Monday, November 10, 2008

Changing fortunes



Thought that'd give the lefties a brief fright.

Time for a ramble back.

25 years ago Roger Douglas, "Labour's Manurewa maverick", was assigned finance in the newly-led Lange Labour government.

Helen Clark was given disarmament and overseas aid. Today (or thereabouts) she relinquishes her Prime Ministership and leadership of Labour. Today Douglas returns to parliament.

But what role will he play?

How much influence can a back-bench minor party MP (inside or outside the government) have?

Quite a bit. How much will be entirely up to Roger. But I do think he has to abandon the grand schemes and start pushing for radical change within the existing system. Particularly the welfare system. He has to accept that New Zealand is not going to move to an individual compulsory savings/insurance scheme, which will cover all manner of incapacities to earn, any time soon, and focus on what can be changed.

Ending lifestyle welfare by ending the entitlement mentality. If he expresses reform in those terms he can build public support.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Has Hide been shafted Lindsay?

Accepting posts outside Cabinet???

So we still have Nanny State. We still have an ETS.

The power of Government, unfettered.

What has been achieved?

Anonymous said...

He has to accept that New Zealand is not going to move to an individual compulsory savings/insurance scheme,

and NZ should not move to that scheme. It should simply end socialism - 20 years after the fall of the Berlin wall, we are now the most socialist country in the WORLD (apart from North Korea) - not just the most socialist country in the West.

Socialism should just be stopped as soon as possible. That's all that matters.