Latest / Best of Business / Brigitte Morton: political commentator on how the recent PREFU figures impacted the election campaign

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Brigitte Morton: political commentator on how the recent PREFU figures impacted the election campaign · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: Joining me now to talk about what she thinks about
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  Speaker 2: the first week of the political campaign, I'm joined by
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  Speaker 2: political commentator Bridget Morton. Good morning, Bridget.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Hey, how has the preview changed the election campaign?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think it's really taken the focus off the
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  Speaker 1: government and what's happening in the government books to actually
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  Speaker 1: what is Labour's response to that. So we know that
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  Speaker 1: Labour has been you know, saying that, you know, post-budget,
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  Speaker 1: they were putting out, you know, start putting out their policies.
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  Speaker 1: After pre-foo, they'd start putting out their costings. And I
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  Speaker 1: believe that's going to happen this week. So, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the focus is really on what, you know, cuts, what
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  Speaker 1: things that would they, you know, maintain from the current government,
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  Speaker 1: what would they actually do in terms of pay equity
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  Speaker 1: and how they're going to justify not giving us that number.
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  Speaker 1: And I think also about what they're going to actually
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  Speaker 1: promise to actually spend in some of the areas that
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  Speaker 1: they have been focusing on, say, education and health.
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  Speaker 2: Should it take a week? I know a lot of
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  Speaker 2: people have got quite angsty about this because we presume
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  Speaker 2: that they already have a fiscal plan in place, right,
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  Speaker 2: and they'd just be going through and double-checking numbers and
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  Speaker 2: seeing if there's any sort of more room to move.
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  Speaker 2: Is a week acceptable to wait for that information?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, I think it probably is. I think, you know,
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  Speaker 1: the opposition does struggle, you know, regardless of what party
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  Speaker 1: it is, they actually get, you know, that numbers and expertise.
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  Speaker 1: They don't have the same level, I think, of depth
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  Speaker 1: an expertise that, you know, you would if you're in
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  Speaker 1: government and you've been in government for the last three
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  Speaker 1: years or six years. So I think, you know, there
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  Speaker 1: is some time and they absolutely have to get it right.
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  Speaker 1: If they get a number wrong, it will further kind
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  Speaker 1: of cause that sort of distrust. And, you know, there's
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  Speaker 1: not a lot of confidence, I think, in Labour and
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  Speaker 1: their numbers at the moment, one single digit off. And
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  Speaker 1: I think that would completely go.
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  Speaker 2: What do you pick of the policies that have been
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  Speaker 2: announced this week? Did anything catch your attention?
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  Speaker 1: I think some of the sort of more practical things,
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  Speaker 1: I think national sort of trans-Tasman travel, it's one of
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  Speaker 1: those policies, you know, it's basically that we won't need
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  Speaker 1: passports to go between Australia and New Zealand is the
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  Speaker 1: sort of most simplest explanation of it. And I think
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  Speaker 1: for many people, they're like, yeah, this is just something
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  Speaker 1: we should be progressing. And I think them linking it,
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  Speaker 1: you know, to some of our tourism, actually linking it
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  Speaker 1: to some of that economic, you know, development and strengthening
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  Speaker 1: the economy, I think was really good. There hasn't been,
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  Speaker 1: I think, the big policies out this week. Obviously, Labour tried,
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  Speaker 1: with their campaign launch, with their student debt forgiveness. But
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  Speaker 1: I think they would probably view that as not getting
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  Speaker 1: the attention and the credit that they would have wanted
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  Speaker 1: from such a big policy and such a big spend,
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  Speaker 1: probably in most part because it didn't address the problem
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  Speaker 1: that they've been talking about, which is cost of living.
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  Speaker 2: When it comes to delivering the message, who do you
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  Speaker 2: think's sort of on the money? Really interesting. We had
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  Speaker 2: Karen McAnulty and Simeon Brown on last week talking ahead
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  Speaker 2: of their campaign launch as we had David Seymour just
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  Speaker 2: on this morning ahead of theirs this afternoon. Last week,
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  Speaker 2: Simeon and Karen just went at each other and abused
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  Speaker 2: the opposition. And today we had David Seymour in here
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  Speaker 2: talking very calmly, very positively about working with other people
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  Speaker 2: and trying to deliver the information he wants to deliver
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  Speaker 2: in a way that maybe people would listen. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: have you sort of watched the performances? Because it does matter.
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  Speaker 2: It does impact how we absorb policy and the substantial
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  Speaker 2: information that we need to know.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, every poll tells, you know,
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  Speaker 1: it's voters trying to tell politicians, you know, we don't
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  Speaker 1: want the negative, we just want the positive and what
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  Speaker 1: you want to do. But then every, you know, article,
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  Speaker 1: social media algorithm, everything tells you that voters actually pay
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  Speaker 1: attention to the negative messages. So politicians are in a
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  Speaker 1: really difficult spot when they're trying to communicate. I think
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  Speaker 1: this week, you know, I think Chris Hipkins, you know,
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  Speaker 1: came out at campaign launch, you know, we're kind of
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  Speaker 1: calling in the new sweary kind of, Chris Hipkins, I
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  Speaker 1: don't think that worked for him. That's not authentic to
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  Speaker 1: who he is. He's not the feisty politician, is he? Yeah. No,
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  Speaker 1: he's not. And I think people, you know, he's not,
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  Speaker 1: you know, he's been around a long time. People know
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  Speaker 1: who he is. So trying to sort of put on
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  Speaker 1: a different face, I think that didn't work for him.
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  Speaker 1: And I think you saw that sort of throughout the
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  Speaker 1: week that it was quite negative from that side of
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  Speaker 1: the campaign. I think you saw a bit of a change.
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  Speaker 1: I think National was much more throughout the week focused
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  Speaker 1: very much on that sort of forward momentum, you know,
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  Speaker 1: had those big visuals of huge crowds around Luxon, big,
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  Speaker 1: you know, engagement, lots of people, quite different, I think,
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  Speaker 1: to the sort of Labour campaign energy. So I think
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  Speaker 1: that was quite interesting in terms of those approaches to
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  Speaker 1: essentially what is the first week of the campaign.
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  Speaker 2: Bridget, just very quickly, looking ahead to the first leaders
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  Speaker 2: debate on Tuesday, what are you expecting?
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  Speaker 1: Well, I think, you know, even as a political nerd,
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  Speaker 1: I'm not expecting that much. You know, we are having
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  Speaker 1: a leaders debate between two leaders that we have seen
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  Speaker 1: debate many a time. So it's going to be difficult
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  Speaker 1: for either of them to sort of put something new up.
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  Speaker 1: I think what's going to be interesting is seeing whether
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  Speaker 1: or not, you know, how they sort of changed, I think,
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  Speaker 1: from those 2023 debates. You know, does Chris Hipkins try
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  Speaker 1: and continue this feisty Chris Hipkins or does he go
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  Speaker 1: back to who he is? I think people were looking
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  Speaker 1: for Luxon to sort of cut through some of that
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  Speaker 1: corporate speak that he's sometimes known for and try and
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  Speaker 1: deliver straight to people as well. But I think it's
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  Speaker 1: going to be difficult for both of them to kind
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  Speaker 1: of put anything new on the table.
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  Speaker 2: Bridget, really nice to talk to you. Thank you for
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  Speaker 2: your time today.