When Rodney Hide complained last year that the Government "wasn't doing anything" the point he was trying to make was that it hadn't set a course for the sort of economic reform it had talked about before the election.
During its first year in office, the Government managed to run its agenda without suffering any noticeable damage. When difficulties did arise, Prime Minister John Key found remedies and shrugged them off in that way he has of making problems appear insignificant.
On Tuesday in Parliament John Key will make the most important speech of his political career.
The prime minister's address, a set-piece event at the beginning of each parliamentary year, will outline the National-led government's agenda for 2010 and define its economic recovery programme.
This year is the Government's second since taking office, and its actions over the next 12 months will influence the outcome of the 2011 election.
What is it with small parties? On an MP for MP basis they get into a hugely disproportionate amount of trouble.
Look at the figures. National 58 seats, Labour 43, ACT five and the Maori Party five.
If the impact of the international recession on New Zealand's economy was more severe now than a year ago, or even if it was the same, the Government would have a problem.
It isn't, and in terms of public perception the Government clearly doesn't have a problem.
Few things annoy MPs more than the media poking its nose into their expenses, and there are few issues with so many grey areas to poke into.
Electoral law is on Parliament's agenda and the search for consensus on legislation to replace the Electoral Finance Act has started.
The Act, arguably the last government's worst blunder, was repealed in one of the first bills passed after National won last year's election.
Well, so much for a grand coalition on the emissions trading scheme.
Grand shambles, more like, although there's more to this than meets the eye.
John Key's political skills will be tested on two fronts this week.
The first, and the most difficult, is whether there should be reserved seats for Maori on Auckland's new super city council.
If bets could be laid on New Zealand's chances of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent on 1990 levels by 2020, the odds would be extremely high.
One sure thing that will come from the uproar over MPs expenses is that none of them are likely to criticise beneficiaries in the foreseeable future.
When National was in opposition, one of its favourite topics was that Helen Clark said in 1999 her aim was to raise New Zealand's living standards into the top half of the OECD.
She failed to do this, and was frequently reminded of that in the run-up to the last election.
It was always going to be only a matter of time before any semblance of a bi-partisan approach to dealing with the recession disappeared.
When a new government takes office and decides remedial economic action is needed, strategy usually focuses on getting it out of the way as quickly as possible.
The Mt Albert by-election and Melissa Lee's serial blunders will soon be forgotten, so will Christine Rankin if she does as she's been told and keeps her head down.
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