Little Nicola's report card after one year: 'Not Achieved'
"National was elected on the promise of fixing the economy. Not talking about it; but to deliver the goods. ... How is Finance Minister Willis doing? [Answer:] She has not yet proved herself. ...
"[T]he Kiwi economy is stagnant ... experiencing one of the lowest GDP growth rates in the world. [I]nflation is lower, [but] it has been coming down in most nations. ... [W]e held out hope there would be a drastic reduction in red tape and regulation. However the new Department of Regulation has done next to nothing yet, other than hire managers. ... Willis has sent no clear message to the markets that hers is a government of low taxes. Quite the opposite, she has kept top tax rates the same, as well as corporate taxes. ... [yet] the fiscal deficit will [still] worsen under Willis, unless the economy starts to rapidly pick up. The trimming of civil servants, whilst necessary, is not on a scale that will greatly shift the dial. ...
"[O]n healthcare, Willis pretends that hiring Lester Levy is a reform. Parachuting in a cost cutting manager does not constitute a health-care policy. ... [O]n housing, once the propaganda is stripped away, National's reforms offer less of an increase in supply than was going to happen under the bi-partisan accord that the Party signed up to with Labour years ago. ... National's trumpeted Fast-Track Approvals is nothing more than a rejig of the Fast-Track Approvals process Labour enacted when in office, although with a lessening of environmental checks. ...
"Willis ... represents ... a Sir Bill English-type, a steady-as- she-goes, status-quo, old-style, conservative Nat. Maybe it worked for him. It won’t for her. It won’t for the nation. ... New thinking is required."
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