Bill English has a degree in English, which should have inculcated respect for correct word use — if he hadn’t become a politician, a breed which bends language for good and ill.
So in claiming not to break an election promise not to raise taxes, he asserted his new airport levy is not a tax. The Shorter Oxford Dictionary defines a levy as “a tax, esp. one raised for a particular purpose”. It is a hypothecated tax, as the petrol tax is.
There are three political dimensions to the budget’s star “children in hardship” item.
One is John Key’s ownership. That fits his protestations of concern about disadvantaged children — though action has been slow coming. He made his pile in finance. This shows a human side.
Who said: “The public service is a bit too responsive to politicians”? A lofty academic? A public servant bemoaning servile bosses?
It was Bill English last week.
Set aside that usually ministers complain public servants are not responsive — servile — enough and that English acknowledges some ministerial colleagues are of that ilk.
Where do the flag, water policy and climate change action meet? Where do they not meet? And what have they got to do with the budget?
Start with the flag. It is a symbol. It says we are South Britain, not Aotearoa/New Zealand.
The Union Jack symbolises popular enthusiasm for British-based royals William, Kate, George and Charlotte. Leading royal enthusiast John Key wants to junk the jack.
In a pre-budget speech on Friday Bill English made much of “social investment”. It will be a central feature of the budget on May 21.
What is it? And is it really investment?
Throw in two other cues.
One is that John Key has said he wants his prime ministerial legacy to be what his government does for disadvantaged children. That in part stems from his own downscale period — though with a battler-mother who valued education and the sort of values that set a child up in life whatever the material start.
When is a Prime Minister a political person and when the voice of the nation?
Opening the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park in Wellington on April 18, John Key said: “I feel proud of the decision to make Pukeahu a reality…
“The commitment and dedication that has gone into creating this space reflects how strongly everyone involved wanted to ensure that the National War Memorial finally had the setting it deserved.
Hands up if you agree that Anzac encapsulates “the unique qualities that gave birth to our national identity: courage, mateship, sacrifice, generosity, freedom and a fair go for all”.
I can see almost all hands are up. That is in the spirit of Anzac: the quote is from Australia’s Veterans Affairs Department saying what a gold logo it designed for approved firms’ use signifies.
After the world cricket cup superhyperbole comes heroic Gallipoli. Periodically New Zealand mutates into Jingoland.
On Saturday our soldier Governor-General and non-soldier Prime Minister open the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park. That day Te Papa launches “Gallipoli: The scale of our war”, designed by Weta Workshop’s Sir Richard Taylor, with videos.
When should the Prime Minister be a bloke? And when a statesman?
On the day of Lee Kuan Yew’s funeral John Key chose bloke over statesman to be with the New Zealand cricket team at the world cup final against Australia. Australia’s Tony Abbott chose the funeral.
Leave aside the jinx factor, at which in any case Steven Joyce is more practised, as in the America’s Cup and Northland by-election debacles. Sport does have a people-to-people dimension. (Again, leave aside Abbott’s adoption of his cricketers’ sledging in his standoff with Indonesia.)
History was made on Saturday (and not made on Sunday). History will be celebrated tomorrow. Today a speech will touch on history-in-the-making.
Winston Peters’ win on Saturday is not simply local. To turn a 5691 September election night candidate majority over Labour-plus-Greens (there was no New Zealand First candidate) into a 4012 New Zealand First majority over National six months from the general election that generated that majority, is big.