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- Date published:
8:58 am, June 15th, 2026 - 16 comments
Categories: grant robertson, labour, national, nicola willis, same old national -
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It is strange for a party in power finishing its first term to call a media event on a Sunday just so it can attack the opposition.
But that is what happened yesterday.
Clearly Labour’s Public Transport announcement has caused National considerable concern. And the latest poll has National still under 30%.
So Nicola Willis chose to come out swinging in typical National style.
The conference was typical Willis, everything her Government did was great and everything that the last Labour Government did was completely wrong. It is as if a one in 100 year global pandemic never occurred.
Some of the questions from reporters were on point, like how she was going to pay for carbon credits.
She blamed James Shaw’s “show pony” commitment to increase our greenhouse gas reduction target as the cause of the problem and claimed that we were on course to meet the original target.
As shown in this must read article by Marc Daalder at Newsroom this is not correct. Although the Labout Government achieved a lot to reduce our emissions there was still a 50 million tonne deficit and Shaw’s decision raised this to $100 million tonnes. And besides last election Christopher Luxon said repeatedly that National was committed to the Paris target on many occasions.
She made a number of herculean assumptions, that everything that Labour opposed would be funded in full within a short period, including Pay Equity. While Labout has rightfully condemned the retrospective urgent undermining of Pay Equity to make National’s first budget balance, Chris Hipkins has been very careful not to commit to it being immediately reinstated. And he has emphasised ad nauseum that everything needs to be funded and costed.
National is clearly worried about Labour’s small target model, used with success in Australia and the United Kingdom, and is wanting to pin Labour down by making outlandish statements and hoping to get a response.
Top of the list today was her claim that Labour’s policy has an $18.2 billion hole.
According to Willis the list includes the following:
These figures are all over the forecast period (5 years). This makes it sound a lot worse.
This is rich for a party that:
And complaining about debt levels is especially rich for a Government which has increased net core Crown debt from $155.3 billion in 2023 to $182.2 billion as reported in the latest budget. That is $26.9 billion dollars of extra debt. And National attacks Labour for not balancing the budget? And there are no signs of it improving.
And we have been down this route before where National comes out with shock horror complaints about Labour’s profligate spending.
Remember in 2017 when serial economics paper failer Steven Joyce claimed there was a $11.7 billion fiscal hole in Labour’s fiscals? Labour subsequently won the election that year.
Or 2020 when Paul Goldsmith released National’s alternative budget with $10 billion of omissions in it? Labour then achieved something that was previously thought to be impossible, it achieved an outright majority.
Or 2023 when National’s use of the phrase “fiscal cliff” reached nauseating levels.
Economist Cameron Bagrie has said that “one side has a crack at the other in regards to making their numbers sort of stack up” and said that there should be an independent fiscal watchdog to overview these claims. He is right but only National is having a crack.
This proposal has been around for some time. Grant Robertson was supportive and for a time Willis was as well.
But it would be a good idea in my view.
Just so that we do not have the continuing occurrence of National attempting to brand Labour as being economically by making up fibs about what they have promised.
Nicola is panicking. https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360992773/post-budget-blow-national-stranded-sub-30-latest-poll
If the election took place on these figures, she'd be out of a job. No list places with the caveat that National holds its current electorates, thus ensuring at 29% that they have no list placings.
Andrea Vance writes, "National would have no list spots returning, meaning heavyweights like Finance Minister Nicola Willis, Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith and Speaker Gerry Brownlee would be dumped from Parliament.
There are key caveats. This calculation assumes all incumbent seats are held on election night."
Which seems unlikely. There was a post last week, indicating the seats that Labour has as good chance of flipping.
One of those seats is Chris Bishop, says Andrea Vance. "Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop will have to hold his bellwether Hutt South electorate to remain in Parliament."
In 2023, with 38% of the vote, National won 43 electorates and gained 6 list MPs. If National gets 29% which seats may go, along with Hutt South, and how many List MPs would get in? At the moment none with a possibility of National holding more electorate seats than 29% would entitle them to- in other words an overhang?
I note that National has not yet announced their list for 2026!
They will have some interesting decisions to make given the real possibility of no list only candidates getting to be MPs.
"Show us the money" is National's default answer to everything Labour promises, if they cannot find any other criticisms. I wouldn't worry about it. The money can always be found.
Geez MS. Talk about synchronicity. I was just about to comment on GI
JaneNicola . Seems she has donned a flak jacket (blue of course : )Fight…..Fight. I'm calling you, Labour and Green, Fight for NZ and our Future.
The image of Nicola, marching into her caucus room; whistle clamped between her teeth, white, calf-high vinyl boots, pleated skirt, blue busbie, blue epaulettes, lips, blue, drawn tight;
atten…TION!
I had GI Nicola..but thats def an NZ Nat fantasy image : )
Nicola Willis was doing her best to give a cornered cat impression. Best to leave her hissing in her corner and she’ll eventually run of steam – no ice cream for her.
I get the feeling Nicola is Insecure.
She knows deep down she has made a series of major botch-ups but is probably too arrogant or too scared to admit she has made mistakes.
And so in attempt to divert attention away from Her Incompetence she does the True to National Party response by finding someone else, in this instance it's Labour, to blame.
I think we should all thank Nicola Willis for her Press Conference yesterday because she showed us the political party we should vote for on 7.11.26 and it is most certainly NOT National, ACT or NZ First.
So she has done a wonderful job in giving positive publicity to Labour. Keep up the good work Nicola. At the rate National are going it may self-destruct in worthy time.
Ridgy-dige panicans!
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/panican
Looks to me like a case of what Steve Keen calls "The Curse of the Sincere Believer"
She is so vehemently convinced that she is right, that no self-awareness kicks in to prevent the very bad look of a bit of Sunday afternoon madness.
yes, AB
Doubling down, I call it.
Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas whispering in her ear.
Telling her it's not working because she's not being 'pure' enough….
(the left can also be guilty of going for purity)
All very Liz Truss.
We must have a much longer shelf-life, here in the antipodes, for iceberg lettuce…
Anyone paying attention to National's track record will realise pretty smartly that their opolicies are very short-term and designed (a) to win votes and (b) support corporate interests. And by "corporate interests" I do NOT mean SME businesses.
The Managing Director of Sounds Air this morning on RNZ, Andrew Crawford was interviewed by Ingrid Hipkiss and you could tell she was left speechless by the exasperation in his voice. The 140% increase in the CAA levy was particulating upsetting to Crawford. ref: https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2019039742/what-drop-in-oil-price-will-mean-for-jet-fuel-and-airfares
The number of hospo businesses going into liquidation; the stagnation of the construction industry; the continuing migration of skilled people leaving for overseas – these are not good socio-economic signs.
But history has shown time and again that National is a poor steward of the economy, long term. Whether it's Muldoon scrapping the nascent Super Investment Fund in 1975 (which would've been worth an estimated NZ$1.1 TRILLION by now, with latest estimates) – or Nicola 'Noboats' scrapping the iRex ferries; shelling out NZ$671 million to Hyundai shipbuilders for contract break-fees, and NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT.
Or successive National govts conntinually undermining Kiwisaver and the Cullen Investment Fund.
Now imagine if Labour had done all this. Imagine the screeches of outrage in the media. Imagine Mike Hosking's tirades.
Instead… crickets.
Until NZers realise that National's so-called reputation for "sound fiscal management" is a carefully manufactured myth, this country will forever be an Under-developed First World nation.
We really are the authors of our own misfortune.