Trapped in a minefield of his own making

BY TRACY WATKINS

OPINION: Has the Government lost its mojo?

How else to explain the uncanny quiet that has descended on the Beehive in recent weeks?

It may be that the Government is taking a breather after a chaotic few weeks courtesy of Richard Worth, Mt Albert and Christine Rankin. But it's more likely that John Key and his ministers have been shaken by the reminder that honeymoons can easily be squandered.

It is early days for a government to become gun shy, but post-Rankin a new conservatism appears to be creeping through the ranks.

If its initial period in office was marked with the sort of gung-ho enthusiasm that comes only with a huge mandate and faith in its gut instinct, there has been so little action lately that it's as if the Key Cabinet is tiptoeing through a minefield.

The first flush of belief that the Government could do no wrong while the honeymoon lasted has been knocked by the realisation that the length of the honeymoon lies in its own hands.

The admission by some at senior levels within the Government that there was a lack of care over the Rankin appointment, if not over the appointment itself, then the failure to anticipate the fallout followed by a similar failure of judgment over the Mt Albert by-election is an acknowledgement of that.

Having had it so good for so long, there is a natural aversion to more missteps that might precipitate the end.

But the old saying about no news being good news rarely applies to governments; a vacuum inevitably provides an opening for your opponents, as the traction gained by Labour over accusations of Jobs Summit inaction proved.

The official line goes that, like a duck on a pond, all the action is happening beneath the surface. The pace is said to be frantic, officials are beavering away on ideas generated from the summit and elsewhere and ministers' offices assure us there is lots "in the pipeline". Trouble is, any sign of this momentum has now disappeared so far up the pipeline there are serious concerns that it may be stuck in a U-bend somewhere.

Someone should have seen coming but didn't that crunch time was fast approaching for the much-vaunted summit. They should have been chivvying ministers' offices for a rollout of announcements or initiatives in the four months since the prime minister's promise of a "do-fest, not a talk fest". That would have headed off at least some of the finger-pointing when the prime minister obligingly heralded the arrival of the crunch point by confirming on Monday that 1000 Kiwis a week are signing up for the dole queue.

While that set off a belated scramble within ministers' offices to churn out fresh information on how many jobs had been saved, created or at least thoughtfully considered in the wake of the summit, Labour leader Phil Goff was able to get away a few well-aimed salvos, labelling it a flop. The subsequent trumpeting of fresh figures showing the summit's flagship policy the nine-day fortnight had managed to save fewer than 400 jobs so far was hardly a telling rejoinder.

The Jobs Summit label was always something of a misnomer, of course; it was never intended as a forum for precipitating the sort of "big bang"job creation kick that some of the Government's international counterparts have tried, to varying degrees of success, and which seemed likely to be of even more dubious benefit here.

So when Mr Key and Bill English headed into the Jobs Summit, it was with their eyes firmly on preparing the ground for recovery, with a few job-saving ideas for the here and now thrown into the mix for the sake of the feel-good factor. If there was never any serious talk about reviving the PEP schemes of old or similarly doomed ideas to put the unemployed behind a shovel or a hedge clipper as an answer to the country's significant economic woes, that was because the summit was firmly focused on a more fundamental overhaul of the economy.

But having provided the Jobs Summit label, the Government is obliged to wear it with some panache. If instant jobs are not the answer, making a better fist of outwardly maintaining the momentum generated by the summit is.

Contrast that with how Helen Clark might have handled things. Momentum was her mantra. When bad news surfaced, her government got busy. Her post-Cabinet press conferences were the platform for her weekly recital of upcoming announcements.

The bigger the sideshow her government or her ministers become embroiled in, the longer the list. If idle hands are the devil's tool, they are also the weapon your opponents and the media will beat you with.

Smoke and mirrors? Maybe. But it was a tactic that served her well for most of her nine years in office.

Mr Key's style is decidedly more laid-back. His post-Cabinet press conferences invariably start with a quick okey dokey and a couple of desultory announcements (the King and Queen of Spain are coming; Australian tourist numbers are up), followed by a question and answer free-for-all.

It served him well up until recent weeks. That and the fact that he was playing to his strength by operating on gut instinct, which has proved on occasion to be more reliable even than Miss Clark's. It is the reason why the honeymoon continues, even after the Government's recent pratfalls.

But gut instinct alone won't paper over a slim agenda for ever. Is it time for Mr Key to take a leaf out of Miss Clark's activity book?

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