Labour's priorities - and a few broken promises.

There has been a bit of talk in the blogosphere of Labour's manifesto, and that if a policy is on a manifesto, then the party has a mandate to carry it out in Government - well, at least a promise. For example, relationship equlity and civil unions and more police in the police force. So where are the extra police - behind the speed camera guns? Or are they driving taxis in response to 111 calls.

Yet Labour's 2002 "manifesto" is interesting for what it says Labour would do but is not doing and will not do this parliamentary term. There are so many examples of this, the following is just a few for now, as reading and analysing them would take longer than I have time for at the moment.

Here is the Justice, Law and Order policy in which Labour said it would:
(1) Reform the Adoption Act.(This will not happen this Parliamentary term)
(2)Make community safety the paramount consideration for the Parole Board so they must not release inmates before the end of their sentence if they pose any undue risk. (We have had many people released by the parole board despite posing an undue risk, and their releases opposed by police).
{3}Continue to focus on Restorative Justice schemes that reduce re-offending and place the needs of the
victim at the centre of the justice process. (Where is that focus? At least it didn't mention the justice system. We don’t have a justice system, we have a legal system).

Labour's employment relations policy says it will extend paid parental leave to self -employed people. Again, that won't happen in this parliamentary term. Hollow words and broken promises.

the Social Development policy is here and Labour said it would improve the process for reviewing (Work and Income) benefit decisions, establishing a central review and appeals function in the Ministry of Social Development making the review system simpler, faster and more consistent. Ha!

Labour was to establish a Parenting Council, drawing on expertise from government, community and academic sectors. (I must have missed hearing about that one).

Labour was also to
continue to build up the state housing stock. Another 2529 houses are planned for our next term.
(Where are they all ? How did they come up with that figure? And why are so many state houses empty when some families are sharing houses?)

Labour's health policy noted the adoption of a Youth Health Action Plan to ensure better co-ordination of policies and services addressing youth and pre-school health issues. That was a nice way of saying, "We will scrap Plunket Line"(without actually saying it) - after gloating in the manifesto that it funded this 24 hour service. But is that a better "co-ordination of services?"

What is interesting is that while the economy, health, employment and housing are in the minds of people who vote, Labour has implemented every single aspect of its Rainbow policy initiatives - which only surfaced just prior to the election. It’s the only policy I`ve seen that has everything implemented, and was written to support the gay and lesbian communities.

But not too many people knew about that policy before they voted. Labour didn't want to publicly campaign on that in case it lost supporters. Nor did people know that the Government was to have one its MP's draft a private member's bill - on decriminalising prostitution - to make Helen Clark look good in UN circles. Labour didn't do the bill on smacking, as requested by the UN, as it would lose even more votes at the next election than decriminising prostitution.

And of course this year, votes are going to count a lot more than than any opinion poll will.