Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Ryan Bridge: Centrist voters will be confused so far this election

Transcript

Ryan Bridge: Centrist voters will be confused so far this election · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Now, if you're a centrist voter listening to this, maybe
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: a softer voter, a swing voter in this election, you're
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: right to feel that the whole thing so far feels
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: like a bit of a ruse. You've got the left
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: block and the right block basically going to run campaigns
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: against each other rather than for something else. How do
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: we know this? Last Sunday the NAT's put out their
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: budget responsibility rules, the ones they so far haven't been
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: responsible enough to follow themselves. Their main argument here is basically,
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: at least we'd be better than the other lot, isn't it, Which,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: if you're worried about debt, is probably true. Labor, on
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the other hand, is boxing itself into a fiscal corner.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Every time Hipkins opens his mouth, the circle gets tighter,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: if it is to be believed, Hipkins yesterday told me
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: he would resign as Prime Minister before introducing any tax
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: being proposed by the parties who support He would need
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: to form a government, and he'd sooner walk away from
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: any talks, any coalition talks, than entertain any of them.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: So no inheritance tax, no wealth tax, no land tax,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: no nothing, just labour's capital gains tax. However, the problem
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: with that tax, remember, it relies on three percent growth
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: in house prices every single year to wash its own face.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: And if that doesn't happen, then what the problem with
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: rolling out every other form of revenue raising while at
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the same time promising the unions a rollback of Brook
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: van Velden's gender bargaining changes. Means there isn't just the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: perception of a hole in the books, but an actual
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: stonking big one. I'm told Barbara Edmans is busy beavering
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: away on the books as we speak. But we'll have
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: to pull a bit of a rabbit out of the
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: hat to wriggle their way out of that one. The
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: basis of this campaign, though, is going to be attack,
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: mark my words. The big parties are not so much
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: telling us how or why New Zealand will be a
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: better place under their stewardship, but rather why it'd be
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: a disaster under their opponents. For more from Early Edition
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks at be
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: from five weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.