Political Leadership: Political Management Still A Concern For National
July 29th, 2010
John Key’s announcement of relatively minor, if right-leaning, changes to labour laws which provoked the most violent political demonstration seen for years in NZ, played straight into the hands of a Govt which fears its mining back down will be seen as another sign of weakness among its right-wing supporters, who can always still turn to ACT if they wish. The juxtaposition of the labour law changes and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee’s humiliating U-turn on mining Schedule 4 conservation lands is fairly simple politics, but the need for such a gesture raises a larger question which will be troubling party insiders – the quality of the Govt’s political management.
While Key’s free-wheeling encouragement of entrepreneurial Ministers like Brownlee has a refreshing element, it can also breed a pattern of high expectations followed by underdone delivery. The PM’s instincts for middle-of-the-road popularity are sound – it’s why the party rides so high in the polls. But the mining back down, in particular, is an outcome better political management might have avoided, and which will have National’s pro-development lobby cranking up the “faster, bolder” rhetoric, which had eased off after the Budget tax cuts were announced.
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Duncan Cotterill