What a year politically speaking.

This year New Zealanders wanted a change.  They didn’t really care who they got or what policies they voted in; they just wanted a change. National was a shoo-in; a huge gap was forming with the new face of Key heading the old guard of National, well in front.

Prime Minister, Helen Clark, and Deputy Prime Minister, Dr Michael Cullen, had served us for nine years with steady rebuilding of New Zealand equal opportunity and treatment for all Kiwis, to improve their lives with almost full employment and business crying out for new labour which regained for many employees some balancing influence over their wages/salaries and lifestyle.

But that wasn’t enough for New Zealanders.  They wanted tax cuts whether we could afford them or not.  So Dr Cullen, against his pure maths scholar/history background and his wide knowledge of the processes of the financial world, the good and bad decisions, the boom and bust periods, gave them affordable tax cuts but without risk to other programmes like Working for Families or Kiwisaver which were introduced because wages weren’t rising enough in spite of high profits and legislated minimum wage increases.

But then National promised $50 per week tax cuts to everyone and the gap widened with National well in front. Then the sky fell in, or should I say the walls(t). So National, likely to govern alone, now, decided to cut back the tax cut, cut back the Kiwisaver programme and cut back Labour’s Research and Development partnership which was the biggest surprise of all given National’s rhetoric on growth.  Hopefully, they won’t then cut back the wages.

The next poll will be revealing for this country’s future path.