Not everyone likes Pickering' articles. Swannie DO NOT READ THIS. Don't want you having a coronary mate.
New Zealand was on the brink of recession prior to the Conservative government of John Key taking the reins in 2008. This small economy of 4.4 million people is now preparing for a series of record surpluses... and without the help of a mining industry.
Helen Clarke’s Labour Government left the country facing severe recession with a bloated Public Service sector and disastrous losses due to her takeover of the NZ rail system.
Abbott could do worse than take a look across the Tasman when attempting to repair the damage left by the union government of Julia Gillard and the incompetency of Kevin Rudd
Unions have assisted in bringing Euro Communist/Socialist governments to their knees. North America broke its corrupt union stranglehold years ago but when a union movement actually becomes the Government, as it has in Australia, prepare for a catastrophe we were totally unprepared for.
Unfortunately Wayne Swan’s and Julia Gillard’s response to our parlous economic state is to tell lies:
“We guided the nation through a global financial crisis”, says Gillard. Wrong! Australia was almost immune from the GFC. Our major client, China, averaged a 9 per cent growth, we were in the middle of a mining boom, we were not exposed to the US sub-prime rate, we had low unemployment, historically high terms of trade and our financial institutions were never at risk.
“Government revenue is down”, says Swan. Wrong again! Government revenue is up 7.5% this year alone, has risen each year of this government’s tenure and is up a massive $100 billion since 2008.
If Swan was to tell the truth he would say that his spending was predicated on unrealistic revenue expectations that, with the help of a compliant Treasury, were consistently and grossly overstated. That’s all.
We are now where NZ was four years ago... in a heap of Labor pain.
So, what’s different? NZ’s dollar has risen to exactly the same extent our dollar has. Helen Clarke’s socialist government went on the same spending spree and faced the same endless deficits. We had our floods, they had their earthquakes.
Fortunately, both countries possess the same resilience to bounce back from Labor disasters.
So, how did NZ tackle Labour’s, loss-making legacy? Luke Malpass, a research fellow at The New Zealand Initiative, a conservative think tank, explains it this way:
“First were tax cuts. The top tax rate for someone on about $45,000 a year went from 33 per cent to 17.5 per cent, the top income tax rate was slashed from 39 per cent to 33 per cent at $70,000, aligned with the trust tax rate. Company tax was reduced to 28 per cent, GST was increased to 15 per cent to encourage savings ahead of consumption.
“Second, employing people was made easier. A probationary working period was introduced, and the modest emissions trading scheme was drastically trimmed back. Compulsory employer co-contributions to Kiwisaver, New Zealand’s voluntary savings scheme, were reduced from 4 per cent to 2 per cent. (This has been increased to 3 per cent as conditions have improved.)
“Third, the government produced a series of so-called “zero budgets” allowing no new money for any area except health and education. New programs were funded from within existing budgets.
“Fourth, 49 per cent slices of several power companies are being privatised to improve market disciplines, deepen capital markets and encourage a share-owning democracy.”
Of 4.4 million people, 440,000 have enthusiastically pre-registered for the IPO. (Initial Public Offering)
Wow! And back to surplus, all within four years!
But we are five times the size of New Zealand with five times the damage wrought on our economy and social structure... and without one thing to show for it.
Still, Abbott could learn much from the NZ labour/union experience, but one critical mistake must never be repeated: The outdated Marx and Trotsky ideologies of unions are fine within their own arenas, but a blatant annexation of government by unions and the far Left, via unrepresentative Greens, must never be allowed to happen again.
The electorate doesn't want it.
The endless, feel-good “initiatives” of Labor in election mode must be put aside until surpluses re-emerge through sound management.
The awesome responsibility on Abbott’s shoulders will leave little time for bike rides as he will certainly face the full force of organised union militancy.
These corrupt, destructive little cretins must be banished back to the shop floor in a Thatcher style purge.
They, including the Prime Minister, must face a Royal Commission and eventually pay the penalties for their crimes against their own kind and the Australian people.
But there is one unresolved, glaring difference in the NZ experience. Helen Clarke did not face the NZ electorate while under investigation by a Major Fraud Squad.
He was proven to be a dill with the so called Gillard/Unions affair, Pickering is an irrelevant fool, and people who take him seriously are bigger fools! 
