With the election approaching, parties are scrambling to signal who they are and who they might work with – often by ruling things out rather than ruling them in, writes Henry Oliver in today’s excerpt from The Bulletin.
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Labour tries (and fails) to keep its head down
Labour spent much of the week trying to define itself – and distance itself from some of its own members. Chris Hipkins was forced to rule out a streaming tax after a member’s bill from Willie Jackson surfaced, describing it as an “administrative oversight,” RNZ’s Craig McCulloch reported. Hipkins also confirmed Labour would not bring back the Clean Car Discount – dubbed the “ute tax” by National – telling the Herald’s Jamie Ensor he had “no plans” to reinstate it, and accusing National’s claim of the policy’s revival as “desperation”.
All of which seems to be in line with Labour’s apparent strategy of keeping its head down, keeping the focus on National’s errors and quietly reassuring centrist voters that a Labour-led government wouldn’t introduce a bunch of new taxes, while also keeping the door open to the left. Hipkins has also signalled that senior government roles for Te Pāti Māori are “unlikely,” a careful balancing act as Labour eyes potential coalition partners.
Greens want nicer (and more) school lunches
Meanwhile, the Green Party is leaning into its base with big promises. Co-leader Marama Davidson vowed to restore the school lunch programme to its original model and expand it to approximately 400 more schools, RNZ’s Giles Dexter reported. The Greens would restore funding to $6.50 per lunch, up from the current $3.58, costing the policy at $472m in 2027–28.
Associate education minister David Seymour questioned the costs, telling RNZ: “Why do for $600m, what you could do for $200m? No wonder the Greens want new taxes, they’re prepared to spend three times as much getting the same result.”
Opportunity Party moderates
The Opportunity Party is responding to its increasing poll numbers by trying to appear more conventional and coalition-ready. It has scrapped its unique and controversial policy that would have given its board veto power over caucus decisions, The Post’s Anneke Smith reported. The party’s constitution had given the board the ability to “overrule” caucus decisions by a 75% majority vote – a mechanism several legal experts said was unusual and potentially unenforceable.
Concern about the policy was brought to attention last weekend on Q+A when Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong was questioned by Jack Tame about taxes, political donations and the board’s veto power. First Wong said, should the party make it to parliament, the board overriding a caucus decision was “not possible”, then, once Tame quoted the party’s constitution to her, she backtracked, saying, “if our caucus is making decisions that go against the party charter, then there is reasonable grounds to overrule that,” and “the caucus needs to focus on making decisions that are in alignment with the party charter.”
The government plays defense
The coalition parties are also defining themselves, often defensively. Prime minister Christopher Luxon faced a wild public meeting in Christchurch on Wednesday night, the Herald’s Mike Thorpe reported. The event at Addington Raceway was disrupted by protesters on six occasions over climate change, Gaza, and other causes. Luxon shrugged off the interruptions, though he was, according to the Herald, “questionable in his delivery” – recounting a dinner conversation with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi that apparently began with “Narendra, what’s going on in India?” and suggested the crowd had “glazed over” when he discussed the national debt.
Meanwhile, the government is trying to claim credit for economic management while also blaming international events. A Horizon Research poll of 1028 adults, released to Newsroom, found that just 17% of respondents blamed the previous Labour government for inflation, while 31% pointed to international events and 29% to the current coalition. Even David Seymour conceded international factors were the primary driver, telling Newsroom: “Donald Trump, I guess. I’m not trying to have a go at the guy, I’m just being objective.”
Post-newsletter update:
In more National party meeting news, this morning the Herald’s Jack Riddell reports that at a public meeting in Napier, Ally Naylor, the former Xero employee who alleges former Xero CEO Sir Rod Drury of sexual misconduct, asked Luxon: “As a former CEO yourself and a man in a position of power, do you think it’s appropriate when a power dynamic exists like that? And what will National finally do to address the massive issue of sexual harm in Aotearoa?”
Luxon admitted it was something the country should be ashamed of, saying that National wanted to do more “in the sexual offending space to make sure it’s very, very clear.”
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