What’s changed?

Labour has a new leader which has given the country a new Prime Minister.

There’s also a new deputy and today we’ve got some new ministers.

But it’s not a new government.

Most of the new cabinet have been part of the team that’s been governing since 2017 and the rest of them are now into their third year in the current government.

So what’s changed?

The words have.

The new leader has dropped the vision and aspiration and is acknowledging the difficulties so many people are facing with the cost of living crisis but he’s been a senior minister in the administration which is responsible for much of those difficulties.

He was called Mr Fixit, called on to take over when other Ministers failed. But he didn’t fix the problems with the Covid response, education or policing and as Minister of State Services he was responsible for the ballooning public service which has too often been concentrating on self-serving communication rather than serving the public.

And poor Auckland. As if the city doesn’t have enough on its plate without being saddled with a Michael Wood as its Minister when he’s the one who was the one who wasted millions looking into the bridge that went nowhere; dropping speed limits all over the city; is responsible for light rail that is causing more problems than it will solve and as Minister of Immigration, won’t open the doors to solve the staff shortages that are plaguing so many businesses and service providers.

He’s one of the some who have been promoted, while others have been demoted but that’s just rearranging the furniture.

Can we really expect substantial and positive change when it’s still the same old team with the same old policies and the same old mistaking style for substance?