Leopard Spots
I don’t think that Phil Goff’s soul-searching on Tuesday has helped the Labour leopard change it’s spots. Labour lost the election on the typical failings of a third-term government. They had become detached, arrogant and patronising and they defended themselves by lying, dissembling and covering the truth. This is par for the course when a government gets old.
Unfortunately for Goff, it does not appear that Labour has yet achieved the requisite humility to transform themselves into a likely-looking government again. Perhaps it is too soon for them. And perhaps the sudden power vacuum left by Clark’s resignation will take more time to fill than originally thought. She did, after all, have control of just about everything.
You can still see Labour’s besetting sins in recent headline. Goff’s “offer” to help Key can only be seen as patronising and thoroughly arrogant, considering that the blame for having both of the Airforce’s 757s in maintenance at the same time falls squarely on Goff, himself. The suggestion of asking Australia for help was fatuous as clearly the Australian government was having enough difficulties of their own.
The fiasco of the $1 billion hole in the ACC non-earners account, finds Labour still covering up its own deficiencies. David Parker is saying that the shortfall was not in the PREFU because cabinet had not voted on it. Maryann Street says she didn’t find out about it until October, after the figures for the PREFU had been determined. These two excuses are not only incompatible with each other, they do not explain why National was not informed as soon as the shortfall was discovered, as was clearly the intention of the PREFU legislation. It also beggars belief that the former minister for ACC (Street) knew nothing about such a gigantic shortfall until October. Did she not get monthly updates of ACC’s financial figures? Perhaps we should add tolerating incompetent ministers to the list of Labour’s faults.
It is early days yet, but Labour is going to have to seriously lift its game if they want a shot at government in 2011. They need to abandon their “we hate John Key” mentality and start offering proper counter-argument to National’s policies, like a real opposition. Currently, they are just showing the same tired old spots that cost them the government.
Additional:
David Parker is trying to portray the news of the $1 billion dollar shortfall as National trying to drum up support for their hidden agenda of privatising ACC. The ACC policy is quite clear on privatisation. The ACC employers account will be made contestable (no surprises there – its in the policy) – that’s it. The privatisation meme is just more of Labour attempting to deflect criticism of their dreadful financial management.
Just to accent Labour’s flagrant disregard for taxpayers, Maryann Street is very dismissive of the shortfall:
““There’s some really alarmist language being used around this … it’s 6 percent of the ACC budget, it’s been blown out of all proportion.””
Glad you think a billion dollars is just small change, Maryann. Pity we’re the ones who have to foot the bill.
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Dec 3 08 3:14 pm
The report from ACC explicitly states that it warned the former Minister back in May there was a blow out, and it was predicted by the Dept of Labour in an audit in 2007. Seems ACC did not account for inflation in several accounts and DoL predicted the loss at $1.2 billion. The much touted Price Waterhouse report and valuation of ACC’s assets is tied up with this as well.
JC
So Maryann Street was lying through her teeth. What a surprise.
Dec 3 08 7:20 pm
“So Maryann Street was lying through her teeth. What a surprise.”
Yeah. But she parsed it as not knowing the *details*.
JC
Dec 3 08 7:37 pm
Typical right wingers, always wanting to destroy cherished public institutions.
Dec 3 08 7:41 pm
Why Doctor, why do you want to destroy ACC, so many people benefit from it when under other systems they would be let to rot.
There is more to life than making money you know.
This is old ground, Millsy. You know perfectly well that opening the employers account to competition is a very long way away from privatising ACC.
Dec 4 08 7:29 am
ACC should be run competently and efficiently
The non-earners account should be properly rated and the ‘premium’ assessed on a basis which allows for the increased cost factors, so that over time whilst each year may cost a little more, we reduce the chance of blow-outs
By the way Street’s comment si misleading as all this applies to the non earners account and is apparently a 25% blowout in that account. Her 6% figure was a careful use of words
Dec 5 08 10:02 am
My first ever comment here. What have I been missing all this time?
I think you miss a fundamental and underlying reason for Clark & Co’s defeat. It is the all pervasive culture of lies and deceit which existed right from the start of their first term and was manifested then in the manner of Police Commissioner Doone’s execution at the hands of Clark.
Your final paragraph is inaccurate. Street’s comment was not misleading. It was a deliberateprice pardoning lie.
Dec 5 08 10:05 am
Woops, that was AdamSmith’s final para. My mistake.