From trust to prosperity

Quote of the week from Trans Tasman:

This is now a Govt so fully in command even left-wing commentators like Chris Trotter and Matt McCarten are conceding John Key’s stratospheric poll ratings are the reward of the strategy he devised: first, earn the trust of the people, re-balance the economy, protect the vulnerable, and put the economy back on the road to prosperity.

This is what the people and parties calling for National to be more radical fail to understand.

Labour campaigned on trust in 2008 in the hope of convincing voters that Key and National weren’t to be trusted.

The party and leader have showed that they can. They’ve kept promises and have been open about changes they will make if re-elected so voters can give – or not – give them a mandate.

They could have been more radical. The many financial and natural disasters with which they’ve had to cope gave them plenty of excuse for that and a lot of National Party members would have  endorsed them. But a more radical programme would have left too many casualties in its wake for centre and floating voters.

Gaining and maintaining trust were and are still important steps if National is to get the country further along the road to prosperity.

That isn’t to say policy has been developed only with floating voters in mind.

It is all part of a plan to re-balance the economy away from over-taxing, borrowing and spending to savings, investment and export-led growth. 

A good number of voters have accepted the need for this but there’s still time for them to change their minds. The election result is not a foregone conclusion.

Having shown voters he and his party can be trusted Key and National are trusting voters with the truth about their intentions for the next three years in the hope  voters will trust them for another term in government.