Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): There has been a not so subtle change in tune from this Government of late because the tune of relentless positivity has been swapped out for something far more downbeat: relentless excuse-making. In less than six months we see a vulnerable Government who are desperately trying to cover up their own shortcomings by lashing out by deflecting attention away from problems of their own making by turning to the classic but totally predictable manoeuvre of negative trash talk and manufacturing of crises. It was completely predictable because it's a problem that they find themselves in of their own making: their massive over-promises to their support partners their raising of expectations their utterly ridiculous spend of $2.8 billion on free tertiary education and their billion-dollar per year slush fund to Mr Jones. And despite finding themselves $700 million better off because of the fantastic economy that we delivered them they simply have to dampen down the expectations of the public of their upcoming Budget because they simply can't deliver on their promises.Over the last nine years in the National Government New Zealand developed into somewhat of a global star. When our leaders went on tour they were lauded for our rock star economy—our ability to raise social spending to raise infrastructure spending and to spread the tax burden more fairly all while paying down debt. New Zealand's record under our stewardship of nine years is not just a great record; it is a greatest hits record: 10000 jobs created every month putting unemployment well under 5 percent by the time we left office; 60000 fewer children living in benefit-dependent households the first time a Government has raised benefits in over 40 years; an education budget that went from $8 billion to $11 billion with 85 percent of 18-year-olds now achieving NCEA level 2; early childhood education participation at 97 percent; $5 billion invested into school property; and the health budget increased to $17 billion with 11 percent per head of population increase in funding with 50000 more operations per year 800000 children under 13 receiving free healthcare with 97 percent of our children immunised and with 6900 more doctors and nurses. Hit after hit after hit single and through it all we brought back the fans. In 2007 a 747-load of people were leaving this country every week for better opportunities and now they're coming home because the opportunities are here. In a shock move prior to the election Labour took a break from their inherent negativity to swap out their grumpy old leader for a house DJ to play a hit they called Relentless Positivity". Well to be fair no one saw it coming and on the back of this they cobbled together a line-up including a veteran one-man band on his farewell tour playing the greatest hits from the 1970s to act as producer and an experimental new-age alt-indie somewhat implosive act who almost missed the tour bus to play support. "Relentless Positivity" did OK. People got on board—well 35 percent of people got on board—and now this new Government they rode this wave of success with this somewhat short-lived single. They smiled. They enjoyed the sun on their backs. People were buying what they were selling. They were confident. They felt they had the wind at their backs. Their shoulders were back. Their heads were held high. Their posture was great—because if there is one thing that this Labour Government is good at it's posturing. We can see from the formulation of this second album already named "Relentless Posturing" featuring the emo single "But you had nine years". Well while we had a greatest hits album of hit single after hit single all they have is something that is sounding more like a broken record of complaining working groups broken promises and raising taxes. This is an album that this country will pay for over and over again. So their second album is already looking like a flop. They're sounding like a very different group because this PM's bandmates are all playing from a different playbook. I don't think they're going to be getting much airtime on Radio New Zealand but perhaps a tour in Russia may go down quite well. It turns out that this new Government is very much a one-term wonder."