Ryan Bridge: The Coalition needs to tighten its agenda

In the last week we’ve had a smorgasbord of small, seemingly minor stories hitting the headlines.

Helmets or no helmets for cyclists. Which name comes first on the cover of our passports. A ban then reversal on marshmallows in hot chocolates from the coffee machine at hospitals. 

Not a single one of these stories is significant on their own. 

But they’re the kind of stories people remember because they either simply make no sense or appear to be a colossal waste of time.

Most working families can’t afford to even use their passports right now. A Hawaiian holiday - nope. The only ones dusting off travel IDs are moving across the ditch!

Is this the stuff your average punter wanting to feed their kids actually cares about? 

No. 

The Clark Government got bogged down by a bunch of these silly little things. Think the size of shower heads and light bulbs.

Instead of asking officials whether little Johnny should be allowed to ride a bike without a helmet (something no decent parent would allow anyway), why not keep your eyes on the big stuff? No shortage of that around.

Just yesterday Fitch warned our AA+ credit rating could be out at risk if we

• Get slack on fiscal discipline
• See a further correction in the housing market (which isn’t completely off the cards) 
• See another spike in unemployment (also not out of the woods yet)

It’s not that the Coalition is not focussed on these things - certainly more focussed than the last. Just there’s a bit too much noise around on little things that don’t actually matter to the swinging middle that National needs if they want to finish the big jobs they’ve set out to achieve. 

Distraction is the enemy of progress.

Passports and helmets are distractions and lately, there’ve been too many of them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This coalition needs to tighten its agenda as well as
it's belt. And the last week we've had a smagas
board of small, seemingly minor stories hitting their headlines. You know,
helmets or no helmets for cyclists. For goodness sakes, which
name comes first on the cover of your passport? A
ban and then a reversal on a ban on marshmallows

(00:21):
and hot chocolates from the coffee machine at hospitals. Not
a single one of these stories is significant on their
own in and of themselves, but the kind of stories
that people remember because they either make no sense or
they appear to be a colossal waste of time. Most
working families can't afford to even use their passports right
now a Hawaiian holiday. No, the only ones actually dusting

(00:45):
off their passports right now are probably moving across to
the ditch across the Tasman. Is this the stuff that
your average punter wanting to feed their kids actually cares about?
The answers of course, No. The Clark government got bogged
down by a bunch of these silly little things. I
think size of shower heads, size of light bulbs. Remember
that fiasco. Instead of asking officials, where the little Johnny

(01:08):
should be allowed to ride a bike without a helmet,
something that no decent parent would allow. Anyway, why not
keep your eyes on the big stuff. No shortage of
that around. Yesterday Fitch warned our Doba plus credit rating
could be at risk if we get slack on fiscal discipline.
If we see a further correction in the housing market,
which isn't completely off the cards, we see employments spike

(01:30):
up again, also not out of the woods yet. Come on,
we have big earfish to fry. It's not that this
coalition is not focused on these things, of course, certainly
more focused on them than the last one. It's just
that there's a bit too much noise around on little
things that don't actually matter to the swinging middle that
national needs if they want to finish the big jobs

(01:51):
that they've set out to achieve. Distraction is the enemy
of progress. Passports and helmets are distractions, and lately and
a few too many of them. For more from early
edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks it
be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.