Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern emerges from her home on election night having secured an outright majority. Photo / Jackson Meecham
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern emerges from her home on election night having secured an outright majority. Photo / Jackson Meecham
OPINION:
The implementation of Labour's manifesto this term is so much simpler with a clear majority than it was last term in a three-way Government arrangement.
Everything in it can expect to be implemented over the next three years - and under MMP that is not a given.
Already manyLabour policies have been implemented, including expanding the minimum sick leave entitlement to 10 days, naming the date for the Matariki public holiday, introducing a 39c tax rate on income over $180,000 and rolling out free period products to schools.
More can expect to be ticked off in the first Budget of the second term in three weeks.
More contentious for Labour will be the policies which have been or will be implemented but were not in the party manifesto.
At issue will be not just the policy itself but whether there is a good reason for the new measures not having been in the manifesto and there are already examples.
National leader Judith Collins this week has made much of the fact that the proposed powers of Māori Health Authority – effectively a veto power on all national plans and operational frameworks - was not put to the electorate. She says it is so controversial it should have been put to the electorate.
But Labour promised to establish a Māori Health Authority in its manifesto. It was silent in its manifesto as to what powers it would have, the ones now proposed, or the much dilutes ones under Heather Simpson's Health and Disability System Review.
The three other big policies announcements since the election that were not in the manifesto are the extensions of the bright-line test to tax capital gain on investment properties from anything sold within five years to it now being 10 years; the decision to repeal tax rules that allow property investors to offset mortgage interest against rental income; and the law passed under urgency removing a local referendum to veto Māori wards established by councils.
The Government's promise in the manifesto about tax was to make no changes other than those specifically identified such as the new tax rate but it justified its major switch on the basis there was a house price crisis.
And on the issue of the Māori wards, it said nothing in the manifesto.
Last term, when Labour had to negotiate deals with New Zealand First and the Greens, it took several weeks to realise that Labour's pre-eminent policy document was the Speech from the Throne, not its manifesto.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Labour caucus on Parliament Steps for their official photograph. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour had to get a commitment from the two other parties to support Labour policy included in the Speech, which was read aloud by the Governor-General at the start of the term.
Anything else it managed to implement during the term was an added bonus. New Zealand First revelled in being a "brake" on Labour policies such as Fair Pay Agreements, and stopping any consideration of a capital gains tax.
This term, because there is nothing holding back Labour, the manifesto is its pre-eminent policy document. Policies implemented so far:
