When will Grant Robertson come to the aid of the party?

14
3

I’ve known Grant since University days.

In 1995 he was in the NZUSA – the political arm of the University Student Associations’ and I was in ASPA, the Student Press Association when I was editor of Craccum.

I’ve always known Grant to be the smartest guy in the room and it’s the coolest thing in the world that he is now the Finance Minister.

Grant has come under sustained criticism of late because of his self imposed financial rules where he promised our corporate overlords that the Left won’t be feckless with Government debt.

It was sadly a necessary deal to make with the devil as the election result proved.

New Zealander’s have been convinced that National are better mangers of the economy, despite the horror of how underfunded National left public services, and when Joyce played his ‘$11.7billion budget hole’ lie, the momentum for Labour halted and National picked up the votes that made the election so much closer than it should have been.

Originally Labour Party mandarins in Wellington didn’t want to form a Government with NZ First because Winston’s economic agenda was far too radical for the neoliberal Treasury goons to accept. Grant was one of those voices inside the negotiations that ensured a deal with Winston was made.

TDB Recommends NewzEngine.com

The tight rope Grant now walks is the demands of a country that is in desperate need of investment after 9 years of brutal National rule against a huge swath of the public who are mortgaged up their eyeballs because of property speculation.

If Grant breaches his own rules, the ratings agencies of the planet will pounce and drop NZs credit rating, that in turn will see a jump in interest rates, that in turn could see NZers with mortgages having to pay hundreds of dollars extra each week in mortgage repayments.

Those screaming at Grant to breech his own rules to fund services would be drowned out by far angrier voices of those with mortgages who are paying hundreds more each week in payments.

This would quickly become a one term Government if mortgage holders blamed their increase on the actions of the new Government.

So what now?

Does New Zealand slowly strangle itself because Grant had to draw a line in the sand to convince voters Labour wouldn’t be feckless and are trapped by that line as international money markets keep their foot on our throat?

No.

One of the things that the new Government are convinced of is that there will be a global economic recession unlike anything we’ve seen before. Winston’s words on the failure of capitalism on the night he went with Labour weren’t rhetoric, they were belief.

Grant will step outside the straight jacket he was forced to wear the moment the collapse begins. If the new Government are seen to be reacting to an external shock and not provoking it, the new Government can dump its financial rules and react to the crisis without getting blamed by voters for it.

There will be a moment when all good men must come to the aid of the party. Grant is simply waiting for that moment.

14 COMMENTS

  1. Dream on Bomber. Robertson will be an utter disappointment like the rest of his party. It is not possible to be visionary and observe the plight of the majority when one’s head is firmly wedged between one’s buttocks. Robertson the smartest guy in the room? He’s a pompous non achieving ass! Always sounded pretty damned ordinary to me.

  2. You cant fix up the huge mess that was left in just 6 months and to make matters worse there is hidden mess the unhidden mess is the damage done to the people and our land. But unfortunately many others the selfish ones still want their brighter future no matter what costs. Now we all have to wait longer cause the problems run deeper than we thought. In the meantime the nasty party will be trying to discredit the newly formed government as much as possible with our mainstream medias help and the greedy ones who don’t give a F….k

  3. Smartest guy in the room???? Always seemed pretty ordinary to me. Been nowhere , hasn’t run a business, hasn’t raised a family, hasn’t built a house been in local government?? what has he done, where are his finance credentials: At least Cunliffe had been out into the world and established his. Robertson the purveyor of so many knives in Cunliffe’s back has done nothing. And will continue to be uninspiring and full of hot air.

  4. Nothing’s changed & nothing will change. Maybe your friendship with Robertson is clouding your judgement? Big business as usual rules & will always do so. If you’re still in doubt about this then consider this; today the foreign investment office has allowed wealthy Australian investment banker Phillip Colebatch to add another large chunk of rural NZ to his property portfolio. He claims he’s concerned about future food & water security, well why don’t we kiwis see this? This is the biggest issue we face today & our response is to allow our nation to be snapped up by wealthy foreigners who’ve seen the writing on the wall. Why are we so afraid of a little patriotic nationalism when our very survival is at stake? Why is it that we only allow our patriotic floodgates to open when it comes to sport?

  5. tall poppy syndrome stuff show-nah! little wonder our countries in the poo with people like u

    • What do you mean by tall poppy syndrome stuff? Enlighten me please as this seems way off the point.

  6. It is about time the Coa!ition takes notice of the writings of Bill Mitchell with regards to MMT – a sovereign economy is not financially constrained, snd cannever run out of money. Deficits are generally good for the economy. Austeritg is a political choice.

    As things stand, I am seeing Jacinda Ardern as a typical child of right wing lefties Clarke and Blair. I very much doubt that her claimed concessions in the new TPP, will stand uo to scrutiny or reality. With a bit of courage, it should have beenrejected out of hand – particularly as all such trading agreements have in any case been shown to be of zero benefit. She is all photo ops and identity politics.

    So, if Grant is the man for a truly probressive aganda, it is welk nigh he made his move.

  7. “New Zealander’s have been convinced that National are better mangers of the economy”…I think you mean “National party Voters have been convinced”…and as we all know those people are unmovable in their belief in National Party ideology…so why pander to them?

    Robertson is convinced that more Socialist/Corbyn style policies would not have a chance here…but then again Half the UK Labour party worked really hard to convince the voters that Corbyn policies wouldn’t work, yet look how he grew the Party, and imagine what he could have achieved if the Centrists and the Guardian hadn’t gone so feral.

    30+ years of compromises by the so called Left have dragged us to this sorry state of affairs…with each passing election cycle less and less people vote…enough is enough

  8. A student politician eh?

    I remember when Phil Goff was one of those. He was all talk too.

Comments are closed.