Claire Trevett: A return to reality for PM Chris Hipkins - National reaches for the attack ads as Labour hits turbulence

Well, well, well, how the tables have turned.

Not that long ago, Labour and the Greens were sitting there smugly watching while chaos went on a relentless parade through the National Party ranks.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins landed back in the country after the King’s Coronation in London to be greeted by an attack ad from National, highlighting the turbulence on his own side. Goodbye royals, hello reality.

That ad went out on social media on Sunday night. It featured media clips about Meka Whaitiri skipping off to Te Pāti Māori without even a courtesy call to her former Labour colleagues – and Labour ministers floundering to explain what had happened.

It included Grant Robertson saying “uh, no” when asked if Labour was going to bump up the ute tax, only for the ute tax to go up the next day. It included Education Minister Jan Tinetti saying her office had nothing to do with the timing of the release of truancy figures, only for it to be discovered that it had. It highlighted ministers being able to rule out bringing in a capital gains tax after this term – the result of Labour not yet having its tax policy for the election.

Over the top of all of this, circus music played. It ended with an extended clip of Hipkins standing there with a miserable look on his face and nodding. He was clearly listening to somebody talking, but it was reminiscent of the game at the circus where you put ping pong balls into the clown’s mouth.

The aim of the ad was twofold: to seed the perception that chaos had now moved house to the governing party and its potential future coalition partners.

It was also aimed at showing Labour was now distracted by internal woes and Hipkins’ promise to have a laser-like focus on the issues that affected New Zealanders had come asunder.

If they do take seed, those perceptions can be very dangerous so Hipkins does not have long to steady things up.

Nor will the start of this week help him much – Whaitiri is due to return to Parliament on Tuesday and front to the media and her former Labour colleagues for the first time.

Hipkins can only hope it gets shunted into the background quickly as attention turns to the pre-Budget rollout of announcements and speeches. He also needs to quickly get into the position of being able to answer the question of whether Labour will campaign on a capital gains tax – because until he can, National will say it’s happening and Labour can’t refute it.

As for the attack ads, the saying that people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones springs to mind.

It speaks of some confidence within National to have issued such an advertisement, a confidence it won’t be buffeted by further problems itself ahead of the election.

That confidence will be bolstered by its election year war chest - it disclosed a massive sum of $5 million in donations for last year and it wasn’t even an election year. Labour got a comparatively paltry $419,000. It is hardly an even playing field on the money front.

It’s been a while since National had been handed such an opportunity. Under former PM Jacinda Ardern, Labour had mostly resisted taking potshots at National when it was in strife – apart from Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s occasional speeches in Parliament.

If Labour had thought that would earn it some reciprocation, it can think again.

It’s an election year. It’s Hipkins instead of Ardern and Hipkins has taken no vow of kindness.

The polls are even - and as far as National is concerned, that clearly means the gloves are off. The Act Party never had them on.

For Hipkins, the job now is to try not to give them any more ammo. He will be hoping Labour’s patch of turbulence was just that – a patch, rather than the first few rocks before a landslide.