TL;DR: The election campaign is descending into a fear-based series of attacks on opponent parties’ policies, rather than a contest of ideas and proposals to solve Aotearoa’s problems with housing, climate and poverty.
Neither National or Labour are proposing any major new or specific policies to improve housing affordability, reduce climate emissions or reduce poverty. Low-target political strategies and an appeal to manage the status quo, rather than change it, made this ‘no contest of ideas’ an inevitability.
But Labour’s slide in the polls in recent weeks and the apparent inevitability of a National-ACT win has pushed PM Chris Hipkins up against the wall. He signaled he was ready to come out fighting low and hard against National-ACT, rather than taking a higher road on Labour’s record or plans.
"We haven't been as negative or as critical about their approach. Maybe we should be a little more. We're going to be fighting back.” PM Chris Hipkins told reporters in Parliament as he described himself as the underdog now. Newshub
Introducing the The Kākā project for 2023
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to The Kākā by Bernard Hickey to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
