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Ryan Bridge: Confidence is key in politics · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It was always going to be a risky strategy, but
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: it seems to be backfiring kind of badly for Labour.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: At the moment, the two year policy drought is now
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: over over, it's been broken. The heavens have opened and
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a flood, or more like a couple of rain drops
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of policy have come through. The reason it's gone about
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Haywhy is not just because Hipkins forgot that his health
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: spokesperson was actually announcing a policy yesterday, but because of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the contents of the policy. At a nutshell, it's about
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: letting some independent group of experts decide on health funding
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for GPS, and as I mentioned yesterday, a trend is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: now emerging. Labour doesn't trust itself to make wise choices,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: or rather it knows the electorate doesn't trust it to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: make wise choices with their hard earned money. That's why
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: they are outsourcing decisions about funding to other people. They
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: did it with the Future Fund and now they're doing
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: it with health. In some ways it's smart. They're trying
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: to suggest that National will sell off the assets, they'll
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: defund the doctors, so there needs to be an independent
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: group making these decisions. But mostly it's done because there's
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: one thing keyws don't like backing, and that's a loser.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: And this strategy feels like a loser because it lacks confidence.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: It's the message it's sending. It doesn't say here's where
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: I'll put your money, here's how, here's why. It says
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not too confident that you're confident in me, so
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: I'll give your money to someone else to decide. Feels
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a bit weak. It's not a plan or a policy.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It's almost an admission of guilt of failure in the
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: previous government. If the goal was to box national into
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: a corner during an election campaign, that also creates problems.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Are these the best policies to grow New Zealand and
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: can get the best outcomes, or are they just politically
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: expedient policies designed to start fights on a campaign trail.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: All of this, of course, comes ahead of a capital
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: gains tax announcement. We're expecting that apparently in a couple
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: of weeks time. What's next They'll let a group of
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: accountants decide who should pay tax on what income. Confidence
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: is key in politics, and you've got to know what
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: you want and you've got to go for it. Chippy
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: so far, looks like he's left his mojo at the door.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to News Talk Set B from five am weekdays, or
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.