Five good and five bad for the Government

Jordan Carter has done a really good post describing five good and five bad things the Government has done. Of course I don’t agree with him on the substance, but it’s a useful balanced post.

I figured the least I could do is to do the same, and like Jordan, challenge people in comments to do otherwise.

I am going to focus on policies and management rather than behaviour and ethics (which frankly are appalling), and suggest others do the same.

I’m going to list five portfolios, and focus on good and bad in each:

Fiscal Policy

Good – running a surplus for the last seven years (the size of it is a different issue)
Bad – running the second largest surpluses in the world and refusing reductions in tax rates

Defence

Good – extra funding for the Army
Bad – reneging on the F16 purchase

Employment/Welfare

Good – historically low unemployment levels
Bad – blow out in sickness and invalids numbers

Telecommunications

Good – Operational Separation of Telecom
Bad – Not doing LLU in 2003

Health

Good – overdue pay rise for hospital nurses
Bad – ideological hostility to using private sector when it has spare capacity

I have not listed education as I am unsure if I can point to a single positive. It’s a fiasco ranging from the 20 hours policy in tatters for pre-school, the NCEA mess to all the tertiary funding scams. I don’t actually know how Maharey could make it worse if he tried. Maybe the apprenticeships one can give a positive mark to.

Anyway that is my five.