Andrew Dickens: Let's stop with the announcement of announcements

Now I'm a bit of a policy wonk. I don't care which party it is. If they come up with a policy, I like to break it down and see if it makes sense. Now I know politicians are addicted to announcements, attention and media coverage. Which means they sometimes say the first thing in their heads that sound like they’ll get votes. No matter if it’s deliverable or not. Labour had a bad case of it. Phil Twyford and his 100 thousand Kiwibuild fantasy.  Michael Wood was the champion. Based on five minutes on the back of an envelope he announced a nearly $900 million bike bridge. Faced with backlash from Dominion Road businesses he stuck the light rail project underground. Tripling the price to an unaffordable $18 billion dollars. Now it seems like the National led coalition has a case of the same disease.  Paul Goldsmith has it bad. This week he announced a change to citizen's arrest rules but had no idea of what the changes are going to be. Classic announcement of an announcement. But the king of wishful thinking is the prince of the provinces, Shane Jones. First, he proposed a special economic zone for Marsden point begging the question why not turn the whole country into a special economic zone. The whole place needs a hand.  Then he proposed repairing Marsden point refinery. A fanciful idea that was shot down in hours as the enormous cost of nearly $8 billion dollars came to light.  The reason why no Government has repaired the refinery ever since it was sold 40 years ago.  The thing about leadership is that you need to make adult decisions and proposals.   If you’re a cabinet minister you can’t just let the first Walter Mitty like thought bubble pop out of your mouth, when you know there’s nothing there.   That’s the lesson Labour learnt last term.   Hopefully the Government figures that out soon. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.