Ryan Bridge: Luxon's broadside to local governments should be telling him that he's on the right track

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

The reactions overnight to Luxon's broadside to the mayors and the local councils in Wellington yesterday should be telling him that he's pretty much on the right track.

He got stuck in overspending on dumb stuff, his words, like convention centres, at the expense of basic stuff like leaky pipes.

"I think the building that we're in today is a classic example, with pipes bursting and quite literally this morning pipes bursting on the streets not far from here. And it looks very nice and it's great and it's very nice for us politicians to have a wonderful space to make some great speeches in. But can anyone seriously say that was the right financial decision?"

It was a spin doctor’s wet dream yesterday. The contrast between all of the mayors and the councillors sitting in $180 million gold plated convention centre while you know, ordinary Joe and Jane, like you and me are trudging through lakes to reach the bus stop. It was pretty good from a PR perspective.

Not good for the Tory Whanaus of the world, the Wellington mayor. She said Luxon was punching down on mayors, the Green councillor Thomas Nash called it “mana diminishing” for those gathered.

Really? What about the mana of ratepayers? Who's literally, who's poo floats in the ocean when it rains, who's streets become lakes when a pipe bursts, and who's driveways, streets are littered with potholes.

What about the mana of the ratepayers? Rather than just thinking about yourselves and your nice cushy little convention centre in Wellington.

Anyway, Luxon will know that and it's pretty much what he knew going in.

This wasn't a speech for the mayors and for the councillors, but rather it was aimed over their heads to the rate, and more importantly for him, the taxpayers.

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