Labour has decided to delay any implementation of changes from its tax working group until after the 2020 election in a bid to stop any further political damage from its tax policy.
Opinion by Audrey Young
Audrey Young, Senior Political Correspondent at the New Zealand Herald based at Parliament, specialises in writing about politics and power.
Labour would be able to form a Government with either party, this week's 1 News Colmar Brunton poll suggests. Photo / Dean Purcell
And both New Zealand First and the Greens are perilously close to not making it back at all.
The Greens are up two to 7 per cent and New Zealand First is down by three to 6 per cent.
It is not beyond the bounds of possibility that the next Parliament could comprise Labour, National, Act and the Maori Party - no New Zealand First and no Greens.
It is not a probable scenario but it is certainly looking more possible this week than it was four weeks ago.
The Greens have been bleeding support to Labour under Jacinda Ardern's domination of the campaign.
New Zealand First's support is seeping to both Labour and National.
Ardern will be attracting some soft New Zealand First vote. But so too will National, especially from rural New Zealand.
Rural New Zealand is not paranoid - they really are being "got at" by the left this election.
It is clear that rural New Zealand is feeling under siege from the left's prospect of a water tax, farmers being brought into the emissions trading scheme within three years, and now with the slightly delayed possibility of a land tax or capital gains tax.
They are the political conditions under which the rural sector may well be reverting to their old party and turning 2017 into more of a two-horse race.
