The other day Barry Soper and I were rumbling and grumbling about politics when I made the point that when it comes to the opposition, we only ever hear from Simon Bridges. And I pointedly called out Amy Adams for her continued silence.

National has not been acting like a government in waiting, more like an opposition waiting to change its leader and start all over again, and time keeps ticking and the next election is only a year and a half away.

So it was good to open the paper today and see Amy Adams getting stuck into the forthcoming Wellbeing Budget.

And she points out the Wellbeing Budget is not dramatically new.

As we understand it, a Wellbeing Budget is a multi-agency approach, using evidence and advice from experts to determine funding. It will be measured and that GDP should not be the sole arbiter of success.

Sounds like a Budget to me and to Amy. GDP has never been the only measure of success. National set loads of targets for success which had nothing to do with GDP. Vaccination rates, crime rates and most controversially education targets through National Standards. They were part of the Better Public Service targets which this Government dropped.

Nor is a multi-agency approach new. DHBs have been screwing that up for ages. It ends out is a duplication of services, inter agency disputes, a rise of bureaucracy and an impossibility of accountability. Money just evaporates into a million committee meetings.

I’m looking forward to the explanation of how a wellbeing budget is radically different this Thursday because I can’t see it as yet.

So good on Amy Adams for getting stuck in. What a pity she didn’t do this earlier. Perhaps she’s keeping her wick dry. Personally, I prefer politicians who are always on the job and debating the ideas that are being put forward before they bore us and become the new reality.

But what a pity that Amy Adams broadside was negated by a strange little dig by her leader Simon Bridges, who chose today to go on the warpath about crime.

He claimed that Serious Crime has risen 25 per cent under this Government. I suppose he’s saying that as soon as the Government changed crims were so peeved they decided to step up the thieving, killing and raping by a quarter.

As it turns out he’s basing this on the rise of serious crime cases coming before the court.

You would have thought that as a former public prosecutor he might have thought that one out better. He, more than anyone, should know that with the glacial pace of our legal system this rise is Serious Crime Court cases is sourced from the time his government was in power.

But the big thing was the timing. This week National should heed the advice from 1992 from Bill Clinton and his strategist James Carville. The coined the phrase “it’s the economy, stupid” as the most important thing in politics.

This week it’s all about the economy, Mr Bridges, so why on earth are you trying to drown out your spokesperson by talking crap on crime. To quote another Nat, “zip it Sweetie” or at least stay on point.