McAnulty vs Bishop
Austerity, privatisation, anti-immigrant BS and perhaps a bribe.
That's sugarcane that tasted good
That's cinnamon, that's Hollywood
Come on, come on, no one can see you try
Song: R.E.M.
Following National’s suggestions yesterday that they will soon have their own anti-immigrant policy to compete with their coalition partners, and an austerity budget due in two weeks, Kieran McAnulty and Chris Bishop were lined up to do battle on this morning’s Breakfast show as the political panel.
Kieran was focused, looking like a lion ready to pounce, whereas Bishop looked somewhat uncomfortable, perhaps wondering how he was still the National representative on the show after his much rumoured plotting.
Or maybe Bishop was thinking about how uncomfortable it would be to stick a second harbour bridge where Mayor Brown has suggested he put one.
Tova looked glad that someone from that party had turned up, aware that viewers were losing the will to live, with Seymour standing in for the reluctant Luxon on recent occasions.
A smaller Operating Allowance.
O’Brien began by saying that the $2.1b operating allowance announced was smaller than had been signalled, but that there was money for capital investment. Funny, isn’t it? They can never find the money to hire more nurses or fully fund cancer drugs, yet there’s always money to “invest” in roads.
Bishop’s cheeks. puffed with air as he was about to speak, like a frog on a David Attenborough show. He also sounded frog-like, croaking that yes, there was a significant uplift in capital investment, and that there would be good, prudent infrastructure investment. His eyebrows were doing the heavy lifting as McAnulty grinned at the words Bishop was tripping over.
Kieran looked slick, dressed in a well-fitting black suit, like a player in a soul band. Bishop, on the other hand, was poorly shaven, his hairstyle could best be described as “clumpy”, and his suit made him look like the sort of second-hand car dealer who used to wear heavy rings on their fingers.
Bishop spent some time saying words which were really just a description of capital vs operating expenditure, before admitting that there would be less money for new things than they thought.
I had a vision of Nicola Willis individually wrapping Scorched Almonds, if you remember that advertisement, before deciding that the poor and the middle class would have to share just one chocolate.
Bishop said something he seemed to find hugely funny, but I think I missed the joke, along with the rest of the nation. He said, “We’ve made a virtue of the fact that the Operating Allowance is a ceiling, it’s not a target, and it’s not a floor, and that’s a contrast maybe to previous years.”
Dry as a bone.
As Bishop grinned like a silly schoolboy at his absolute banger of a line, Tova explained to McAnulty that she thought he was having a go at him.
Kieran replied dryly, “Yeah, it was really well done.” It was a beautiful response, and it was so dry I thought perhaps Bishop ought to have a glass of water, having been so thoroughly dehydrated.
This time, Tova laughed, asking Kieran what the $2.1b operating allowance meant to him before joining Bishop’s Labour Bashing train and adding that it was much tighter than Labour’s golden gilded budgets.
Kieran’s Saharan response was that there had been no overspending by Labour until Covid came along. Then, during the pandemic, they faced the prospect of double-digit unemployment and businesses failing. He said they would defend their record on saving lives and livelihoods until the cows come home.
Good lord, am I sick of National pointing the finger at Covid spending, even as they see unemployment rising on their watch, with a record level of company failures, and they’re still borrowing even as they cut public spending. I’m looking forward to Labour announcing their policies post-budget, so people can see there is more on offer than a government that takes a hands-off approach to the economy in bad times and offers only austerity when people are in need.
Kieran said that, in terms of the upcoming budget from Nicola Willis, there were serious cost pressures on the basics people expect from the government, and that healthcare was at the forefront of his mind, with more and more people unable to afford to see a GP.
McAnulty had the good grace to acknowledge that we do need money for infrastructure, but said the amount being considered wouldn’t cover the $30b required for the National Party's Roads of Significance. Bishop actually nodded, apparently agreeing that they needed ever more for roads.
Kieran said people wouldn’t see this budget in isolation but would remember the decisions made by this government previously. He said National had decided in their first budget to give tax cuts, and now they were having to cut services because they weren’t really affordable.
Bribes for the election?
You’d think that people would understand that tax cuts mean public service cuts, but I wouldn’t put it past National to do the same thing again, despite their rhetoric of sound financial management. I wrote:
They've gone from getting Back On Track to promising further cuts and austerity. I smell a tax bribe coming, one we can't afford.
On the one hand, that would be insane; on the other, if you listen to National’s ranting about the state of the books under Labour, it raises the question of why on earth they gave tax cuts in their first budget.
They’ve already cancelled Fees Free and are dipping their toes into raising the eligibility age for Super; with other cuts and departments yet to be disestablished, they may be preparing to offer another tax cut.
Tova asked Chris whether New Zealanders should brace for further cuts. The bullfrog cheeks and the stammer returned as he insisted they’d made savings along the way by shifting low-value expenditure to high-value expenditure, whatever that means.
“No budget can deliver everything at the same time,” said Bishop before trying to pin the whole thing on the fuel crisis.
Bishop said he and Nicola were proud of the budget, but the look on his face suggested he knew it would go down like a cup of the proverbial with some segments of society. His left cheek lifted, and momentarily, he looked more like Muldoon than even Luxon does.
Selling off KiwiBank.
On KiwiBank, Tova asked the two MPs for the pros and cons of partial privatisation. Kieran recalled Jim Anderton, who fought for a publicly owned Kiwi bank to prevent large profits from flowing across the Tasman to the big Aussie banks.
McAnulty was enthusiastic about the bank; he was a customer himself and recognised that it needed a cash injection to compete more effectively, but did not support privatisation. He said it looked like National would go to the election with a policy of selling part ownership of Kiwibank, but he didn’t think Kiwis would go for it.
Bishop argued that for KiwiBank to grow, it needs capital, and if that investment comes from the government, it competes with hospitals, roads, and the military, raising the question of whether it is the best use of limited government funds. He said they want the bank to grow and would see where things go, ending with a Muldoon-like sneer on the right cheek this time.
Immigration with National.
Tova suggested that the Prime Minister was perhaps feeling a bit left out by the immigration bickering between NZ First and ACT over who could make new arrivals to our shores less welcome.
She asked whether the three parties in the coalition were intentionally squabbling at present to differentiate themselves ahead of the election, or whether there were genuine ructions within the coalition.
Bishop frowned and gave us a lecture on how MMP works, slipping in some innuendo about the coalition being a three-way, as if he were Rod Drury. “We agree on 80-90% of the stuff,” offered Bishop as Kieran remained unmoved.
Kieran, as dry as a Schweppes Dry Lemonade, said he was struggling to keep a straight face. “You’ve seen from these guys, they’re trying to scaremonger about a change in government on the basis that it won’t be stable, for goodness sake, you’ve got over the last few weeks, each leader of the various parties, and ministers, having a crack at each other over various policies in the midst of a pretty serious shock to the economy and household budgets. When they look to the government, all they see is bickering.” Bishop cringed at the words.
McAnulty continued, saying it was highly unusual for Luxon to include a discussion of immigration in his pre-budget presentation yesterday, and he had done so because of Winston’s approach and the polls, and because he wants to get those votes back.
The interview wrapped up soon after, and as usual, I was left with the impression that McAnulty and Bishop quite liked each other, despite their differing views.
What awaits is a budget of cuts to day-to-day spending, if you can imagine things getting even tighter, and the promise of more anti-immigrant BS from the right as they clamour to win the votes of those who think others are the problem, rather than acknowledging that it is the people in charge who are making their lives worse.
We’re also not far now, following the budget precursor, from Labour showing in their policies that there is an alternative to austerity for most and tax cuts for those who least need them. That people deserve more than an imitation of life.
Have a good Thursday, folks.
Ngā mihi,
Nick.
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To end today, here’s R.E.M with “Imitation of Life”, from the album Reveal, released 25 years ago today. I still think it’s a very clever video, and the song is good too.
Fixed a couple of typos. Also meant to say there won't be a newsletter tomorrow.
Excellent report. Always love Kieran.