New National Party Leader Christopher Luxon has named leadership rival Simon Bridges as the party's Finance and Infrastructure spokesman.
Previous Leader Judith Collins had Michael Woodhouse as Finance Spokesperson and Andrew Bayly as Shadow Treasurer since last year's election. Bayly was also Infrastructure Spokesman. Prior to the election, Paul Goldsmith was National's Finance Spokesman.
“Simon has prodigious skills, incredible talent and the intellectual heft needed to excel as National’s Finance spokesperson. He is ideally suited to prosecute the wasteful spending decisions, spiralling debt and rising costs of living occurring under the Labour Government," Luxon says.
“Growing our economy and raising productivity are the biggest things we can do to improve the lives of all New Zealanders. For the last 30 years, our economy has been suffering from a productivity disease. Lifting productivity means raising people’s incomes, which in turn gives New Zealanders more choices and better lifestyles."
“It’s important that our economy is sustainable, and that means ensuring that we spend effectively and with discipline," says Luxon.
He says public spending must be brought under control because otherwise costs will rise faster than wages.
Luxon's also calling for "a genuine long-term, intergenerational view" of infrastructure.
"We need an overarching vision for New Zealand’s infrastructure and new funding and financing mechanisms that can drive us into the coming decades. Simon will play a central and critical role in our leadership team, and he and I will work closely together," says Luxon.
Bridges, a former National Leader, contested the party leadership against Luxon.
34 Comments
I believe he was a lawyer for the Crown. So he is considerably less qualified for the role compared to Grant Robinson.
Bridges was Transport Minister at one point and I don't recall that working out very well. If he ended up as Finance Minister I couldn't see things working out very well for New Zealand.
they are still waiting for the bridges promised by bridges in northland
Robertson has a BA (Hons) in politics from Otago.
Bridges has a BA LLB (Hons) from Auckland where he was a senior scholar (top 5 in graduating cohort), time at LSE, and has a BCL from Oxford.
On a personal level, Robertson looks more interesting than Bridges. But academically, Robertson and Bridges aren't in the same league. Bridges would be in the top 1% of lawyers (intellectually) in New Zealand with that academic record.
It will be interesting to see how this duel plays out. I will give Robertson credit that he has been stronger than I expected.
I am not expecting a genuine, honest answer.
Luxon will not anger National's core voters (housing speculators, tourism operators, hospitality businesses) in his first week on the job by admitting easy access to low-skilled migrant labour has been a drag on NZ's productivity since the Key era.
You reckon Bridges got a pay-off from Luxon? That's nothing!
Former Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens will take on one of the most prestigious roles in the corporate landscape when he steps up as chairman of Macquarie Group and Macquarie Bank in May.
This would be the same Macquarie Group that was rescued from financial oblivion in 2008 by understanding intervention?
He's getting the traditional tattoo of his Iwi.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/49/4e/71494e99cd19c426d6d15b966af310e…
You have to feel sorry for Luxon...he came in the other day and said to the party "right, we need to set up a global recruitment drive to select the cleverest minds available to fill the roles I have coming up"...then was surprised to hear that isn't how it works in politics,you get what you have in front of you.
Apparently you don't even get to choose the members of the team you are given."Imagine running a business like that" he said.
So Luxo has been in the job 3 days and in that time he has done a back flip on on his faith by suddenly deciding to vote in favour of the Abortion safe areas bill that he had previously voted against.
He has announced that he will be re-looking at the housing accord that his deputy Willis formulated and sold to Labour as a joint venture on the housing issue.(The amendment he will probably want is no changes to the status quo in the 'leafy suburbs')
Now he has promoted Bridges, based on his prodigious financial experience to the role of finance minister and #3 in his shadow cabinet and says NO deal was done prior.
Can't wait to see what Judith gets in return for sitting quietly at the back and not rocking the boat.
He has one thing in common with Jacinda. No idea of the increase in value of his property in Rimuera.
Also a member of the rentier class. Not that I have a problem with people owning a number of investment properties and renting them out. The problem is a vested interest in keeping the status quo and not attempting to level the investment playing field.
I see this site seems to have been invaded by a bunch of Labour activists. I used to like the full range of intelligent views expressed here in the comments section. Now it seems you have to wade through too many stereotyped political barbs to find gems of insight.
We all need a bit of levity in these tough times...
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/funny-people-are-also-more-intel…
Albert Einstein attributed his brilliant mind to having a child-like sense of humour. Indeed, a number of studies have found an association between humour and intelligence.
Great callout.
A few months ago, we were seeing a huge trend of appearance based insults for politicians, there was a clampdown, and that's mostly not a thing anymore.
Next opportunity is to cull everything that doesn't meet 1 of those 3 criteria. What a pleasure that would be to contribute to and read.
If you like this comment, and don't contribute via PressPatron, you should, so Interest.co.nz can afford more moderation :)
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018802983/co…
Comedy stylings and slap-downs: a debating tradition ;
excerpts:
..
And the best House oratory is often built (at least in part) around humour - the better to keep the audience focussed.
Basically, General Debate speeches vary widely because MPs get to decide how they approach it, what they cover and what to say. The best are impassioned, moving or funny.
We’re focussing on funny because General Debates are Parliament’s main stage for jokes, and the listening MPs lap it up just like the audience at a stand-up comedy event. Like a stand-up audience they are also at constant risk of becoming the target of a joke.
Sometimes they even seem to enjoy speeches from their opponents. Even jokes aimed at them.
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