Economy No 1 issue
National leader Judith Collins was on the offence in the first debate of the election, calling Labour leader Jacinda Ardern’s answers ‘‘nonsense’’ and arguing with host John Campbell about the need for her tax cut plan.
But her party is on the defence in the campaign, as it remained 17 points behind Labour in the TVNZ/Colmar Brunton poll released just before the debate.
National is also fighting to salvage its economic credibility after a second multibillion-dollar gap was revealed in the party’s fiscal plan. After accepting a first $4.2b miscalculation, finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith has rejected a new gap uncovered by Stuff, saying reallocation of the country’s transport budget would cover the apparent $4b shortfall. The error has come about after National appeared to count $3.9b left over from the New Zealand Upgrade package twice.
Last night’s TVNZ debate, held with no crowd under Covid-19 restrictions in Auckland, focused almost entirely on economic issues. No new policy positions were revealed by either of the leaders.
It was preceded by the first TV poll since the Auckland Covid-19 cluster, which still had Labour in a position to govern alone, although it was down 5 points from the previous poll.
Collins told Campbell her party could make up the difference before election day, saying that campaigning had been stymied by the Auckland lockdown and pointing out 14 per cent of the voters in the poll were undecided. ‘‘We’ve got a fight on,’’ she said. Collins was pushed by Campbell
on her tax cut plan, arguing that stimulatory spending should go towards lower earners, not the rich who get more out of tax cuts.
Collins said people on the average wage deserved more cash in the pocket – in particular teachers – and she believed higher earners would be spending the cash, not saving it.
Ardern mostly stayed away from attacking National directly throughout the night but did criticise the party on hospital infrastructure.
She said her Government had to spend more than it expected fixing up hospitals left neglected by National and that the Government had spent more on health infrastructure in its last budget – $900 million – than the entire operating allowance National had given itself in the next Budget.
Collins said the attack on the past government ‘‘wasn’t fair’’ and pointed to hospital wings built under National.
Both leaders discussed a need to get people into jobs, with Ardern focusing more on higher wages and Collins on the need to train children for technology jobs.
On agriculture, Ardern was on the defence as a farmer asked the leaders about changing regulations hitting the mental health of those in the rural sector.
Ardern said consensus between the Government and the sector would be key.
Collins said National would ‘‘look after’’ farmers and ‘‘not bag you’’, adding that Labour’s water quality reforms went too far.
Collins gained in energy as the debate went on, eventually interrupting Ardern to say ‘‘this is nonsense’’ while the Labour leader talked through her policies aimed at fighting child poverty.
Collins also said Ardern should stop giving her ‘‘nonsense’’ on housing, claiming the Government had gone too far with its rental policies and was discouraging landlords.
Despite all this, Ardern told reporters after the debate that politics ‘‘wasn’t bloodsport’’ and the debate was about competing visions for the country.
Collins laughed at this assessment, saying she enjoyed the debate and wanted to do it again.