0 Quote of the Day - 2 July 2014

This was sent to us overnight by an alert reader. It's Bill English's answer to a supplementary question during Question Time yesterday:

John Hayes : What reports has he seen supporting the Government’s approach to investing proceeds from the share offer programme in new public assets?

Hon BILL ENGLISH : I have seen reports from an unlikely source: an alternative budget that was issued in the last week or two. The reports indicate that this alternative approach to the Government’s finances will continue the current Government’s approach of using proceeds from the share offer programme. The Opposition budget includes the $4.7 billion proceeds from the asset sales being spent on public assets, which was rather a surprise given that they had spent 4 years vigorously opposing the policy. 

This one seems to have snuck under the radar just a tad, as answers to patsy questions from Government backbenchers often do.

But this one is particularly significant. Labour appears to have factored in the proceeds of partial asset sales into its "alternative budget". Doesn't it make all the hot air generated by the Greens and Labour as they railed against asset sales all seem a little hollow, if Labour is simply going to go an a spending spree with the loot?

We guess it answers one question though. There is clearly going to be no buy-back of the shares in Air New Zealand, Mighty River Power, Meridian and Genesis, because Labour can only spend the money once. 

And wasn't a buy-back of assets a bottom line for Winston Peters in potential coalition negotiations? Has Labour slammed the door in Mr Peters' face to go on a spending spree with the Greens?

David Cunliffe and David Parker are economic hypocrites. They should not be allowed within a bull's roar of the Treasury benches.

0 Hope the cleaners are well paid

Whoever cleans up after Labour's list ranking meeting this weekend had better be very well paid. There's likely to be blood on the floor in what is shaping up as an acrimonious session; the Herald reports:

The Labour Party will set its party list on Sunday and most of the prime real estate on it is expected to go to women candidates as the party wrestles with its new requirement to have a caucus with at least 45 per cent women after the 2014 election.
All of the top 20 MPs in caucus have also been told to go on the list in a bid to stop any perception the male MPs are boycotting it because of that rule, which makes it harder for males to get good list slots.
The party's low polling makes the news worse for male candidates relying on the list. It is expecting to win at least 28 electorates, 5 more than at present. That will give it two more female electorate MPs than present - Carmel Sepuloni and Jenny Salesa are in safe seats.
However, if Labour gets 30 per cent at the election that leaves only 8 places for List MPs - and 6 of those would have to go to women if it is to meet the 45 per cent.

That would not be enough to get all of the current List MPs back. It could put the likes of Clayton Cosgrove, Andrew Little and Kelvin Davis at risk of missing out if more women are ranked above them to ensure the 45 per cent target was safely passed.

The Labour Party's Man-Ban is about to come back and bite MP's on the bum. When senior MP's such as Andrew Little and Clayton Cosgrove are in danger of missing out (and David Parker's name was also mentioned this week, when Labour polled 23%), things are pretty grim.

Quota systems simply don't work. As honourable as Labour MP's trying to honour the party's commitment to gender equity may feel, very competent male MP's are going to have to make way for less qualified females, simply to make up the numbers.

We don't say that to demean Labour's female candidates. But a party which has been to the forefront of bringing women forward in politics ought not to have to resort to a quota system. It is the quota imposed by the Man-Ban policy that is demeaning to women. The sole qualification for an MP should be ability, not genitalia.

And as the polls continue their descent, and male MP's such Messrs Parker, Cosgrove, Little and Davis scramble for winnable list places, this weekend's ranking meeting will be brutal. We guess that's only to be expected when someone is about to be dudded out of a job and a $150,000 salary simply because they had the misfortune to be born the wrong gender.

The Man-Ban always was a daft idea. When Labour's Party List is released some time tomorrow, and when the casualties have been either bandaged up or transported to hospital we're going to see just how daft the Man-Ban is now. And we'll get an idea of how much worse it will be in 2017 when Labour's rules will require a 50/50 split.

0 Show us the money Mr Cunliffe

Phil Goff's credibility as Labour leader was blown apart in the "Show me the money" debate in Christchurch in 2011. Here's a reminder in case you've forgotten:

Now, three years later, David Cunliffe is leaving himself and Labour wide open to similar "Show me the money" taunts from John Key and his MP's; 3News reports:

Labour says New Zealanders can have confidence it's getting its numbers right despite dumping a Treasury staff member from their position in the leader's office.

Radio Live revealed a long-standing Treasury secondment has been terminated after a dispute over who should pay their salary.

This now leaves Labour with no independent number-cruncher, but leader David Cunliffe says his office has a strong policy team.

"We have very high grade, quantitative analysis and economic modelling skills in our office," says Mr Cunliffe. "The team is led by the Honourable David Parker, who has my absolute confidence."

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says many of Labour's policies don not add up and he is not surprised to hear there has been no input from Treasury.

What has happened here is that Labour has effectively sacked the seconded staff from Treasury, in favour of compiling its own numbers and costing its own policies. In some places that would be called creative accounting.

Pardon our naivety, but we would have thought that having policies independently costed would have been a strong selling point. Instead Labour is going to rely on its own numbers straight from the War Room, and free from any skerrick of independent scrutiny. We can see that working; not!

We reckon that the Two Davids are setting themselves up to fail. But hey; who are we to stop them?

FOOTNOTE: For those readers who aren't familiar with the origins of the "Show me the money" line, check out this video clip which is probably NSFW (not suitable for work); unless you work in Labour's War Room!

0 Cash for access?

The Botany branch of the Labour Party held a fundraiser over the weekend at the Lucky Fortune restaurant.

Interestingly, after all the protestations this week about "cash for access" and dodgy fundraising dinners for wealthy Asian guests, a number of senior Labour MP's attended, as you will see in the photographs below.

David Cunliffe, David Parker, Phil Goff and Jacinda Ardern; the former Labour leader, the current leader and deputy and the woman tipped to be the next Helen Clark were all in attendance at a dinner which by Botany Labour's own admission had the purpose of raising money for the party. We don't know how much it cost, or how much was raised, but that's largely irrelevant.

We need your help here; we can't decide whether the decision by those MP's named above to attend a cash-for-access dinner whilst they are protesting about National's alleged cash-for-access dinners is:

• appalling judgement by Ms Ardern and Messrs Cunliffe, Parker and Goff, or
• absolute arrogance, or
• complete and utter hypocrisy

It may in fact be all three, but you're welcome to leave a comment and indicate your preference. In the meantime though, the true agenda continues to emerge.

At 9am, we heard David Cunliffe say on Newstalk ZB's news that "it's time to have a conversation" about taxpayer funding for political parties. Might the reason for wanting to have that conversation be because donations to the Labour Party have all but dried up since Mr Cunliffe was elected as leader?

Make no mistake Dear Readers; rather than going out and raising money the traditional way, Labour and the Greens want to pick your pocket - again. And we don't know about you, but we can think of plenty of things we'd rather our hard-earned tax dollar was spent on than politicians; especially when David Cunliffe is promising to tax the bejesus out of those who dare to earn reasonable coin if he ever becomes Prime Minister.

0 Parker's cock-up, or What a difference a sentence makes

David Parker is Labour's Finance spokesman. In a future Labour-led coalition government, he would certainly have a key finance role.

So it's no surprise that he's commented on the improving Treasury figures released this morning. Here's his presser (and pay attention to the time it was sent)

Lower tax take leaves Govt revenue $829m down

Friday, 9 May 2014, 12:06 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party

Lower tax take leaves Govt revenue $829m down

Falling tax revenue has left the Government‘s revenue $829 million lower than forecast, Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker says.
“For the fifth month in a row, the Government’s accounts have undershot expectations with tax revenue $829 million below forecast.
“Bill English claims the benefits of the economic growth are being shared fairly. If that were the case, tax revenue would not be short of his projections.
“The books have now been worse than predicted in November, December, January, February and now March.
“It will be interesting to see what effect this has on the Finance Minister’s wafer-thin micro surplus for 2014/15 that he will announce in next Thursday’s Budget.
“The Household Labour Force Survey released this week shows wages are stagnating and unemployment remains stubbornly high.
“Bill English is busy claiming workers can expect significant wage increases but if their pay was growing, the Government’s tax take would not be so short of its target.
“National’s lack of vision for the economy has been shown up by these continuing shortfalls.
“Labour’s economic upgrade will support better jobs and higher incomes,” David Parker says.

There's just one problem for Mr Parker; it's an edited version of a presser which he'd sent out just before we went out for lunch, which fortunately for us (and unfortunately for Mr Parker) was still sitting on our browser.

So let's play Spot the Difference:

OK; we've made it easy for you with the highlighting. But whereas Mr Parker was bemoaning Government spending being $423 million above forecast, he must have missed the minus sign in the Treasury documents.

Yes Dear Readers. As Bill English has noted, Government expenditure for the nine months to 31 March 2014 was $423 million LESS THAN forecast, not more than. That's an $846 million miscalculation from Labour's Finance spokesman and deputy leader.

Mr Parker may have hoped to correct his error without anyone noticing as the week drew to a close, but he has been sprung. We dread to think what might happen if he and Dr Norman got their hands on the Reserve Bank Act. Do we really want the country's finances being overseen by someone who fails at basic arithmetic?

0 Morgan on Labour's "Big Tool"

There's not a lot that Gareth Morgan has said in recent months that we agree with, especially when it comes to cats. But he knows a whole lot more about economics than we do.

And Morgan and Morgan Foundation colleague Susan Guthrie have ventured an opinion on Labour's "Big Tool" monetary policy, and it isn't what David Parker will want to read. In an opinion-piece headed Nice try, but compulsory savings won't cure our ills Guthrie and Morgan opine:

It is unfortunate but true that many myths have been peddled by successive governments in relation to KiwiSaver.
The latest policy offering from the Labour Party reflects a poor understanding about the limits of KiwiSaver and related issues. This is a major flaw in the comprehensive economic policy it announced last week.
Myth one: compulsory private savings schemes solve a country's indebtedness.
Don't be so sure. Despite being hauled out whenever the issue comes up, Australia's compulsory scheme hasn't had any major impact on its national indebtedness.
It is widely understood there (but not here) that in response to compulsion people can simply alter the types of the things they save into - if a bit more compulsory savings is imposed, then they save less in other ways. The composition of private savings simply alters.
There has been one important positive effect from compulsory savings in Australia - an increase in financial literacy. That is not to be sneezed at, but supporters in New Zealand claim far more for it than educational payoffs.
The claims being made in New Zealand of the Australian example are far greater than the facts. 

Myth one is but the first of five myths which Morgan and Guthrie bust in the best tradition of TV programme Mythbusters. We won't steal any more of their thunder, but simply suggest that you follow the link above and read the entire piece. It certainly casts a slightly different opinion to that of David Parker when he unveiled his "Big Tool" last week!

0 No wonder David Parker needs a "new tool"!

David Parker has been smacked down by Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce. In a presser headed Parker wrong nine times in one interview Joyce notes:

The Labour Party's attempts to talk down New Zealand's economic performance have hit a new low this weekend with David Parker making at least nine factually incorrect statements in one short interview, Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.
In the interview, with TV3's The Nation programme, Parker made assertions about low export prices, a poor balance of trade, job losses in the export sector, New Zealand’s current account deficit,  high interest rates, a lack of business investment, 40 per cent house price increases, no tax on housing speculators, and low levels of house building.
Mr Joyce says all of Mr Parker’s assertions in relation to these nine things are incorrect.
“This is an appalling number of errors for someone who would seek to run New Zealand's economy. This number of errors surely can't have been made by accident,” Mr Joyce says.
“Mr Parker's attempts to describe the New Zealand economy sound much more like the situation this government inherited from Labour in 2008 than anything we are seeing in 2014. 
“He must have been thinking of 2008 when he talked of ridiculously high interest rates, a poor balance of trade, and the poor performance of the export sector. All were pretty sick back then and all are in much better shape today as a result of this government's careful stewardship of the economy.”
Mr Joyce says there are two possible conclusions. “Either Labour is deliberately fudging the facts to fabricate the need for their radical economic policy prescription, or they have truly woken up in 2014 for the election without observing anything that has happened in the last five years. The latter would at least fit their regular denials of the impacts of the GFC and the Canterbury earthquakes.
“New Zealanders know that this country today is doing better than most other developed countries, and in 2008 we were doing worse than most, in fact entering our own recession before the Global Financial Crisis,” Mr Joyce says.
“It might be an idea for Labour to look at the steady improvements that are occurring in the New Zealand economy before they start trying to write up their policy ideas.”

We're not quite sure which is worse; that the man who wants to be New Zealand's next Finance Minister is so ill-informed, or that Labour is prepared to tell such extravagant falsehoods in order to get some media coverage.

And equally galling is the fact that no one from the media seems to have picked up on Parker's mis-speaking, and that his comments have been generally reported as fact. That does not reflect well on a supposed informed, non-partisan news media.

You can read Steven Joyce's detailed error-by-error critique of the David Parker interview at the link above. We can only speculate that the reason David Parker wants "one big new tool" to tinker with the Reserve Bank Act is because Labour hasn't got a clue how to use the tools already at its disposal. 

The ineptitude of Mr Parker and his party does little to give anyone confidence that they could successfully manage a piss-up in a brewery, let alone an entire economy.

0 Unfortunate Statement of the Year

Labour Party finance spokesman David Parker doubtless had the best of intentions when he appeared on The Nation at the weekend. 

But when you're talking about equipping yourself to tinker with the Reserve Bank Act, you leave yourself open to innuendo and ridicule; check this out, courtesy of the NBR:

But it begs the question; could the "one big new tool" that Mr Parker refers to be Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman? And it that were the case, do you fear the likely outcome as much as we do?

0 Sledge of the Day - 16 April 2014

Steven Joyce is not the most subtle Minister in the John Key-led Government. And there was nothing subtle whatsoever in his sledgeing of Labour Party leader David Cunliffe yesterday; check this out:

And John Key joined Mr Joyce; the Herald reports:

Mr Key said the decision not to attend question time was "odd" given it was just before a two week recess and one of the few opportunities to tackle him head on.
"This is the place we debate big issues. This is the his chance to take me on. As leader of the opposition one of the best places to hold the Government to account is in Parliament."
He was also surprised Campbell Live was having trouble getting Mr Cunliffe for the dinner with the leaders, saying such pieces were good for the profile of any political leader.

John Key is dead right. Parliament recesses after Thursday's sitting. The House will resume in early May, and there will only be limited opportunities for David Cunliffe to take the fight to the Prime Minister. Not only did he miss an opportunity today, but his Deputy David Parker fared at least as well (or should that be no more ineptly?) than Mr Cunliffe has in recent months.

Labour will not win the General Election by keeping David Cunliffe hidden. For better or for worse, he is the leader of the Labour Party, but his leadership was missing yesterday. He needs to stop focusing on daft policies like the #VanBan, and show New Zealand that he is a Prime Minister in waiting. Going missing in action will not cut it.