When National formed it's new government there was a snappy little phrase that supporters were fond of using.
Thank God the adults are back in charge.
Suggesting that the left wing Labour Government were naive, inefficient fools who had driven the country into the ground like a 12 year old in a ram raid.
National would lead a government run by grown ups who know what to do and how to do it and then actually DO it.
So when Christopher Luxon presented his State of the nation address yesterday, the expectation was that the grown ups were about to tell us how all our problems will be fixed.
What we got was a warning that times were going to get tough. What we got was a promise that our PM would not shy away from tough talk. What we got was a lot of talk about beneficiaries. They were told the free ride was over. And then at the end an admission to reporters that the Government was yet to explain how it would address and finance the solutions to our woes.
We also got a lot of talk about how bad the last Government was and the implication that they were the root of the parlous state we find ourselves in.
That our water problems and our transport problems and our health problems and our labour problems and our housing problems and our energy problems and our weather problems and our farming problems and of course our economic problems all rest with one cohort of politicians who were in power from 2017 to 2023
It's that sort of blame game that got the Labour Government called childish. I would like to think that this government might have resisted that urge. To be the adults.
I think what many of us want is governance that is future focussed. That considers a time 30 years in the future when our population has doubled or even tripled.
That acknowledges that the mess we're in has taken many different governments and decades to create and will take many different governments to fix.
The most powerful part of Christopher Luxon's speech was the line that New Zealand is fragile.
We are. At a very fundamental level. And have been for a long time. And will be for a very longtime.
So the sooner the adults turn up with a real plan that we can all get behind and that will work, the better.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Andrew Dickens: Policies from both parties see that the poor get poorer
Andrew Dickens: Cost of living payment a badly designed bureaucratic mess
Andrew Dickens: Overseas deals give us a chance to add to our arsenal of products
Andrew Dickens: People's lives and livelihoods need to be returned to them
Andrew Dickens: Crunch time for our health system was a crisis 30 years in the making
Andrew Dickens: We've taken the Pacific for granted and now we have competition
Andrew Dickens: The post-pandemic hangover is affecting the whole world
Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB Chief Political Reporter on Emissions Reduction Plan
Brickmaster Robin Sather talks Lego Masters with Andrew Dickens
Andrew Dickens: 3 parties and 3 waffly bits of policy which all miss their mark
Andrew Dickens: Getting water right is the first thing a grown-up society does. Ask the Romans
Mike Davidson: Christchurch City Councillor on new resource consent rules for hosting accommodation
D'Arcy Waldegrave: Zoi Sadowski-Synnott takes silver
Andrew Dickens: You can't call yourselves freedom fighters as you take other people's freedom away
Andrew Dickens: Now Omicron is here, it's time to reopen
Andrew Dickens: For all the griping about MIQ, I think we owe the system a debt of gratitude
Barry Soper: Newstalk ZB Political Editor on new National shadow cabinet
Andrew Dickens: If Luxon understands the economy, he gets a nod of approval from me
Andrew Dickens: Here's hoping Omricon is the bad Covid killer
Andrew Dickens: Our bureaucracy bumbles it’s way like a plodding sloth
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Jim & Bill (It‘s Another Day)
HauntingLive
Dr. Paul’s Worldviews
The Ben Shapiro Show
The Tucker Carlson Show