Shrewd Politics Gets Govt On The Front Foot
June 18th, 2009
The Govt played shrewd politics this week to get back on the front foot, after the hiccups of the Melissa Lee performance in the Mt Albert by-election and the Christine Rankin affair. It produced new laws to crack down on boy racers, thus underlining its determination to take ownership of law and order issues. John Key fronted the announcement to send the message he is controlling the roll-out of the Govt’s policies in the law and order sector.
Equally significant, in a political sense, is the Govt’s home insulation programme. After canning the un-funded policy which the Labour-led coalition had proposed, National has re-shaped the programme, with the backing of the Greens. This has demonstrated the two parties, instead of being constantly at loggerheads, can find common ground. Meanwhile the Auckland super-city issue, after all the noise it created in recent weeks, may go quiet, though the Maori Party will be twisting National-ACT’s arm as hard as it can to extract some concession on Maori representation on the new Council.
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Duncan Cotterill