Andrew Dickens: Let's stop with the announcement of announcements

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Feb 27, 2025 · 2m · transcript

Now I'm a bit of a policy wonk.

I don't care which party it is. If they come up with a policy, I like to break it down and see if it makes sense.

Now I know politicians are addicted to announcements, attention and media coverage.

Which means they sometimes say the first thing in their heads that sound like they’ll get votes. No matter if it’s deliverable or not.

Labour had a bad case of it.

Phil Twyford and his 100 thousand Kiwibuild fantasy.

Michael Wood was the champion. Based on five minutes on the back of an envelope he announced a nearly $900 million bike bridge.

Faced with backlash from…