You can’t blame Chippy for wanting to change the subject. His GST policy had just been given the most epic wall-to-wall trashing of a policy that we’ve seen in a long time. It was called “craven”, “desperate”, “cynical” and “tinkering over transformation”.
It was hard to find anyone prepared to say something nice about it. Not even the Labour-friendly unions wanted to go there. Virtually every single commentator hated on it in the media. The media hated on it. It was brutal.
Hipkins should’ve expected what he got. He’d had a taster only two weeks earlier when National’s Nicola Willis got a leak and broke the news herself that Labour was planning to take GST off fruit and veges. The reaction was bad enough then.
He probably should also have listened to his two top finance guys. Neither of them seemed to love the idea.
Grant Robertson famously trashed the policy in May before it became his party’s policy. He’s a team player so he’s backing it now like it’s always been a great idea but no one believes him.
David Parker can’t bring himself to publicly back it. He famously quit the Revenue job before the policy was released. Every time he’s asked about it he just says, “I support the Labour Party policy,” and then either keeps repeating himself too obviously or walks away.
It looks like a captain’s call from Hipkins that’s backfired badly.
It’s quite surprising how badly he got it wrong. There was high hope for Chippy from the Hutt. He was a normal, Cossie Club-going, sausage roll-eating bloke. He was a breath of fresh air after the furrowed-brow, earnestness of the Ardern years.
He seemed to understand what people really cared about. Not unemployment tax. Not the Clean Car Discount scheme. Not the RNZ-TVNZ merger. He put all those Ardern-era pet projects on the policy bonfire.
The polls climbed. People liked him. He was Labour’s biggest asset.
But actually Chippy’s made it more likely that Labour will lose the election. It’s not just his GST policy. It’s the bonfire itself.
Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive, Newstalk ZB, 4pm-7pm, weekdays.To the middle voter, the bonfire seemed a good idea. But Labour shouldn’t have listened to the middle voter only. The middle voter has other options. National. New Zealand First. Act or the Greens on an especially wild day.
To the left voter, it was a selling out. Too much that really mattered was killed. Too many climate policies were nuked. Co-governance was de-prioritised. Labour become a half-hearted version of National. It sold its soul.
And none of that has been replaced in a meaningful way.
And so Labour’s fallen below the critical 30 per cent in three polls and you can tell Labour’s scared. They’re working too hard to convince commentators the polls are okay.
The GST policy could have been the thing, had it actually put some decent money in the hands of the real Labour heartland: working-class Kiwis. But it didn’t. It gave them maximum $5 a week. And then Labour took $1 a week out to pay for its increased petrol tax announced on Thursday.
Chippy’s instincts were right to kill the Ardern distractions. But he needed to replace them with something of value and he didn’t.
Instead, he wasted one of the trump cards Labour had left: a good tax policy. And instead, he gave us an insulting $5 a week.
You’d have to wonder if Labour’s regretting that smooth transition of power to Chippy from the Hutt.
Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive, Newstalk ZB, 4pm-7pm, weekdays.
