Now there's a new Government in the wings, we won’t hear much about the good that was achieved by the Chris Hipkins-Jacinda Ardern team. Photo / George Heard
Now there's a new Government in the wings, we won’t hear much about the good that was achieved by the Chris Hipkins-Jacinda Ardern team. Photo / George Heard
OPINION
It’s a time-honoured tradition that an incoming Government mocks the defeated administration for leaving behind an unholy mess.
As soon as newly minted ministers have digested their “Bims” – the departmental briefings for incoming ministers that introduce the agency and its work – and set out priorities and challenges,the slapping of foreheads begins.
The script is entirely predictable. It takes the form of, “OMG, what a neglectful and wasteful lot they were, they had years to get on top of these problems, they’ve been sitting on their hands and we’ve been left with a big fix-up job but thankfully we’re up for the challenge”.
Even if the outgoing lot managed to make progress on significant issues, you’ll seldom hear a charitable word said about that, from either their conquerors or the commentariat.
In the past fortnight, attention has been fixed on the scale of the Ardern-Hipkins Government’s defeat and how it came to pass. The wise-after-the-event brigade can see clearly now – now that the voting is done and dusted, that is.
We won’t hear much about the good that was achieved.
For all its well-documented difficulties, the outgoing Government did chalk up wins, some of them modest, but wins nonetheless. And in some cases, the Luxon Government stands to reap the benefits.
Let’s start with the economy. A Herald headline a week ago asked: “Is Christopher Luxon about to get lucky with a soft economic landing?”
After a horror run, the talk now is of the economy having turned a corner. Growth is returning, there was no recession, cost-of-living pressures might be easing and wages are expected to outpace inflation.
This a testament to the abilities of Grant Robertson, who managed the public purse as billions were spent supporting New Zealanders through Covid-19, the country was buffeted by a global slowdown, and then the need to fund the recovery from the January floods and Cyclone Gabrielle caused further financial stress.
Given all of that, it’s remarkable that, as we reach the back end of 2023, the economy is getting a better-than-expected rating.
Even the health sector gets a “doing better” verdict. The pandemic showed how critical our public health system is, and rebuilding that system as it struggled with high patient loads, long wait times and unsafe staffing levels was always going to be a hugely complex challenge.
But there are signs that a nationally co-ordinated approach, designed to move beyond the DHB-era postcode lottery that meant the quality of care was affected by where a patient lived, is beginning to bear fruit.
Waiting times for non-orthopaedic surgery are being brought under control and, most notably, thousands more cataract surgeries are being delivered because of a new nationally consistent access threshold.
Nurses’ and midwives’ pay packets have received huge boosts – the top of the registered nurse scale rose from $66,000 to $106,000 over the life of the outgoing Government – and pay equity settlements addressed historical pay bias across the sector.
Also, immigration changes are starting to drive a big uptick in new nursing registrations.
And notwithstanding James Shaw’s frustrations over slow progress, climate action is another area where there’s something to show for the past six years.
Stats NZ reports that gross emissions fell by 10 per cent to June, compared with the peak in 2019, with electricity generators accounting for the biggest reductions. How much credit the Government can claim for that is a moot point.
There is, however, a respectable decarbonisation story to tell.
While there’s still much to do, the passing of the Zero Carbon Act, which compels every future government to have binding plans to cut emissions, was a landmark achievement.
Then last year the country’s first all-of-government Emissions Reduction Plan was unveiled. It lists more than 300 actions, and investment worth billions of dollars has been earmarked to back them up.
The Clean Car Discount is driving a big increase in the uptake of electric vehicles, spurring a steady drop in emissions. And some massive decarbonisation deals were agreed to help some of our biggest polluters cut their coal use.
Elsewhere, the free trade agreements forged with the European Union and the United Kingdom were triumphs. The EU deal will deliver huge opportunities into a market of 450 million people, the projection being that it’ll increase our exports to member countries by nearly $2 billion a year.
The Clean Car Discount is driving a big increase in the uptake of electric vehicles. Photo / 123RF
The UK agreement is gold-standard, delivering New Zealand unprecedented access to the sixth-largest economy in the world. It provides for 99 per cent of our exports to enter the UK market duty-free.
Even housing has defied the doomsayers. The much-maligned KiwiBuild will deliver big-time in the coming months, raising the prospect that more KiwiBuild homes will be finished under a National-led Government than Labour. Some 1854 were completed by the end of August, 1335 are under construction and that doesn’t include those contracted to be built.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if a National housing minister is invited to cut the ribbon on the 5000th KiwiBuild home?
In addition, building consents have boomed to record levels and 18,000 public houses have been provided, the most since the Walter Nash Government of the 1950s.
But the achievement that gave many in Labour deep satisfaction is one that National has pledged to strike down – the Fair Pay Agreements Act 2022, which brought some of our lowest-paid workers out of the shadows of New Zealand’s deregulated labour market.
On the recommendation of a working group chaired by National Party grandee Jim Bolger, classes of workers who have fallen behind over the past three decades were given the bargaining power to ensure they get fairer wages and conditions.
The kindest epitaph for the defeated Government is that the fair pay measure might have been the most true-to-Labour thing they did.
Even if it does prove short-lived.
Mike Munro is a former chief of staff for Jacinda Ardern and was chief press secretary for Helen Clark.
