David shearer has only been an MP since 2009 having failed on two previous attempts to get into parliament. His work history is impressive indeed but since becoming an MP he has been largely invisible. My life is so boring that I watch a bit of parliament on TV and frankly Shearers performance in the house has been average at best. This in a house where the average performance of all members is appalling.

Becoming the leader of the Labour Party is a huge step up for David Shearer and I hope for his party’s sake, and because good politics needs strong opposition, he shapes up. I think he will.

Unfortunately the previous leadership team made such a mess of the party list at the recent election that Shearer is going to have to cope without some of the brighter, younger hopes for the future like Stuart Nash. I have no doubt that if Nash was back in parliament, Shearer would be looking to him to carry some real responsibility.

Stuart Nash has every right to feel bitter. Not towards the voters in his electorate, but towards the senior members of his own party who to put it simply, let him down. I would be surprised if Labour doesn’t find him something to do until a safe seat becomes available.

So where does David Shearer go from here? He’s only got 34 MP’s and some of them are well past their use-by dates (some of them of course have never been any use) so his options are limited. He will want to show that he is in charge and that Labour is a rejuvenated and potent opposition. That is a big ask.

Poor old Phil Goff will trot off to the back benches. I have always said that if I was looking for a good parliamentary team from across all parties, Phil Goff is one of the first I would select. However I would never make the mistake of having him as leader.

Annette King is struggling to hide her bitterness and I predict she will not complete this term. It would not be surprising to see King to step down mid term, perhaps to contest the Wellington Mayoralty, and who knows – that just might create a gap for Stuart Nash.

Have a great Christmas – I will resume my rambles in the new Year.

There are a couple of things that really concern me. The growth forecasts of 3 to 4% per annum are pretty optimistic in a world economy that is still tottering on the brink of disaster. If those levels of growth can not be achieved, then all the budget forecasts go out the window.

Much is being made of the fact that the great hope is, the economy will be back in surplus by 2014 rather than 2015. What is not clearly pointed out is that until we do achieve a financial surplus situation, the government will have to continue to borrow enormous amounts of money so that they can continue to run the country. And when that surplus is achieved, be it in 2014 or 2015 or some other point in time, the repayment process can begin. By that time the government (that’s you and me of course) will be so deep in debt that the repayment period will not be measured in years, but in generations.

So naturally, in election year, the government is trying to paint a positive picture of their budget but in truth it is a sorry tale of New Zealand’s financial position. National appears to be on the right track but I believe they could have done much more and frankly Labours comments on the budget and their own pronouncements since, display an ineptness which, if they were in power, would be scary.

It is interesting to see Mayor Yule has launched his takeover bid for Napier. My wife pointed out his facebook campaign that his very slick, professional PR people have produced. I wonder who is paying them?

I believe there has been a slight shift of opinion on amalgamation in Napier but the majority of Napier ratepayers would prefer to retain their independence and identity although Lawrence’s takeover team have been doing covert surveys and their results must have given them encouragement.

Lawrence calls his programme a restructuring one. Most talk of amalgamation. The proposal produced by Lawrence is clearly a simple takeover of Napier by Hastings. Before any binding decision is sought from Napier ratepayers, we need to ensure that those ratepayers are acquainted with all the facts. Napier’s debt level compared to Hastings. What the representative numbers will look like after the takeover. What, if any savings this takeover will produce. Those sorts of things.

Only then can the citizens of Napier make an informed decision – one that will be good for Napier and indeed the whole region.

UPDATE: Since I prepared these notes, Lawrence has contacted me and suggested a chat – I’m all for that. But he has also suggested his plan is only a draft and could easily be changed – and that is my whole point. The ratepayers don’t know what they are supposed to be debating because the politicians are flying silly kites.

Let’s show the ratepayers some respect and get some facts together so the people have the chance to make a sensible informed decision.

So I got up and watched Q & A on Sunday morning – and what a hoot.

First up was Hone Harawira like we’ve never seen him before. He was clearly a puppet with Matt McCarten pulling his strings. Gone was the thug, gone was the racist, and gone was the bully. Harawira gave the impression at least, that he was engaging his brain before putting his mouth into gear.

Of course these guys can’t help themselves and he also announced that he is going to resign and force a by-election costing you and I, the humble taxpayers, a half a million dollars, just months before a general election. That is madness and selfish in anyone’s language – as Pita Sharples put it, that money would refurbish 20 run down state houses for the very people Hone claims to be concerned about.

And guess who Hone’s greatest critic was – Jim Anderton for Gods sake. Jim Anderton, who by any judgement is the independent MP for Sydenham, yet claims to be heading a political party so he can squeeze more out of the public purse. Anderton has no shame.

And then of course there was Don Brash. You’ve got to hand it to Brash – he has got confidence in his own ability. To take-over a political party, to become its leader when a) he is not even a member and b) he has to crush the career of a former close friend and step over a bunch of existing MPs, takes guts. He will be a real force to contend with in November.

So where does this leave what we used to know as the “Major Parties”? Well Labours gone for all money. Phil Goff is an intelligent decent bloke but he is no leader and he will not lead Labour anywhere. Trevor Mallard is increasingly looking like a lame duck and if they have to start relying on egotistical lightweights like Cunliffe then they’re in real trouble. Labour, at this stage, is gone.

National is not without its troubles either. There is a strong perception that National is sleepwalking through the economic crises we are still in and that borrowing $300m a week is destroying our future. Steps must be taken to curb this borrowing (and on the other side of the coin to increase productivity) and clearly whatever National is doing, it’s not enough.

So from this far out – and of course things can change – it looks like the traditional left wing vote will be shuffled between Hone, the Maori Party, the Greens and Labour but that Labour will let the team down and they will stay on the opposition benches. National has a real problem in that they will not be able to vigorously oppose ACT and their policies because they might just end up as a government having to enact those very policies.

So for a political junkie like me, it’s shaping up to be an interesting year.

They came to power in 2008 just as the world’s economies were collapsing around them. Here in New Zealand, the financial system was under real strain as finance companies, one after another, collapsed robbing New Zealanders of their savings.

Just as it looked like things were on the improve, Christchurch had its first big shake. The economy took that in its stride and things continued to improve and then the big one – the massive earthquake that destroyed the very heart of our second biggest city and cost the lives of almost 200 people.

The Christchurch earthquake has had such a huge impact on our economy that it will be generations before the economic effects are no longer felt. Not only are thousands and thousands of companies, businesses and individuals not paying tax, but the whole city is requiring enormous amounts of money to be spent on it. The cost to the New Zealand taxpayer is many billions of dollars, billions of dollars that have to be borrowed, billions of dollars that need to be serviced and billions of dollars that one day will need to be repaid.

And of course, just as commodity prices were at all time highs, one of our very significant trading partners, Japan, suffered a devastating earthquake and tsunami, which destroyed towns, cities and ports not to mention the lives of tens of thousands of people.

John Key must wake up each morning and ask, what have I done wrong – why do all these terrible things have to happen on my shift?

It is my view that we are all very lucky that we have a leader of the calibre of John Key at this very difficult time. He attacks the problems with a quiet dignity, a clear ability to see the big picture and a razor sharp mind with which to decide the best course of action. Like all good leaders, he is also quite prepared to take expert advice when required.

So the New Zealand economy faces very real challenges – challenges which will take real courage to face. The immediate one of course is the rebuilding of Christchurch but the greatest challenge is the management of our economy.

But we will get there – we always have and we always will.

John Key’s suggestion that partial sales of mature government assets should take place, not only makes sense, but in terms of our future, is probably essential.

The truth is that New Zealand is in the poo. Blame it on whoever you like but the fact remains we are in the mire. And we can’t just go on borrowing to pay the bills because we will simply sink deeper and deeper into the mire. Action needs to be taken and the obvious action is to sell off assets to reduce the need to borrow more. Surely it makes sense to give New Zealanders the chance to invest in their own country, to invest in mature secure assets at a good yield, to invest in assets that allow the governments funds to be freed up to be invested in economic growth. And doesn’t it make sense to give Iwi the opportunity to invest their settlement monies in such sound NZ investments.

Naturally Phil Goff has rubbished the proposal, despite being in Cabinet when asset sales were undertaken previously. And I’ve got a challenge for Phil Goff – don’t tell us what’s wrong with the National Party’s policy, come up with a policy of your own and tell us why it is better than National’s.

Don’t Phil, dwell on why we are in the position we are, dwell on the solution to our problem.

Because National will tell us that we are in trouble because Labour squandered the spoils of nine years of prosperous times and Labour will tell us that National has mismanaged the economy for the last three years. As of right now none of that matters. The question is, what party has the appropriate policies to lead us back to prosperity? That’s what matters at this moment. We are in financial trouble, what is the best path to recovery?

The debate is not enhanced by some of the idiots on talk-back radio. One stupid woman said “why would people want to invest in shares – the sharemarket is where everyone has lost their money in recent years”. My only advice to that poor soul is that if you are going to comment on these matters get your facts right. The sharemarket has performed very well in recent times, it is the fixed interest market where investors have been hit.

And Phil Goff is no better. He claims that John Key said he wouldn’t sell off state assets and he now says he will. According to Goff that makes John Key a man who can’t be trusted.

Phil Goff well knows that John Key said he would not sell off state assets in his government’s first term. The proposed asset sales will be in National’s second term. I would suggest such blatant misrepresentation of the facts, very much brings Phil Goff’s trustworthiness into question.

Whilst I despise the ridiculous electoral system that we all suffer under called MMP, I do accept that it transforms the serious business of electing an effective government into an entertaining circus. We see all these lightweight politicians and aspiring politicians, trying to appear assertive, trying to look intelligent, trying to look like they really have policies, when really most of them would travel with the devil if it meant being in the best carriage on the gravy train. The fact is that MMP is a system which requires you to sell your soul if you want to be in a decision making capacity.

Many commentators are already predicting a landslide win to National. They point out that John Key is so far ahead of Phil Goff in the polls that the result is a foregone conclusion. Brave predictions indeed.

John Key is clearly a class act. He exudes confidence without appearing overconfident and he clearly has his finger on the pulse. The real danger with a John Key led party is that everyone else becomes invisible. He is seen as being “the party”.

Phil Goff is an extremely competent man and if I was putting a bi-partisan party together he would be one of my first picks. Frankly, because of the appalling group he leads with people like Cuncliffe and Mallard as supposedly shining lights (heaven forbid) invisibility of the team might be a good thing.

But we will never have good government in New Zealand whilst we have a system that allows the tail to wag the dog. Whilst we have a system that requires major parties to sell their soul to cater for the support of single issue parties.

It is a sad sick old world when we have two mainstream parties – one centre left, one centre right – but in reality the policies are very little different – pandering to single issue parties, racist parties and chameleons like Winston Peters.

The problem we have in New Zealand is that for so long, we have thought the answer to so many of our problems such as poor housing, unemployment and crime, is to throw more money at it. Only now are we finally saying “that approach doesn’t work” and we are trying a different tack but it takes a long time and a lot of effort to turn around a large ship. And we need to be careful that we turn the ship slowly so that the bow waves don’t do more damage.

I was intrigued to see the National Government coming out with some points for discussion around state houses. State houses were always intended to be a hand up facility. To give workers somewhere to live as they got themselves established and saved for their own homes. It was never intended that people would move into a state house for life. But how do you change something that has become part of our culture. Previous Governments have tried to implement rents based on income. All that did was to encourage families to apply for a state house in the name of the lowest earner in the family, usually a beneficiary and then the rest of the family moved in.

The National Government is now saying they might place a time limit on state house tenancies. How is that going to work? What are they going to do with the family who has no where else to go – toss them on to the street?

And what incentive is there for state house tenants to get a job, work hard, do the extra hours, when their rent increases as they earn more money.

Frankly the whole state house issue has become a real problem for our society and we need to find a solution to it.

Whatever ideas are being considered, we need to remember that we need to be offering the less well off in our society a hand-up not committing them to a life at the bottom of the heap by simply giving them a hand out.

And it took me back 25 years when I was considering a political career. A senior politician was sent to take me to lunch (I clearly remember that I paid for us both) and his pitch was appalling. If he used the term “gravy train” once he used it 10 times, his whole theme was about the perks of the job – service to ones country was not mentioned.

I can remember that luncheon clearly and yet now we have former Ministers of the Crown who can’t remember who they had lunch or dinner with just a few short years ago. It is just rubbish isn’t it?

Much is being made of Shane Jones watching blue movies in his room. Frankly I couldn’t care less if Jones wants to sit in his hotel room watching porn and eating chocolate bars. What concerns me is that this fellow, who has been seen by many including himself as a future leader and therefore perhaps our Prime Minister, is either so dumb that the thinks he could get away with charging the cost to his employers – you and I the humble taxpayers –or so arrogant that, at the time, he didn’t care.

As for Chris Carter – the mind boggles that this fellow may have become our Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Carter will naturally claim that he is being persecuted because of his homosexuality. That, like Shane Jones’ choice of viewing material is largely irrelevant. What is relevant is that Carter headed off around the world with his partner, apparently whenever he felt like it, despite having portfolios with domestic responsibilities and charged it all to you and me.

These guys, and others, have simply taken advantage of their position and for my dough they are no different to the employee in a shop who gets their hand in the till.

When you are being paid from the public purse your judgement needs to be beyond reproach.

A number of our politicians have been found wanting.

And now Britain has got a ridiculous government that is bound to fail. No coalition government has run full term in Britain other than in war time, and this one will be no different. How can a party on the right of the political spectrum, work successfully with a party that is radically left of the Labour Party. It beggars belief.

It is almost as stupid as the situation we have here in New Zealand. How any one party can produce Don Brash and his Orewa speech and John Key and his pandering to all things Maori, I don’t know. How does a government made up of a steady as you go – don’t upset the voters party, a redneck right wing party and a what’s in it for us racist party, govern New Zealand? And the answer to that is not very well. Clearly the New Zealand economy is being as well managed as possible in these extremely difficult times but the degradation in the social fabric of our country is alarming.

We will never compete with Australia economically but we can be a nicer place to live. Right now we are not.

A client said to me yesterday that all the bright kids are heading overseas and New Zealand is becoming a nation of dumbos and slick-willy financial conmen. A bit radical I thought but I know where he is coming from.

We seem to have our priorities all wrong. We have armies of policemen doing booze checkpoints at 4.30 in the afternoon in Waipukurau and yet violent crime is out of control on our streets. We are told by the police hierarchy that they are having a war on speeding and if necessary they will sit policemen up trees to catch speeding motorists.

How bloody silly is that? Don’t waste the time of police personnel by sitting them up trees to catch some poor sod doing a few clicks over the limit – put them on the streets in our cities and let’s get rid of the scumbags that are increasingly giving New Zealand a poor reputation.

Our Government needs to know that there is more to running a country than fiddling with the figures and pandering to their junior coalition partners.

I have to tell you I haven’t heard a chirp out of those friends over the last few days – no doubt because their hero has proven them wrong.

Despite his proper apology, Rodney Hide is not exceptionally bright. He is exceptionally dumb to think he could point the finger at everyone else and get away with sneaking his current girlfriend off to Hawaii, to UK for a wedding, to Disneyland, all at the expense of you and me the humble tax payer.

Rodney Hide has no principles whatsoever. He was quite happy to use the perks he has been campaigning against, and shiftily tried to repay the cost of one trip, when he knew he was going to be caught. And how can Rodney Hide keep everyone honest when clearly he has lost all credibility with the public, and his colleagues alike.

The man is a fool.

Hone Harawira is a racist bigot and frankly is a disgrace to this country and an embarrassment to our parliament. His arrogance beggars belief and in my opinion he is not a fit and proper person to sit in our house of representatives. There would be very few public bars in the country that would tolerate Harawira’s behaviour, and I strongly resent the fact that my taxes are subsidizing this fellow’s lifestyle.

Rodney Hide’s party got 3.65% of the vote last election and Hone Harawira’s considerably less than that. And yet these guys are able to arrange trips around the world – to take their girlfriend to her brother’s wedding or the wife to Paris – on the pretence that they are our representatives – I can tell you, I don’t want them representing me!

The truth is the system is broke – we need to fix it: we need to implement a system that gets rid of these unprincipled bludgers, and to look to a system that understands the meaning of the word service. We need to be led by people who want to serve their fellow man – not by those who see leadership roles as a free ticket on the gravy train.

And we need a system that is transparent.