Kirk on Labour’s broken promise

Stacey Kirk writes:

 A “trail of broken promises”. 

The much-loved political standard is a track on repeat with Oppositions throughout history. Howled across the aisle at the slightest change in direction or policy by the Government, used to highlight a perceived failure to voters, no matter how small.

It’s been a while though, since it had such a tangible example to hinge off. Health Minister David Clark’s admission that the Government will not be delivering cheaper GP visits in full this year, is a clear breach of an election campaign promise. 

Yep a big fat broken promise. They spent all their money on giving to be wealthy students free fees.

A campaign refresher: National announced a key election plank to cap the cost of GP visits for 600,000 low-income New Zealanders to $18. It would also expand the community services card to an additional 350,000 people, with low incomes and high housing costs giving them access to $18 GP visits too. 

One week later, Labour announces the exact same policy but with a consumer price guarantee to beat National’s offer by an additional $10 and extend it to all of New Zealand.

So National had an affordable policy that was targeted at lower income families. Labour trumped that by saying they’ll extend it to everyone – and people got conned and believed it.