Image via WikipediaKey's speech more politics than governing...
A politics lecturer thinks John Key's statement to Parliament yesterday was short on detail and more about politics than governing.
John Key's speech outlining the government's plans for the year is being described as more politics than governing.
Otago University's lecturer in politics Dr Bryce Edwards says the speech was short on detail.
"This is really directional stuff, it's the Prime Minister standing up trying to look visionary, trying to show the public that this Government is going somewhere, but for anyone looking for more substance they would've been left wondering quite a bit," he told Newstalk ZB.
He says it's more about positioning the government to protect it from attacks in the coming election campaigns.
"You can see this in terms of quite a strong approach towards children in need, vulnerable children," he says. "Most of this is mainly rhetoric but it's trying to take off some of the heat that they might be expecting from Labour in the campaign."
But former National Party president Michelle Boag told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning that they're not ideas designed to win an election.
"Our long term strategies which have to be addressed for the sake of New Zealand's sustainability as an economically well off nation."
She says John Key has identified what needs to be done in the welfare sector.
"It has been shown over many decades throwing money at it does not fix the problem because we're no better off for all the money that's been thrown at it."
Labour Party president Mike Williams thinks Mr Key is putting a gun to the heads of state housing tenants.
"The vast majority of statehouse tenants, believe it or not, don't bother to vote and when they get off their backsides and do vote, they don't vote National as happened in 2005." he told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking. "I think that's a mistake Labour can work on."
He says if he was John Key, he'd fire his speech writers.
"There's no poetry, there's no passion, there's no sense of humour, there's no sens of history."
Mr Williams says John Key's been saying the same things for two year, but nothing's really happened.
Meanwhile Labour MP Grant Robertson says shuffling the chairs around the deck of the public service will do nothing to boost our economy or create jobs.
He says there are lots of rumours going around about restructuring in various departments.
"Everybody wants a more efficient public sector that's responsive to the community needs," he says. "That involves actually sitting down with public servants and working out how we can help them to do their jobs better."
"Just reorganising causes more disruption and more difficulty for people in their jobs."
Grant Robertson says that does nothing to make the public service better for everyone.
Acknowledgements: © 2011 NZCity, NewsTalkZB
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