It’s hard to be misunderstood, and perhaps there are no greater politicians that were unfairly maligned and attacked than Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern.

Today I learned that during Covid, economic forecasts at the time predicted bond markets could dry up, business fail en masse & unemployment climb to 13.5%.

Labour’s “go hard, go early” approach that Ardern and Robertson championed meant unemployment stayed below 5.5% & international rating agencies even upgraded NZ credit worthiness (versus National has just seen our credit rating decrease under them)

As an aside, I also learned today thanks to Frank Macskasy who has a great Substack that all but one Labour government achieved credit rating increases, and nearly all National governments got credit downgrades for the country.

How’s that for economic credentials?

Back to Robertson, he stated:

“When we entered government in 2017, government spending was 27% of GDP. That’s not enough.”

“It’s the reason why we had sewage running down the walls of hospitals, it’s why nurses and doctors were so underpaid, it’s why we saw a growth in homelessness and more kids in poverty”. 

Dan Bruskill reported that Labour’s spending peaked at above 34% of GDP during the pandemic and was forecast to slowly shift back towards 30%.

And Robertson warned of being prudent with our fiscal spend to take care of the country and Kiwis:

“The long run average is a bit over 30%. Anything less is in my mind austerity. We are still dealing with the intergenerational damage from that approach in previous decades. We must not repeat the same mistakes”. 

Under Labour, police numbers had been restored after John Key broke them down. Labour had built and overseen over 14,000 homes, while John Key sold thousands. Despite Willis admitting that National had done a disservice to the country oer this, Chris Bishop isnow selling thousands of land and homes around the country in what has been described as a “developers’ lolly scramble.”

Bishop, unbeknownst to most, has also effectively stopped state housing – aiming for a net 400 increase or so until a cap in 2026 even as at least 20,000 languish on the state home list and homelessness doubles and triples across the country.

Under National, Health NZ’s situation is increasingly dire, with multi-million dollar contracts now going to corporate healthcare providers like Tend Health & private hospitals. Legends in the medical community have warned that we are heading straight down the US path of healthcare – which is more deaths, more bankruptcies, more profit driven healthcare professionals and more crumbling of public health capacity.

There’s more of course, but today I just want to say thank you to Grant Robertson, he who was frequently mocked, chided, abused, simply for not being as polished and PR spoken as the right wing. But from what I see, honest, affable, intelligent, strategic and above all caring for those who live in this country.

Labour saved lives, and as two Royal Commissions now confirmed at a cost of $30 million to taxpayers, we had the best pandemic among the whole world and the best economic and social outcomes coming out of Covid thanks to Labour.

As Robertson said:

“[All results] of course pale into insignificance in the face of the one statistic that matter: the number of lives saved. On that measure New Zealand stood head and shoulders above others, with lower death rates than in normal years”.

We owe them a huge debt

We always will

Thank you Mr Robertson, Thank you Dame Ardern.

PS On the numbers, John Key borrowed about $50 billion, Ardern ran surpluses until Covid hit and they borrowed about $80 billion managing a worldwide pandemic that killed millions, and Luxon is on track for $120 billion ($100 billion because they stole pay equity from nurses, carers, cleaners etc) before the Iran-Israeli US war.

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