Bruce Bisset: Asset sales admission of 'failure'

Seems to me there's more than a touch of irony in the fact National will likely win a second term while advocating as its major plank the sale of half our remaining state assets - because that policy is an admission of failure.

If you have to sell the family silver to fund education and healthcare - which is what's proposed - then that can only be because you can neither raise enough tax nor balance a budget.

Mind you, having borrowed an extra $20 billion last year alone to keep the squeaking wheels of government turning, no one should be in any doubt these reputed money-moguls couldn't balance a school tuck-shop account, let alone the books of a nation.

But flogging off half of our power companies and airline in order to cut that level of borrowing is like chopping off your head to stop yourself from eating: You lose all control and leave the body to die.

And I don't care how high they "raise the bar" - one of those pat political phrases designed to fool voters into thinking rat-fur is mink - for funding projects from the special fund these asset sales will create; the assets will still be lost. Irretrievably.

Along with the substantial ongoing revenues they generate in public ownership. Don't see any figures from the Nats about those, do we?

Yes, that's a failure, but it's not the most important one this policy highlights.

The most important is that John Key and co clearly have no idea how to transform New Zealand from a low-wage to a high-wage economy.

Because if they did know they'd have a plan that raised wage levels, which would generate more tax to balance the books, which in turn would mean these assets would not have to be sold. QED.

Nor do they care, because they've slashed tax rates for the rich while bashing the poor at every turn. Bring back the youth rate - lower wages for the most vulnerable.

Further restrict the powers of unions - less choice for the least empowered.

Force unemployed and sickness beneficiaries into unpaid work - slavery for the least able.

Nothing - not one thing - about "raising the bar" for the average worker and genuinely making this a more prosperous country for all.

How many managers does it take to change a light bulb? Define "change".

That's a good slice of the problem right there. Far too many chiefs earning 100 times what the guys on the floor earn, and far too much "I'm okay so you don't matter" in how ordinary citizens are treated.

You can talk 'til you're blue in the face - and they do, don't they? - about high-tech this and innovative that, and the marvellous things that could be achieved, but unless you pick up the population from the bottom and lift them en masse you'll never create that "brighter future" the Nats boast on their billboards.

And while Labour did no better at budget balancing, at least their spending drove growth and their social policies started to lift the poor, especially in education.

National, on the other hand, are rapidly reforming education into a two-tier system: excellence if you can afford it, a ticket to the underclass if you can't.

Which only underlines that they have no intention of obviating our low-wage base. On the contrary.

Meanwhile Don Brash, who wholly supports selling state-owned assets, was inexplicably jetting off to London last week to hob-nob with the banking world's elite, leaving Act's campaign rudderless.

Mysteriously, he has refused to say exactly what he has been doing - but if I say the Gnomes of Zurich or East India Company, I suspect I'd be close.

The old-school was worried about their investment Down Under and wanted to know how our Don planned to fix it - given it's likely he won't be elected.

One for the conspiracy theorists. But I bet there'll be some interesting backroom chat now that he's back.

To some extent National might be excused their numerous other failures - fewer jobs, higher inflation, more beneficiaries, and so on - because of Christchurch's earthquakes and the global financial crisis, but selling us short to make themselves look better is unforgivable.

However, since this country was founded on pillage, I suppose we might as well complete the job, eh?

That's the right of it.

Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.