Government's handbrake U-turns

Smell that burning rubber? It's the stench left by the Government as it executes a series of handbrake U-turns.

It seems everywhere you look at the moment, National is backing away from policies that are controversial. Just about the only area in which the Government is refusing any compromise is national education standards, where Education Minister Anne Tolley has been given permission to plough ahead regardless of the opposition.

Not that I'm complaining. I think a government that listens to the people is a good government. But I do wonder about the political nous that is being employed in the Beehive at the moment.

For a man of Steven Joyce's brainpower and status within the Government, he royally stuffed up his handling of the review of the SuperGold card for superannuitants last week. Given he is Communications Minister as well as Transport, he didn't do a very good job of communicating his intentions.

Either that or the Government had a sudden attack of cold feet over changes to the gold card. It was pretty clear from a release written last Thursday that the Government was considering changes to the scheme, including redefining what is meant by off-peak travel and reviewing high-cost services including the Waiheke Island ferry, the Wairarapa train service, and the airport express buses.

In his initial release, Joyce said:

"Among other things, officials will consider: the level of reimbursement operators and councils receive;  how 'off peak' should be defined; [and] the eligibility of certain high cost services - including the Waiheke ferry and the train service between Wellington and the Wairarapa."

He added: "The government is committed to the scheme but some changes will need to be made because it is currently on track to exceed the available budget. The highest priority of the review process is to consider how to keep the scheme within the available budget of $18 million a year, while continuing to provide improved mobility for older people."

Pretty clear, I'd have thought. But the following day, blaming his political opponents' "scaremongering'', Joyce said: "We have made it clear all along that the government is totally committed to the SuperGold Card, including the transport concession as it stands.''

This morning, admitting he'd been "a bit imprecise'' Joyce said: "The Government never had any intention to alter the availability of services for SuperGold Card recipients.''

Clearly it did, however, which raises the question, who in the upper echelons of the Beehive thought it a good idea to pick a fight with 540,000 old people for the sake of $18 million?

I sense a similar wavering of commitment over this whole mining issue. From Gerry Brownlee's original gung-ho speech to miners, in which he spoke of his desire to open up schedule four land in the conservation estate, to John Key's recent "hang on a minute'' prevarication, something seems to have changed.

Originally we were supposed to get a discussion document on the government's plans in February, but this has been again delayed. Key said yesterday it wouldn't arrive for a few more weeks. He also said its scope had been broadened to include land outside schedule four, which surprised me because I thought that was always the intention.

The problem the government has is that it's looking longingly at all that money tied up under our national parks but it just knows it will pick a huge fight with the environmental movement if it tries. And probably wider New Zealand as well.

So it's looking for bits of the conservation estate that are not national parks and not that pretty but still presumably worth conserving. I'm not sure it's worth the political hassle when there is all that gas and oil sitting off the coast under the sea that Brownlee could concentrate on without any of the bad publicity. I'm thinking Key is thinking the same thing.

There's yet another U-turn - or at least a pause for thought - occurring over the state sector reforms. Originally planned for announcement last week, it was delayed again on Monday and now seems to be on the backburner.

Given the Government was all set to move and even had space booked for an announcement last Wednesday, this seems a remarkable last-minute change of heart. Whether it's because the unions have threatened them with an injunction or whether it's simply a cost-benefit analysis showing up some issues, I'm not sure.

But it seems to me National is getting a little cautious all of a sudden across a number of areas where previously it was full steam ahead.  

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