New Zealand's "Decade of Missed Opportunities" - Speech From Throne

In the Speech from the Throne delivered by Governor-General Anand Satyanand following the opening of Parliament, New Zealand's incoming Prime Minister John Key portrayed the past decade as one of "missed opportunities" in which the country's productivity and economic growth had languished.

Against the backdrop of the global economic recession, the National government will introduce a series of personal income tax cuts in 2010 and 2011 that will result in 80 percent of taxpayers only paying 20c on each additional dollar of income earned, according to Mr Key. The government will also accelerate investment in infrastructure including a school building programme to "21st century" standards. Educational standards will be strengthened and apprenticeship and other youth training programmes expanded.

In two policy areas the new National government looks likely to dredge up some old political memories. The government, following its election policy, will change the Resource Management Act to "streamline" and give priority to projects deemed of national (or National?) importance. Those with long memories, or a good knowledge of political history, will note the parallels to the Muldoon goverment's "fast tracking" of projects asserted to be of national importance in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

And in a second, historically jarring chord, the new National government will direct that at least 40 percent of New Zealand's superannuation fund is to be invested in New Zealand-based assets. In the 1975 general election campaign the same political party funded a TV ad that implied such a policy was favoured by the Labour government (incorrectly) and that the consequence would be Soviet-style communism - with cartoon Cossacks dancing across the screen. (Politicians have never been interested in historical truth - the Cossacks were staunch opponents of the Bolsheviks).

You can see the Dancing Cossacks here.

Now National appears to have come full circle and are prepared to socialize a large part of New Zealand's economy over time with the Money Manager State Capitalism of the Superannuation Fund. Die-hard, free market National supporters should be concerned about it as their forebears were in 1975. For those to the left of center, National is setting up a useful policy tool for the state to guide asset management and investment in 3 years time.

National Secures New Zealand Government Coalition Agreement

The National party has secured agreements with the Maori Party, ACT, and United Future to lead a 70 seat majority in New Zealand's 122 seat Parliament. The coalition is limited to supply & support arrangements from the minor parties in return for ministerial posts outside Cabinet and National support or acquiescence on several key policies of the minor parties.

The Maori party will provide supply and support to National in return for two ministerial posts outside Cabinet for Maori Party co-leaders, Dr Pita Sharples and Turiana Turia. Dr Sharples will become Minister of Maori Affairs with associate posts of Education and Corrections while Ms Turia will hold the posts of Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector, Associate Health Minister and Associate Social Development Minister. Both new ministers will have spending as well as policy responsibilities.

Dr Sharples said the Maori Party had been formed on the basis of getting into government and making a difference.

"It won't be all together terribly easy some days, but it is the opportunity that we sought," Dr Sharples said.

To secure agreement with the Maori Party, National has scrapped its plan to abolish Maori electorate seats without a majority of Maori voters approving of the measure. In return, the Maori Party is dropping its policy to seek entrenchment of Maori seats. A group will be formed to explore constitutional issues including Maori representation. National has also offered to review the controversial Foreshore and Seabed Act to determine how well it is working and whether it might be modified to better meet the goals of multiple interests.

It is only three years since the former National party leader, and former Governor of the Reserve Bank, Don Brash proposed abolishing the Maori seats and called for an end to government funding targetted at Maori as favouritism or undesirable affirmative action.

National's incoming Prime Minister, John Key, has thus reversed the more rightward shift of his party from three years ago on race relations but there will be tensions within the party because of this apparent U-turn as well as in the wider electorate, especially among the more conservative and racist elements of New Zealand society.

Building bridges, however, may be more effective in achieving National's broader policy goals with less conflict or friction with interest groups that might otherwise be expected to oppose National's main policies. This, however, is likely to create some internal pressures on the Maori party in particular.

National's other agreements with ACT and United Future are more straightforward. ACT leader Rodney Hide will hold ministerial roles outside Cabinet for Local Government and Regulatory Reform as well as the job of associate Minister of Commerce. ACT's deputy leader Heather Roy will become Minister of Consumer Affairs and associate Minister of Defence and Education.

In return, National will support legislation for ACT's three strikes sentencing policy for violent offenders - a policy that attempts to ape some of the worst of US criminal politics of recent times - to the select committee stage, so does not guarantee support on final legislation.

Further concessions to ACT include a review of government spending, presumably excluding the substantial increase in correctional facilities required for a three strikes policy (memo to Mr Hide: check US incarceration rates and that country's world ranking for imprisoning its people, mainly the poor and of colour). National has also agreed to establish a taskforce on trans-Tasman flight - of labour, not capital - to Australia. It has also agreed to delay introduction of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) but Mr Key reiterated that an amended scheme will proceed by the end of 2009.

The job-retention scheme for Peter Dunne of United Future has been locked into place: three more years as Minister of Revenue & will add Associate Minister of Health to his name tag. National has agreed to retain Dunne's Family Commission and will create a Big Game Hunting Council as part of a national wild game management strategy to get Dunne's one vote.

Greens Labour to Left in New Zealand Post-Election Coalition Speculation

The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, with 6 MPs in the current parliament, has evaluated its options for a coalition agreement with one of the two major political parties, concluding it could work with Labour but not National (Green Party press release and 12 point checklist here).

It has nevertheless concluded that the two major parties are closer to each other in terms of green policies than to The Greens.

The Party assessed Labour and National's policies and public statements against a check list of 12 key Green Policy objectives such as reduced fossil fuel use and emissions, increased public transport investment, cleaning up waterways, protecting endangered species and ecosystems, and building a genuine Treaty partnership with Maori.

While neither of the main parties has substantially advanced Green policies, the Greens found that Labour's initiatives to eventually price carbon emissions through the Emissions Trading System, to fund new rail investment, the 40 percent increase in funding for the Department of Conservation since 2005, the increase in the minimum wage, the introduction of Working for Families assistance to low-income families, cumulatively weighed in Labour's favour for Green support.

The Greens concluded, however, that in the area of building a genuine partnership with Maori, Labour's performance is mediocre. Only National's worse performance, eg its declared policy of abolishing the Maori seats by 2014, saves the day for Labour.

While the Greens found some examples of National policy in accord with their own, eg. requiring the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to invest more in New Zealand, Green co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons said that too many of National's policies "headed off down a dead end street. This means that we cannot form a government with National, or support them on confidence and supply, although we could work with them in areas where we have common ground."

Labour leader & PM, Helen Clark, will see a glimmer of hope in the Greens' position. If Labour can close the gap on National then there may be a chance of Labour forming a Labour-Green coalition something that did not result after the 2005 election.

The Greens are the only one of the smaller parties that consistently poll over 5 percent of the party vote in the MMP system required to secure party list seats in parliament. Recent polls show their support at 7 - 9 percent of party support among voters indicating the Greens are likely to retain their 6 seats and possibly gain more.

Women in New Zealand's Political Economy

A Journeyman Pictures documentary from 2001 surveying the progress women have made in New Zealand society:

Women of Substance - New Zealand (October 2001)

For all the progress in greater equality for women, there still remains a large economic gap. Statistics New Zealand's Household Economic Survey shows that median annual personal income for women was 60 percent of that for men in 2007.

The ratio of female to male median hourly earnings was 88 percent in June 2007. It rose from 83 percent in June 1997 to 88 percent in June 2001 but has not risen above that level since. The greatest earnings gap between the genders occurs in age groups over 30 years of age, with groups under 30 showing little earnings difference between men and women. See The Social Report 2008, published by the Ministry of Social Development here.