Goff shifts to the right

A future Goff Labour Government’s economic policy is looking to be far more centrist and understanding of business, than the Clark’/Cullen Government was.

The three key economic Ministers are PM, Finance and Economic Development. You can arguably add Commerce onto that also.

Cunliffe is no academic socialist. He has worked in business and has a Harvard MBA. His work with Boston Consulting Group would place him as a high achiever, who understands business. This does not mean business will like everything Cunliffe would do, but I doubt you will find an ideological opposition to tax cuts here.

Jones is also no socialist. Quite the contrary. He has spoken to many business audiences, and generally leaves them impressed with his ideas and analysis. He also has a successful business background.

Goff is harder to pin down. He started off as a staunch socialist and then became a disciple of SIr Roger in the 1980s. He towed the line under Clark. His picks of Cunliffe and Jones for senior economic roles suggests he does deliberately want to move the party more to the centre, with a more balanced economic policy.

Dalziel continues on with Commerce. Despite her background as a union lawyer, she actually picked up a reasonable amount of praise for her work as Commerce Minister and I doubt she would fight a more moderate economic policy.

So it will be very interesting to see what alternative budgets and economic policies Labour comes up with in the next two and a half years.