Clashes leave National looking like underdog

Kelvin Davis broke the spell, thank goodness.

The relentless diet of positivity from Labour since Jacinda Ardern was elected leader has been entrancing for six days.

But at some point it had to get back to backstabbing politics as usual.

Davis delivered it. Appearing alongside Ardern on TVNZ’s Q+ A, her deputy unleashed a raft of insults against the National Cabinet ranging from gently mocking (Simon Bridges being the only person under 80 to use Brylcreem) to the downright nasty (Jonathan Coleman described as Dr Death).

The negativity, however, was a brief interlude.

By 1pm the magic was back as Ardern held her first campaign rally at Wynyard Quarter to a sea of 400 in red and a chorus of adulation at full throttle.

It was not the indoor speech Andrew Little had planned for announcing the Auckland transport policy. But Labour will be doing a lot more of this — reworking Little’s campaign schedule to create visual manifestations of the Jacinda effect.

Nor was it exactly the policy he would have delivered. Ardern added two important elements — bringing plans for light rail to the West and to the North Shore forward to the next 10 years.

All up, Labour’s plan costs about $2 billion more than National’s. It was left to Phil Twyford to explain the regional petrol tax costing up to $5 a tank to help pay for it.

Labour’s rally was, by necessity, arranged at late notice, but not quite as late as National’s at the Papakura railway station for a $267 million commuter network announcement.

It was a shameless bid to grab attention from the Opposition leader, but it didn’t work. National looked like the underdog.