Getting stuck on attack: the slow road to positivity in government
The Speaker has begun steering ministerial answers away from outright attacks on the previous government, and towards answers. The road to positivity for new governments is long and difficult.
When the government changes from one party to another, you might expect that party's refrain would also switch, that the once-opposition, now-government MPs would suddenly go positive - singing of new happy times.
Equally, you'd think was-government, now-opposition MPs would flip into dour mode. But neither happen, at least not for a long while. Both sides tend to stay partially stuck in their prior mode. This behaviour is especially obvious from an incoming government, and in the debating chamber.
For example, on Tuesday the Prime Minister was asked in Question Time whether his government's newly announced truancy policy had been approved by cabinet yet.
He responded: "Well, as I said, we have an ambitious government, and that is fantastic because what we observed over the last six years was a government that spent more, borrowed more, taxed more, and delivered worse outcomes. Your government had six years. You did very little; you failed at it. What we're doing is declaring nine key targets - two in the education space - we're marching hard towards it, and every quarter, we're going to be doing things to make sure we make progress on it."
Not so much an answer as an excoriation with a vaguely relevant affirmation tacked on.
New governments spend months, if not years, largely sticking to their oppositional refrain and attacking the previous crew.
This is not new. You might remember in 2017 (when a Labour-led government took the reins), just how often the 'nine long years' mantra was repeated in reference to their predecessors. The new, National-led government, has also held tightly onto their opposition mindset.
This is evident in various places, but most obviously during Question Time where it serves other purposes as well. The attack-posing-as-an-answer is a common approach in Question Time, but it is obviously beginning to try some MP's patience.
After a number of questions to the Prime Minister where he had received similar replies, the Leader of the Opposition, Chris Hipkins, complained to the Speaker about this approach…