New Zealand First has unveiled two new campaign policies aimed at buying back a bank and making KiwiSaver compulsory at birth.
Leader Winston Peters announced his party will campaign on buying BNZ and merging it with Kiwibank.
It would also campaign to make KiwiSaver enrolment compulsory at birth, with a $1000 Crown contribution.
This, he said, would birth the “KiwiSaver Generation” – where no New Zealander entered adulthood without a savings foundation in place.
“We are saying in this campaign, look, you have given the rest 40 years of experimentation, how about you give us a go?” Peters said at Trusts Arena in West Auckland on Saturday.
“At least this is not our first, second, third, or fourth rodeo. For the other clowns, it is.”
NZ Herald chief political reporter, Jamie Ensor, told The Front Page that these kinds of policies are like red meat for the party base.
“New Zealand First was built on this idea of New Zealand identity. Retaining New Zealand institutions and organisations with New Zealand ownership, and keeping that money within New Zealand.
“So, buying back a bank, that was sold in the 90s, from the Aussies of all people is probably going to appeal to those people who are concerned that the New Zealand identity is being diluted.
“Putting that aside, you then probably get to the practical realities of the policy, of how New Zealand First or the Government’s going to afford buying back this bank.
“There are a lot of figures being thrown around in terms of how much it would cost, but it’s certainly well up there in the billions. So how are they gonna pay for that?
“New Zealand First has suggested that it could be self-financing, that you’d take out some debt to pay for it, but that the earnings of BNZ would eventually accumulate and let you pay off that debt.
“There are other funds that they could look at to invest in the bank. There are a lot of questions around the reality of that policy, and Christopher Luxon, National, the Act Party, have all pretty much dismissed it outright,” he said.
Meanwhile, the latest Talbot-Mills Research poll, conducted May 1-10, shows Peters is only three points behind Luxon in the preferred PM rankings, rating 17% vs 20%.
“I think there is quite a clear contrast between him and National leader Christopher Luxon,” Ensor said.
“You have Winston Peters, who has been around a long time. As he says, he has got a lot of experience, versus a first-term Prime Minister who’s only been in Parliament since 2020.
“Some of the issues that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has had with his communication very much contrast with the authority, the deliberateness of Winston Peters, and I guess the confidence that he puts out there to people.
“Additionally, as we’ve seen internationally, there are global concerns about some culture issues. New Zealand First has been on top of that all the way through this Parliament.
“They’re obviously taking advantage of that ... the likes of immigration. Again, how far that actually gets them on election day, we’ll wait and see.
“This focus on immigration might be working at the moment, but whereas we’ve seen from various polls, the cost of living remains New Zealanders’ top focus, and so that is very much where the election is gonna be won or lost,” he said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.