What had looked like being a non-election may yet turn out to be a real one if Labour can follow through on the bold approach outlined Monday night by David Cunliffe and David Parker before a largely sceptical audience at the Manufacturers and Exporters Association in Christchurch.
Labour obviously faces an uphill battle, hampered by its inability to articulate a clear, long term economic strategy in the past few years. Its audience last night, well familiar with the pain of trying to run real economy businesses in an investment poor environment where the fluctuating exchange rate hammers their every effort, were understandably initially lukewarm about what Labour had to offer.
And yet Cunliffe outlined a plan that was bold, practical and admitted that the time for tinkering was over. Both in his speech, and in Q&As with the audience, Cunliffe and Parker acknowledged that the previous Labour government had made mistakes. Nor were they dismissing everything the current government has done out of hand, saying, for example, that they won’t argue that there needs to be spending cuts, but that they will challenge National on whether it is making the right tax cuts. Overall this new Labour message was clear: Government needs to structurally support exporters and the productive economy, and not just pay lip service to it as they believe National is doing. read more »