TL;DR: With six days left to vote, the scramble for positions is becoming intense. Having opened the door to a deal with Winston Peters two weeks ago, National is warning of a second election if it can’t do a deal with the 78-year-old.
Labour described National’s campaign as in ‘meltdown’ with the potential ‘chaos’ of a second election exposing the judgement of National Leader Christopher Luxon’s last-minute decision to rule in a post-election discussion with the NZ First leader. Labour has ruled out NZ First, and vice-versa.
Elsewhere in the news in Aotearoa’s political economy this morning:
NZ First’s rise above 5%, thanks in part to Luxon’s encouragement, appears to be dragging more of the anti-vax and Groundswell brigade across from the four parties (New Conservative, NewZeal, Loyal NZ and Freedoms NZ) stuck around 1% to get some bang from their potentially wasted vote;
National ruled out any fuel excise hikes in its first term, saying the 12 cents a litre planned by Labour over the next three years would not be needed as National would cut funding to cycling, walking and public transport projects; and,
An article published in the NZ Medical Journal on Friday argued New Zealand’s covid response meant 20,000 people were alive today, “based on the deaths we would have seen if we had the same mortality rate as the United States.”
Paying subscribers can see more detail below the paywall fold and hear more of my analysis in the podcast above.
‘Oops. We opened the door and now he might come in’
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