O’Sullivan on Luxon
Fran O’Sullivan writes:
It’s been interesting to read all the repetitive columns predicting Luxon’s demise – either imminently as my friend Matthew Hooton reckons or at the endpoint of a long, slow march to oblivion as my colleague Simon Wilson avers.
To paraphrase an old joke about economists and recessions, Matthew has predicted the demise of nine of the last five Prime Ministers!
The Prime Minister is imperfect – we all know that. He is clunky and prone to platitudes.
But he had the guts to wrestle control of a hopelessly moribund opposition party, knock it into shape, then forge a Coalition Government with two of the most wily politicians New Zealand has ever seen which is delivering on key pledges in the respective coalition agreement. …
It’s fair to say there has been a revolution at the heart of Government.
Luxon has been focused on the cost of living, fiscal issues and now economic growth.
As one player related, they had not seen before a Government with such energy and drive and a clear sense of mission. The PM’s quarterly plans were driving change.
The fact that Luxon is still a political neophyte wasn’t necessarily a negative. Sure, he would make mistakes. But there were some real advantages because he was not part of the machine. He not had nine years in Parliament to get institutionalised. He was impatient and demanded action: “He just wants stuff done”.
Luxon is very focused on delivery – a huge change from the previous Government.
The PM’s upcoming Infrastructure Investment Summit won’t bomb.
It has acted as a spur to get public infrastructure projects to the investable stage. Deals don’t happen overnight and it is ludicrous to claim if they don’t follow swiftly then Luxon should get the boot.
Chief investment officers have protocols to follow.
Now that Luxon has personally invited Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds to take part, investors will take confidence that the adults from both sides of Parliament are in the room and committed to New Zealand’s long-term success.
It is very good that National and Labour are co-operating to try and attract foreign investment into New Zealand.
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