Key apologises for canning the tax cuts . . [updated]

Colin Espiner blogs on a debate/meeting last night on the economy, organised by his newspaper The Press. "1000 people turned up to hear what John Key had to say about the recession, and how to fix it," says Colin setting the scene [hat tip DPF].

The night was interesting for several reasons. It was good to hear the Prime Minister explain what he planned to do about the recession in words that didn’t have to be fitted into a seven-second television soundbite. Or in a dry speech to a chamber of commerce. Or in the heat of battle in Parliament.
And it reminded me that the public is interested in weighty issues and able to absorb them in relatively big chunks. They don’t need stuff dumbed down, and they do care about more than just day-to-day issues that obviously still concern them.

This was obviously a rare audience indeed. Personally, what I found particularly interesting was this concession:

Key apologised for canning the tax cuts, though he said they would be back: “I believe in the power of tax cuts,” Key said, almost evangelically.

D'you think perhaps our four days at Fieldays inviting folk to head across the corridor and ask the Nats about the broken tax-cut promise might have had some effect?

UPDATE: Good to see young Adolf at No Minister getting the message on govt spending. He's got a good short list of low-hanging spending fruit a responsible government should at least contemplate cutting.

Fieldays 2009: It's going to be fun!

Here's your favourite blogger on the Libz stand at Fieldays, looking sharp in my new Frederic Bastiat shirt, and ready for anything.

Someone at Fieldays clearly has a sense of humour -- look who we've been put next to. Should be a good few days. For us, at least.

Here's a party that seems bereft of ideas. Not even a slogan. Not even the Parliamentary crest, which they need to show that we've paid for it. Not even a full cashbox -- though if you look closely their chief sponsor is behind them to the left. . .

"Come along and have a chat and give your views," say the Nats. "National is very interested in hearing what people think," they say. "This is your chance to have a lively exchange of ideas," they claim.

We plan on helping make that happen. . .

Quote of the day: Bernard Darnton

We’ll have this poster up at the Libertarianz stand down at Fieldays, starting tomorrow.  Keep an eye out for it, and call in and say “Hi!”

Some pics from Fieldays (updated)

Here's a few photos of the Libz crew at work at Fieldays talking to part of the record Fieldays crowd(click the pics to enlarge). We figure someone at Fieldays must have had a sense of humour, putting the Nats right next door to us :

The crew at work (below). Punters sign up for more, while Eli checks the deserted National Party stand next door (left). Note the signs indicating who paid for the Nats' site.

Here's the Nats' Rotorua candidate on Friday afternoon, just before we sent him home for vagrancy.And here he is hugging a tree ...
                                                                                                                           

Here's Maurice Wimpianson looking for today's National policy...
And here's Maurice all alone, and still in the dark ...
                                                                                                                           

4.37pm on Friday - the taxpayers obviously didn't pay enough to keep these people (left) on the job for the full day either.

NZ First lady (right) knew all about Libz "because we read all your press releases."

 

Here's the winning message that drew the punters in:

And a winning stand -- the only political party stand that was Not Taxpayer Funded:

And, finally, guess which party has ideas ... and which one's completely in the dark ...

UPDATE 1: Following on from what I said after my own stint on the Libz stand earlier in the week, here's some of what the Libz volunteers observed over the week:

1. Libertarianz' name recognition has increased enormously amongst rural folk, as has the realisation that if parties keep dishing out the same old slop we'll keep getting the same old big-government failure.
2. Libertarianz is no longer seen as 'extremist' -- at least not by the people we were talking to. It's taken twelve years, but policies like abolishing the RMA and separating school and state were being talked about as sensible and 'centrist.' As they say, it's not until you get bored with saying something that it finally starts to sink in.
3. Oh, and no questions on the roads. Real people are over the small stuff.
4. Most National MPs are better privately than they are publicly (hard not to be, really), but every single one of them lacks courage. The lesson being that the more principled activists can make it politically acceptable for politicians to say (as Kate Wilkinson did, for example) that National MPs are opposed to compulsion, the better. Even better if they mean it when they say it.
5. ACT are now irrelevant. Not one person mentioned ACT to us all week, not even to write then off.
6. And so too are Winston First and United No Future. For once, there was no rabid geriatric supporters of Winston first to give us the usual 'The Messiah Will Save Us' speech, and no Winston to show up and sooth his few remaining supporters. And no one even knew who Peter Dunne was.
7. The traditional farming constituency of the National Party are very angry with the Nats. There is widespread agreement that they are just Labour-Lite, widespread annoyance that they've bought the phony global warming line -- and absolute outrage that they're proposing their own Emissions Trading Scheme -- and apparently no support at all for National's mealy-mouthed sleep-walking to the election. A rural vote for National this year will not be a vote for National but a vote against Helen Clark. The Nats will have to earn back any genuine support -- if they can.

UPDATE 2: Note that unlike the other political parties at Fieldays, the Libz stand was NOT taxpayer funded. If you'd like to help out with the costs of the stand, you can donate here. :-)