Good opinion piece again today by Fran O'Sullivan. She looks at the ideas put out yesterday by Skilling and Weldon and contrasts the leadership shown by these two gentlemen with that shown but the PM (none) and Key (some).
Here are her comments on the PM
Clark is shamefully resting on her Labour-led Government's laurels. She points to the near decade of fiscal surpluses delivered by her Finance Minister but does nothing to head off the decade of deficits staring her in the face.
Clark is getting a free ride at this election as journalists ask for her response to inanities such as the completely anodyne ("secretly taped") comments by National's finance spokesman, instead of putting the acid on the Prime Minister to say what her Government would do to confront the real issues if re-elected.
This is barking mad stuff coming straight from the Michael Laws school of media manipulation: Stamp "secret" or "confidential" on a document (or in this case tape) and journalists will lap it up faster than Pavlov's dogs irrespective of the fundamental lack of substance.
TV3's Duncan Garner knows that if he doesn't beat-up the latest tape from the malevolent secret bugger at National's party conference, the next so-called scoop (tape) will go to TVNZ's Guyon Espiner. But, like the breathless economists - whose unchallenged demands dominate local television news coverage of the crisis - this is outrageous hyperbole, not journalism.
And on Key
Key has at least demonstrated he has the courage to make some unpalatable choices in government by announcing he would cut back KiwiSaver and some business tax credits to fund National's personal tax package. But National's "economic management plan" lacks urgency. The tax cuts are fiscally neutral on the basis of the Treasury numbers released this week.
But those figures will be well out of date by the time National gets its backsides on the Treasury benches - assuming it gets to form a government. There is no public evidence yet as to what policies Key would implement in his 100-days agenda apart from introducing tax-cut legislation.
Like Fran we encourage you to comment on the Skilling and Weldon ideas on http://blog.nzx.com/ You will note that the first comment was from the team here at The Hive.
We repeat again our comments from yesterday. The financial crisis is already impacting much more severeley on New Zeaaland than seems to be appreciated by the media. It is going to be the big issue for the election. The side that shows the best leadership on this issue is going to win this election. Business as usual is not going to be an option.
