Leaders lock horns during Muller debut
Top Nat direct with questions, Ardern sticks with Covid-19 lines
New National Party leader Todd Muller has gone toeto-toe with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the House for the first time. Muller – who rolled Simon Bridges to become National’s leader late last week – focused on small business and jobs with his questioning.
Unlike Bridges, whose first question was strategically vague in a bid to make it harder for the Prime Minister to prepare, Muller’s first question was straight to the point.
“What is the Treasury’s mostrecent estimate of unemployment in the third quarter of this calendar year, and what is the Government’s specific plan to arrest the sorts of job losses we’ve seen over the past two weeks?”
Before answering, Ardern congratulated Muller on becoming the new Opposition leader – but that’s where the pleasantries ended.
In response to questions about the plan, Ardern rolled out a familiar phrase – “we’ve gone hard, and we’ve gone early” before repeating job statistics unveiled in the Budget.
Muller came at her again – “does she accept that more direct cash support to businesses will help prevent job losses”.
National has been promoting a policy of giving Covid-19-impacted businesses direct cash grants.
Throughout the rest of the question time, Ardern poured cold water on this idea – instead saying her government’s wage subsidy package was doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to saving businesses.
A recent survey, Ardern said, revealed that the subsidy scheme has made a difference to the “vast majority” of businesses being able to retain their staff.
But Muller continued to press her on National’s grants scheme – asking why the Government has not provided more direct cash assistance, aside from the wage subsidy scheme.
He got little out of Ardern, who used the questions as an opportunity to tout the Government’s Covid-19 relief packages.