Appreciate the post, Blackcap. I for one, don't expect the government to provide jobs. But on the other hand I don't expect a government to go out of their way to remove jobs under their watch.
The railway workshops in Dunedin were one such business that National scuttled, after a proud history. I can tell FP will prepare a missive about the ugly workshops that had done their time. It's a lot easier to tidy up a building and ensure jobs are secured with state contracts, than to pay for the difference between tax income and new unemployment benefits. That decision alone shows the faulty logic of this government. Not much capital cost was saved in the purchase, many jobs here were lost, when more could have been created, new skills learnt. The new gear was faulty (brakes etc) and had to be repaired, and buying it all in from overseas simply worsened the balance of payments. Who knows how long the new rolling stock will be useful for, would it have lasted longer if it was built here, and the questions go on.
Housing is another area where the govt is two-faced. Not prepared to let their investor mates take a hit in Auckland, they are trying to talk down the market while feeding it cash from the super fund. Interest rates are low, and even with a paltry yield of about 4% at best, more investors are piling in.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/mone...et-risky-NZIER
We'll know the govt is serious about Auckland house prices, when they start leading the market just enough to begin building some lower cost infill housing. That won't happen with National, but Labour will do it. I can't see anything wrong with this proposal.
Blackcap, National came into power in 2008 and within days had removed R&D tax credits for SMEs, an easily accessed carrot for small business that could have worked wonders by now. It wasn't even expensive, as initial takeup was low. They effectively said that small businesses should leave the entrepreneurial work to a few bigger businesses. This is a strange policy, when it is known that big businesses always start out small.
National is smug all right, but when the rhetoric doesn't at all match what their policies are doing to NZ, we should be very worried.