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- Date published:
8:57 am, July 23rd, 2025 - 50 comments
Categories: cost of living, economy, greens, labour, national, nicola willis, nz first, same old national -
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None of National’s policies are working, so Prime Minister Luxon decides to lash out at everyone who criticises.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Finance Spokesperson Barbara Edmonds are on the attack as they should be.
By November 2026 none of National’s 149 Fast Track Approval projects are going to be underway enough to make any difference to any economy – national or regional.
Minister of Finance Nicole Willis is aso clearly feeling the heat about inflation rising, with rates rises
a significant part of CPI going up, and says that Councils should “stop whining“.
The core drivers of inflation are energy prices, food, and rates. With energy prices, the government has 51% ownership of the main electricity generators and has a huge part to pay in petrol and diesel prices through tax – the government chooses to do nothing about it. With food price increases, the government keeps talking about it but hasn’t actually done anything to make supermarkets change. With rates, the government loads higher expectation of delivery and has actively stripped away about 1/3 of all Council business through water commercialisation.
They’ve also gutted the Reserve Bank leadership and destabilised the institution charged with dealing to inflation.
So there is no one to be held accountable for inflation other than National.
Some may think that just because National has said the Opposition should release policy on the economy, that they shouldn’t.
In reality this government will stay in power if the Opposition can’t get it together and show their own leadership of ideas.
The Greens can’t achieve a change in government on their own.
We are at the mid-term polling inflection point.
NZF up, Greens down, National up, Labour up.
Look like you can win or won’t win.
Together we either stand for something strong and clear and bold to set out the alternative government-in-waiting, or we wait it out and hope that sustained economic malaise is enough to vote Labour+Greens in. Unfortunately, Luxon has a stronger base than Ardern, so that dog don’t hunt.
We have seen, in case we needed telling again, that the only way to lose a fight in New Zealand politics or indeed in United States politics is to pursue a course rooted in appeasement. That is what policy incoherence and lack of unity looks like.
The time of Labour’s policy vacuum needs to be over. They’ve had the time to sort their shit out. They’ve had the studies on tax and the economy.
It’s time to make their mark and take Luxon front on and win.
Sometimes in policy terms silence is golden. Sometimes it’s just plain yellow.
In principle you are correct but you are up against Labour's incremental culture. They lack a praxis of cut-through when the time is right. So much for the bright side of Labour. The dark side features a deep reluctance to stop copying National. The consequence of that is bipartisan addiction to neoliberalism in the hope that the old nag will somehow resurrect itself from its collapsed heap, and limp toward some kind of mythical finish line. Mythos is always a powerful lure.
I heard Hipkins on NatRad this morning, interviewed about the cost of butter. He & Corin Dann nimbly danced around the collapsed heap of neoliberalism as if seeing it as the elephant in the room both knew must not be discussed.
He was competent in repeating that Willis & Luxon promised voters they would reduce the price of butter if elected, so why haven't they? He got several repeats of that into the conversation after initially reminding everyone, including one that referred to recordings of them making those promises. It's remotely possible that journalists may pursue this angle, as if reality has some kind of bearing on what happens…
I can see the case for Labour’s continued silence as part of a deliberate small target strategy: one that shields them from the coalition’s preferred terrain of attack politics. That’s traditionally been a smart move for opposition parties mid-cycle, especially when the government is flailing.
There’s tactical value in not playing to your opponents’ strengths. National, ACT, and NZ First are strongest when they’re on the offensive and swinging at policies they can caricature rather than defend their own.
So why make it easy? Let them wear the cost of their own chaos: unpopular minor party agendas, incoherence on detail, and Luxon’s inability to give a straight answer.
But the flipside is also real. Staying silent means Labour risks letting the government define what they stand for. In politics, a vacuum never stays empty for long. And if you don’t fill it, your opponents will.
Eventually, there is a tipping point. The hard part is, it’s not always visible. It’s not marked by a poll or a press release. It’s more of a vibe shift.
One day, silence looks like discipline. The next, it feels like drift. And by the time you realise it’s tipped, you’re already on the back foot.
Given that, a cautious approach does kind of make sense. But at some point, you need to show what you stand for. Not just to challenge the government’s narrative, but to build your own.
And yes, if the last few years has taught us anything, it’s that right-wing incumbents are vulnerable to more progressive policy prescriptions that promise a break from the status quo and an end to milquetoast incrementalism.
Yip let the coc swing in the wind, stay low pop up snipe a few easy targets, keep the d day landing plans under wraps to the balloon goes up.
that makes a lot of sense. I'm wondering if there is a third option. I seem to remember that during the Key years the Greens were on fire to the extent that MSM treated them as the Opposition (this was while Labour were sorting out their leadership woes?). The Greens went hard against National all the time.
But can left parties do that and also present different ideas (not fully formed policy). Isn't mid term the time to shift the narratives around things like food/power/rates (or tax even), or values around what kind of country do we want and tie that into National's destruction and the left having an alternate vision? Then in election year come in strong with well developed and costed policy to back that up.
The thought of a conventional election cycle where parties wait and trot out their policies between May and the election, and it's basic ally a PR war because there's no time to build narratives or educate voters, well that's just very depressing.
I mean, I'd like something better than just a change of government.
Oh for sure! staying small is just a strategy.
And given we’re talking about a Labour Party that’s largely abandoned any real ideological fight since the mid-90s, it’s no surprise that this is their comfort zone. A lot of their infrastructure and strategy have been built around that kind of cautious, reactive posture.
You can absolutely make the case, as some have in the UK, Canada, or Australia), hat this approach is electorally rational. Play it safe, keep the base quiet, don’t scare the horses, and try to win on vibes and competence.
But there are definitely other (and admittedly much more fun) theories of change and political strategy out there.
One is what you’re describing: stake out a clear, bold, but coherent platform earlier in the cycle. Not necessarily detailed policy, but a compelling narrative about what kind of country we want to be. Use that to reshape the terrain of debate before the election-year PR war begins.
Done right, it can shift public expectations, change how journalists frame issues, and give your eventual policy a narrative scaffolding to stand on.
But as I hinted earlier, knowing when to take that risk, and pulling it off , is a tough call. It would mean Labour in particular fundamentally rethinking its long-term strategy, organisational culture, and political leadership.
The Greens and TPM are already there. But to be fair, as minor parties, they get a lot more wriggle room to push stronger or more radical positions. And honestly, it’s probably a smart electoral strategy for them in a way it might not be for Labour.
Their voters expect them to take principled, unapologetic stands. And in an attention economy, being bold — even controversial — gets your views (and your MPs) in the spotlight.
Bonaparte.
"Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake"
Timing is everything.
Bonaparte lost.
Lost everything.
Because the allies united.
… or because Russia's cold in winter.
The Allies are united now, and leading us into stagflation.
Providing distractions from clear failures at this stage would be premature.
This is the period to sell large general Community goals.
Full Employment
Fairer tax
Health and Education Public provision.
Problem solving and innovation in energy
Aotearoa NZ special character
Collaboration and Community
Housing and wrap around services for community building. etc
We should build members and a fund.
+100
Allies makes them sound freindly, axis of incompetence is more apt I feel
Seems to cover everything the Greens fully costed budget does. Stay small target for now, snipe away at the crassness and cruelty and ineptitude and gaslighting, time will see even more pain and hopelessness, then go hard with Greens and their ready made budget for the people when the next election run up starts. Te Pāti Māori like their independence, we could see a true Left Labour/Greens coalition with Te Pāti Māori in support. 'Mā pango, mā whero, āe, mā kākāriki hoki, ka oti te mahi!'
Let the coalition keep digging. The NZ economy is turning into a big dark hole of recessionary GDP, rising unemployment and now rising inflation. Give the NZ voters the time and space to take a good hard look at what is happening now and over the next 6 to 9 months.
Also, there has to be a coordinated strategy between TPM, the Greens and Labour – this will be the issue that the right will focus on relentlessly.
The dog whistle racism and attacks on TPM are going to be brutal, cruel and will come from every media platform in the country (RNZ included) and from overseas. We need to be prepared to defend TPM unequivocally. This will be where the left win or lose the next election.
Obviously this includes shared comms and tactics for elegantly sidestepping the culture war that the coalition are going generate at maximum force.
TPM will need nerves of steel and almost unachievable levels of self-discipline.
Social media strategy and spend has been mastered by the right. We will need to out spend and out reach the coalition on modern media platforms.
Āe. 'Mā pango, mā whero, āe, mā kākāriki hoki, ka oti te mahi!'
Thanks Brian. I had to ask Chat GPT to translate and this was the reply in english:
Possible English rendering: "Yes. With black, red — and green too — the job gets done!"
Unity and preparation. We need to start building a defensive perimeter or at least getting together to discuss that perimeter and what it needs to look like.
The attacks from the right have already started – Duncan Garner, Lawes and Plunket are dress rehearsing right now for next years election. Churning up as many irrelevant race-based issues as they can find. No doubt they are spending up large looking in every nook and cranny of the country for an unjustified 'Maori privilege'.
Why should Labour release policy for the next electoral term. National has not released any policy for the next electoral term. Labour went into the last election with comprehensive policies for this term as did National. Most of coalitions policies are not working, including the abolition of 3 waters creating large rates increases, which is one of the major factors feeding the inflation results this week.
The coalition took credit for inflation dropping last year and need to take responsability for the current increasing inflation trend. Instead they are blaming councils and the labour party for not having policies. Labour does have comprehensive policies for this parlimentary term.
I thought Hipkins was hopeless on his RNZ slot this morning. I thought he erred in favour of the shifty. The only concrete thing he would commit to was to rule out requiring Fonterra to put a price cap on butter, with the throwaway that we'd tried that is the past and he didn't want to go back to the past. That is so misreading the room. People are sick of the status quo. Confirming that doing nothing on a hot button topic as the only thing you'll commit to is a bad idea and worse optics to an electorate that is already giving over a third of it's vote to alternative parties. Perhaps, Mr. Hipkins, voters who were not around in the 1980s might find some policies from the past a bit more attractive than you and the neoliberal lobbyists think. None of his utterance recently have given me any confidence he has the imagination or skill to preside over a government of anything other than do-nothing managerialism primarily directed at restoring the technocracy to well paid jobs.
The sort of policies I'd be announcing would not necessarily be economic – they can come later – but rather around the stuff of the zeitgeist. Democratic reform – term limits on list MPs, the creation of a corruption investigation office to monitor the chumocracy and make dark hints about investigating tobacco and gun lobbyists in parliament, new laws to stop the revolving door of politics and lobbyists, lowering the voting age for local body elections, campaign finance reform. Tell the public you don't support a four year term until politicians have earned the trust of voters again.
Get onboard with the widespread disillusionment with politics as usual.
Yes back to the future and reinstate……New Zealand Superannuation Act 1974, especially the Ministry of Works and all govt depts that were thrown out with the bath water during the Prebble and Richardson years…………
Good luck with all of that……..I am not able to hold my breath that long……
They could also decide to finish the other half of the job Kirk started in 1972 on ACC. They brought in compensation for injuries caused by accidents, but Muldoon pulled the pin on the other half of the job, which was comprehensive compensation/support for disabilities not caused by accidents. While there's a lot to be desired in relation to the current ACC scheme, at least we have one, albeit together with all its faults. What we don't have is the same kind of support for people with the same kinds of disabilities, which is what the other half of Kirk's plan that included ACC was going to address, before Muldoon came in and ended it.
Even the High Court couldn't bring itself to say that sentencing people with permanent impairment to a life of poverty was discriminatory.
https://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHC/2008/415.pdf
If this current regime is re elected next year then ACC is bound to be sold off along with the push for private hospitals and an insurance based private health service in general……..I hope I am proved wrong as I fear a USA health system would be the final death nell for the egalitarian New Zealand I grew up in………….
Kat, rest assured, Insurance in Key’s day checked taking over and could not match the scheme so no takers. Smith tried to say it was broke, made them collect funds to underwrite all future claims. Now Insurers are struggling with the climate claims, I think they do not want that ACC burden as well.
Yes Patricia but it would be a very modified ACC system….take it or suffer….. along the lines of existing private health insurance policy requirements…….meaning the underwriters would be banking it…not forking it out…..or in other words a managed burden that shows a profit……..
This is why I support the ACC reform into a Primary-care agency.
Which is Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand ACC policy is on the starting blocks to make it happen.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/171564126882442/permalink/1600509780654529
You can find the Green party's Health policies from 2020 and 2023 and 2025 here
https://www.greens.org.nz/health_2020
https://www.greens.org.nz/health_2023
https://www.greens.org.nz/health_policy 2025
Acc Policy 2025
https://www.greens.org.nz/accident_compensation_policy
This is a duplicate comment of this one: https://thestandard.org.nz/the-time-for-the-left-to-act-is-now/#comment-2039495.
Please don’t, on(c)e is enough.
This is why I support the ACC reform into a Primary-care agency.
Which is Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand ACC policy is on the starting blocks to make it happen.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/171564126882442/permalink/1600509780654529
You can find the Green party's Health policies from 2020 and 2023 and 2025 here
https://www.greens.org.nz/health_2020
https://www.greens.org.nz/health_2023
https://www.greens.org.nz/health_policy 2025
Acc Policy 2025
https://www.greens.org.nz/accident_compensation_policy
Wot sanctuary sez…
IMO, I thought it was a good, reasonable interview. Hipkins is keeping the focus on National, as he should do. He has repeatedly said when Labour would release its policies, and as he pointed out, it's National that is in government, and they campaigned on fixing the costs of living. The recent push by Luxon and other ministers demanding that Labour front with policy looks like National is looking at Labour for ideas on what to do.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018996759/labour-leader-on-soaring-cost-of-butter
I heard the interview on Tuesday morning and thought the same as you Louis, so I followed your link to the RNZ website to have another listen.
The version of the Hipkins interview available on the website has edited out one of the best parts, when he spoke about Nationals growth mantra that has led to the growth of…and he listed a considerable number of growth areas such as the cost of living homelessness, etc etc.
It was was an excellent take down of the government. Maybe that's why it has been edited out – did they get a call from the Beehive????
[Please correct your user handle, thanks – Incognito]
Mod note
Case in point: "He was concerned that retirement village residents would believe National hadn't yet delivered and that Labour was doing something about the issue. Audio of the meeting was leaked to 1News, featuring Uffindell praising a private member’s bill from Labour MP Ingrid Leary.
Uffindell told the meeting in Mosgiel: "Ingrid Leary… has quite cunningly put forward a member's bill which would address some of this. And she's savvy enough to have garnered up a lot of attention around retirement villages.
"And so that's in the pipeline as well. We need to arrest or take the key parts out of that [which] are workable and make sure we build that into something.""
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/07/25/people-will-be-disgruntled-leak-of-national-mp-talking-up-labour-policy/
If you don't want to talk about policy, you can certainly talk about ideals. Yes certainly speak of strengthening democracy and stamping out corruption would be great.
I think the COCs weak point is health. Voters would shift their vote on that one issue alone, so they should speak up and give voice to all those NZers missing out on health care. You don't need your health policy fine points for that. However, the COC might get away with getting the private sector to hoover up the waiting lists as an election bribe.
As far as cost of living goes- politicians need to be honest about prices and National weren't honest in what they promised, and any government that promises to keep prices down is lying. Willis' meeting with Fonterra is all hot air. The trouble is the income side- National are holding back incomes, so Kiwis can't keep up, whereas under Labour, incomes were better IMHO.I don’t know why they don’t mention incomes not keeping up.
A relentless focus on the the NZ they've created is what luxon wants.
He stated the other day the inflation rise is on them and they're going to own it.
Fair point 18 months in so how about it opposition and pin the tail on the donkeys who's shit is stinking up godzone.
The policies to focus on on are the coalitions and the damage they're doing.
IMHO the best tactic for labour right now is to attack the gummint on their policy promises/fails…
And to hammer on the environmental costs of what is being done..
..they have got so much ammunition to hand…I am puzzled at their smirking silence..
It's nowhere near good enough…
I heard hipkins this morning…talking on this butter moral panic we are currently going thru..
..and when asked what he would do differently…he just ducked and weaved ..and of course had no answers..
'cos there are none..unless he takes gst off food..
..butter prices is set by international prices…(Unsure why that has to be..but that is the excuse we have been given forever..)
..and we had an earlier butter panic under labour…they did nothing…so hipkins was on a losing streak this morning ..
..which leaves me wondering about his political nous…
..as..when there is so much to attack these clowns on…he chooses one where he is weaponless…weak…has no answers/solutions..
"..butter prices is set by international prices…
..and when asked what he would do differently…he just ducked and weaved ..and of course had no answers..
..which leaves me wondering about his political nous…"
Political nous, but also adherence to neo-liberal dogma.
Aye ..!
That is why he has no answers..
You dont need political nous with our media.
Really…?
That is your contribution/reckon..?
..bit of a cheap shot .eh..?
We have good media/journalists..
The most recent example is guyon espiner blowing up the nz first/tobacco-pushers close association…
RNZ have done good stuff, so they get a cut as a lesson it would seem.
Do you see any of the others following up on their work. In another era the media would be camped outside Costello's office.
Seymours lunches, his ministry and wasteful use of process yet he gets to play victim and put out offensive SM rather than he held accountable.
"Why is National Party so desperate for Labour to release policy?
Let me be clear –
National really, really, really wants Labour to release their policies.
My take:
We should keep our powder dry, no matter the desire for instant gratification right now.
The objective is to stop the destruction and libertarianism of our country – that means, to prevent a second term of the ones who will sell it off.
Hold the line, folks – if you can.
Hold the line."
https://mountaintui.substack.com/p/national-party-is-desperate-for-labour
Why can't hipkins argue policies that will resonate with the punters…and that national would run from like a scalded cat..?
He could pull a couple of those out of the full quiver of policies they have developed..eh..?
Y'know..!..those policies that will transform/heal nz…that they are consulting with the greens…and tpm…about..?
Someone please tell me that is happening..
Hipkins has repeatedly said some policies would be released later in the year, but the bulk of Labour’s policy would be released in election year. Labour will campaign on tax reform.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350463107/chris-hipkins-confirms-labour-will-campaign-on-tax-reform-in-2026-election
Darien Fenton; "I know this might be small on your screen, but can be found on labour.org.nz. I find myself having to talk with people about Labour's policy process. I know many are impatient and have reckons about what Labour should or shouldn't do especially regarding tax. But relax, my friends, the policy process is well underway. It is member driven so may take a bit longer. But isn't that why you join a political party ; to have a real say? Be Active!"
https://www.facebook.com/darien.fenton/posts/pfbid032JWuYoz5c5THUeK1ZZw4SVP17VdtnvRAZZsL2rZD5SCLrBFU6uz5KTyDXYmasRqbl
Here’s a link that gets you there: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Afr-q3ey5dg6ZtDGOcQfjtaeJGjItFeZ/view
Thank you.
Where is the step after the ones listed where the Leader makes a Captain's call and scraps some major policy that the Party has decided on?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/pm-jacinda-ardern-has-ruled-out-implementing-a-capital-gains-tax-while-she-is-at-the-helm-of-labour/IQ4FD7CLYKKLU6YAH2H2S4MDSE/
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/493596/hipkins-rules-out-capital-gains-tax-wealth-tax-if-labour-re-elected
Nice try.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/535446/labour-lays-groundwork-for-election-year-capital-gains-tax
No doubt you’ll notice that it links to one of your links and also covers the other.
Issue and theme
The price of butter
They said they would reduce the price of butter.
They now explain that the price has gone up because the international price has gone up.
So their plan was that the international price would come down.
Did they consult Fonterra about whether their plan was likely to succeed?
Did they not talk to Fonterra in advance of saying they would reduce the price of butter?
Theme
Were all their other plans formulated with the same level of considered analysis of the market?
That would explain a lot.
Remember when they costed the amount a foreign buyer tax would raise and it was found to be completely wrong.
"Poll suggests National headed to one-term Government
New political polling has the National Party headed towards one term in power, with a majority thinking the country is on the “wrong track”, disapproving of the Government’s performance and a near majority believing it is time to “give another party a go”."
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360765524/poll-suggests-national-headed-one-term-government
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-post-1022/20250723/281522232127641?srsltid=AfmBOoporj7vsnDFgAwKEN21Le4XWQb75EeXalCpUOwDPeHq4pmTN5pz