NZPA on Labour

TV3 has an opinion piece from NZPA on Labour that is good reading:

Labour MPs aren’t saying it, but they must be thinking it: this year’s election wasn’t a bad one to lose.

If the results had been different, and if Labour had managed to stitch together a majority, it would have been a fourth term government facing the worst economic crisis in decades with the Greens, New Zealand First and possibly the Maori Party on its back.

Tax cuts would have been cancelled by now, but even with that Labour would have huge problems if it had won. The Greens and NZ First only care about spending more money – their idea of success is how much money they got for a project. I can only imagine how bad the deficit and debt would have got.

Also in for the chop is what English calls the previous government’s wish-list of unfunded projects, like pouring millions into KiwiRail. That caused cries of outrage from Labour, as have other cost-cutting announcements, but they must know that if they were still in office the calls they would have had to make would be just as hard.

How Labour handles the situation in the next year or two will be important in terms of public perception. With the country in crisis, it needs to do more than groan and grizzle every time the Government says something can’t be afforded.

If it demands a plan from the Government that adapts to a worsening situation, it must produce its own blueprint for economic survival.

If the Government says it has to cut funding and Labour doesn’t like that, it must say what it would do under the same circumstances.

This is the key. Everytime Labour complains about a spending cut, ask them where the money would come from. They have left the incoming Government with the worst set of fiscal projections ever. Are they really going to campaign on how they would make them worse?