BP, all I know for sure, is that I liked the look of NZ when Helen Clark's Labour govt was in power. Going back over other Labour terms, lots of really good policies were put in place, OK, the mid 80's saw huge changes that hurt many people, but that was an aberration and/or we had to go through some of it.
But with National in power since 2008, we are seeing more of the same liberal process being worked on by degrees. I'm not sucked in by the odd Labour-lite action that John Key puts forward, while at the same time selling down state assets and damaging others, with a general top-down funding lid in place over many govt areas, in view of the increasing population. They are smart enough to encourage immigration as a way of making the economy look better than it is. Our manufacturing base has not strengthened, I'm sure it is weaker than it was. That's a damning result. Now they have offered KiwiRail topup funding for two years. What is that telling KiwiRail? That it's not worth giving them a bit of extra cash to reduce the loading on our roads? The
Mainfreight CEO had something to say about that, and he should know.
http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/mainfre...ategy-b-176311
This could be another opening for decent Labour policy. They have quite a few areas where they can point out what poor managers National have been.
As for voting National/Act, no, not for me I'm afraid, not with the data I'm looking at. NZ deserves better.