safe, prosperous and successful New Zealand that creates opportunities for all New Zealanders to reach their personal goals and dreams.
We believe this will be achieved by building a society based on the following values:
• Loyalty to our country, its democratic principles and our Sovereign as Head of State
• National and personal security
• Equal citizenship and equal opportunity
• Individual freedom and choice
• Personal responsibility
• Competitive enterprise and rewards for achievement
• Limited government
• Strong families and caring communities
• Sustainable development of our environment
http://www.national.org.nz/About/vision.aspx
Note that the new version makes no reference to socilism. Now why would that be?
Vote:July 6th, 2012 at 6:47 pm
silly Sue MORONey on twitter .. “John Key is in Australia flogging our assets off to them. Dumped Oz PM John Howard says its a great idea”
Vote:DUMPED Oz PM John Howard .. what drugs is this silly woman on .. how many terms did he do AND what is her win/loss ratio in elections?
July 6th, 2012 at 7:26 pm
I haven’t read the NZ Listener for a while, but I happened to notice this today:
Vote:http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/politics/jane-clifton-note-to-self-fewer-lists/
Seemed to sum up the current state of affairs quite well.
July 7th, 2012 at 9:25 am
“So one of the things my Government has tried very hard to do over the past three-and-a-half years is to be predictable, consistent and upfront with voters.”
Charter schools and increased class sizes are great examples of being up-front. (And don’t start on the typical “charter schools were an agreement with the ACT party” bollocks, that’s blatantly false: If the Nats didn’t want them they wouldn’t have happened. It’s obvious when you look at the disparities between what ACT got as part of their C&S and what UF got (bugger all).)
This statement is, of course, referring to the so-called “asset sales mandate”, which doesn’t really exist: an election is not a proxy referendum on a single issue. It stuns me that people can pretend to be that ignorant.
Vote:July 7th, 2012 at 9:28 am
Yes, it’s almost as though he said “hey, vote for me for a brighter future, but don’t worry nothing much will change”. Perhaps he thought the brighter future was already here, or maybe it was another ‘aspirational’ thing.
Vote:July 7th, 2012 at 9:36 am
Key said…
the enduring values and principles of the National Party,…
Ha! Bullsh*t. The Prime Minister talks like a stand-up comedian.
Here is the NZ National Party 1936 Founding Principles: (from TrueBlue)
National isn’t following those founding principles. Its time someone in the media should point this out. Well, the media and its journalists are dumb too, since they don’t know what principles that National was founded on.
Vote:July 7th, 2012 at 9:47 am
It’s time someone should point out to Falafulu Fisi that combating ‘communism and socialism’ is so last century.
Things have changed a lot in the last three quarters of a century. There is not country that excludes all ‘interference’ by the State in business, and State control of industry.
The pragmatism of modern (21st century) politics means seeking the right balance and between state involvement and free enterprise. Those (small minorities) yearning for extremes of communism or redbaiterism will be forever frustrated.
Vote:July 8th, 2012 at 6:58 pm
DPF: “This is where the Governments elected in 1984 and 1990 went wrong.”
But David, the government elected in 1984 was reelected with an increased majority in 1987 (before Lange scuttled the ship).
That doesn’t suggest they ‘went wrong’.
Vote:July 8th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
‘business owners need the confidence to invest’
I saw JK delivering and he said that Government did not create jobs but set the platform for this to happen.
I agree with this but this is not what National are doing.
For a start the minimum wage issue is a policy that a ‘real’ National government would not implement.There should be no minimum wage.
The dollar is overvalued and hovers around the same 80 cent rate for some unknown reason.? This is killing exporters.
Along with anti smacking,ets and privy council ,this National Government do not stand for the founding principles it has now removed from its site.
Vote:The other major issue to put anyone off doing anything in this country is the racist policy that has been implemented by National.
Totally unacceptable.