Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Brigitte Morten: Political Commentator on the first week of the election campaign

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Brigitte Morten: Political Commentator on the first week of the election campaign · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Week one of the campaign is down, five weeks to
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: go and counting until the election, and Chippy is on
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: the defence.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Their only answer is cuts. That's it. Oh, and lying
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: about tax, which is bullshit, by the way.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Chloe wants a job. It's the finance job.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: What qualifications do you have to be finance minister?
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: What would you say?
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: I have some post-grad study in economics that I've undertaken.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I also, much like many other politicians, have been in
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: finance and expenditure select committees.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: The Opportunity Party, well, they've come out with their bottom
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: lines underwhelming, some have said, because there's no land tax,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: no universal basic income.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Opportunity will require an end to bottom trawling in sensitive areas,
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: including the Hauraki Gulf, immediately.
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: And what does national stand for? No new taxes.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Bridget Morton, political commentator, good morning.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Good morning.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: So where are we at with this race so far?
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: Who's winning? Who's losing? Who's going to win?
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: Well, I definitely think you can see National on the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: front foot and Labour on the back foot this week.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: You know, they both started off, I think, with strong
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: campaign launches. But ultimately, I don't think Labour got as
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: much from their student loan forgiveness policy as they would
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: have hoped. that seemed to die pretty quickly with people
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: realising that it wouldn't really make that much difference in
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: terms of cost of living. And a bit of pushback
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: too in terms of that new sweary sort of Chris
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Hipkins as well, people not necessarily seeing that as authentic
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: to who Chris Hipkins is. I think pre-food was obviously
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: very good for National this week as well, and now
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: puts the pressure on Labour to actually come out with
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: their numbers.
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, which is something that they, I mean, did they
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: make a critical mistake about a month ago when they
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: came out and said, we're going to do this, we're
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: going to do that, but actually you have to wait
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: for five weeks before we will cost it?
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: I think it's a difficult position for them in terms
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: of that they do need those pre-food numbers. We have
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: really seen some economic shocks, I think, particularly over the
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: last two years, in which they really need to take
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: them into account. I think the problem they've got around
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: their narrative is about what they're doing with pay equity.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: They have made that promise to reinstate it, but have
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: also said, actually, we're not going to show you that number.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: There's some legitimate reasons for that in terms of negotiation
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: and contingency, but this is the first time that they've
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: sort of said that, and it does create that little
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: bit of distrust, I think, about what exactly their sort
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: of costings will be.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: Bridget, what about the rise of the Greens?
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, look, it's a poll, but there has been
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: a bit of a trend over a couple now. The
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: more votes the Greens get, the bigger their block in
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that left block, then the more likely, surely, that you
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: will have more taxes. Does that sort of play into Nationals'
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: favour in a way with those swingers?
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think absolutely. And I mean, we're seeing, I think,
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: part of that Greens vote is that trend we're seeing
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: away from the two major parties. So, you know, they
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: are a beneficiary of that fragmentation. I think the thing
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: for Chris Hipkins, and very unhelpful this week with Chloe
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Swarbrick coming out so strongly that she was going to
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: be finance minister, I think the difficulty for him is
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: that he needs to be able to come back really strongly,
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: that he would not allow any new taxes. But if
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: you've got, you know, the finance minister in waiting saying
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: absolutely new taxes, we have to have new taxes, that's
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: one of our bottom lines. It's really difficult for him
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: to be able to stand up and say, I can't
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: say after, you know, November election when I'm in a
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: position to negotiate that I can't, you know, that I
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: won't be able to fend this off.
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: Exactly. Hey, yes or no, very quickly, will top get 5%?
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: To say yes.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: Ooh, okay. I say no, Bridget. Thank you, Bridget Morton,
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: who's with us this morning, political commentator.