Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: This Government's all talk, bugger all action

This morning, the Prime Minister was asked about the 2000 public servants that had lost their jobs. 2000 are out but 64,000 remain.

Chris Luxon saw nothing wrong with that.  

That right there is part of the reason why this Government is polling so poorly, because it's all talk, isn't it, bugger all action.

Now I'm sorry. I realize this is a lot to start the week with - we're starting strident.

I don't mean to continue like that - but were you as surprised as I was to hear that we've only cut 2000 public servants? And were you even more surprised that the Prime Minister's explanation is no more than a verbal shrug?

This, I think, will be profoundly disappointing to a lot of people who expected this Government to get public spending under control. And cutting public servants is part of getting that spending under control.

There is no reason why we have as many public servants as we have today. 63,000 - there is no reason why we have more than double the 30,000 public servants that we had in 2001.

Our population hasn't doubled since 2001. It's gone up about 37 percent. If you adjust accordingly, then we should have 41,000 public servants, not 63,000 public servants.

Now, I would have expected that the Prime Minister would have a better explanation than simply saying - at least it's not as bad as Labour.

Well, maybe so, but I hoped for better. I hoped for a Government that was gonna actually turn this around. Certainly more than a Government that just feels like it's actually Labour dressed in blue clothing.

And isn't this just the latest example of talk from this Government that is not being matched by action? They promised to cut spending every year, and they spend more than Grant Robertson. They promise to get on top of debt every year, and they add more to the debt.

They promise to stop the race-based policies - and we just keep finding them. They keep waving them through unless we bust them at it.

I think this, in part, answers the question that we were asking last week, which is why is it that 3 polls in a row were so tight that it wasn't actually clear if this Government would win an election if an election was held today.

This is why they're not brave enough. They should be braver. In fact, if they were braver, they might be more popular. It's worth remembering that for all the hard decisions that were taken by the 4th Labour Government, which is definitely the most transformational that we can think of, right?

For all those tough decisions taken in the first 3 years, they actually came back with a bigger majority in 1987.

So maybe, you get rewarded for doing what you say you'll do, tough as it may be, rather than just talking tough and then doing very little.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Have a listen to this for me, You've only cut
two thousand people. For all that noise of you hoeing
through the public service, you've lost two thousand people out
of sixty four thousand. Yeah, so what were you doing?
A couple things there. One is if the trend had continued,
you'd have eight thousand more. So we've actually stopped that.
That right there is part of the reason why this

(00:20):
government is polling so poorly, because it's all talk, isn't
it bugger all action? Now, I'm sorry, I realized this
is a lot to start the week with, Like we're
starting strident. I don't mean to continue like that. But
were you as surprised as I was to hear that
we've only cut two thousand public servants? And we even
more surprised that the Prime Minister's explanation is no more
than a verbal shrug. This, I think will be profoundly

(00:43):
disappointing to a lot of people who expected this government
to get public spending under control and public cutting public
servants is part of getting that spending under control. There
is no reason why we have as many public servants
as we have today, sixty three thousand. There is no
reason why we have more than double the thirty thousand
public servants that we had in two thousand and one.

(01:04):
Our population hasn't doubled since two thousand and one, it's
gone up about thirty seven percent. If you were just accordingly,
then we should have forty one thousand public servants, not
sixty three thousand public servants. Now, I would have expected
that the Prime Minister would have a better explanation than
simply saying, at least it's not as bad as labor. Well,
maybe so, but I hoped for better. I hoped for

(01:27):
a government that was going to actually turn this around,
certainly more than a government that just feels like it's
actually labor dressed in blue clothing. And isn't this just
the latest example of talk from this government that is
not being matched by action. They promised to cut spending.
Every year they spend more than Grant Robertson. They promised
to get on top of debt. Every year they add

(01:48):
more to the debt. They promised to stop the race
based policies. Oh, we just keep finding them. They keep
waving them through unless we bust them at it. I
think this, in part answers the question that we were
asking last week, which is why is it that three
polls in a row was so tight that it wasn't
actually clear if this government would win an election if
an election was held today. This is why they're not
brave enough. They should be braver. In fact, if they

(02:10):
were braver, they might be more popular. It's worth remembering
that for all the hard decisions that was taken by
the Fourth Labor Government, which is definitely the most transformational
that we can think of, right, for all those tough
decisions taken in the first three years, they actually came
back with a bigger majority in nineteen eighty seven. So
maybe you get rewarded for doing what you'll say you'll do,

(02:30):
tough as it may be, rather than just talking tough
and then doing very little. For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, Listen live to news talks they'd be from
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.