Election 2023: Audrey Young - Christopher Luxon attack advertisement a timely distraction for National

This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s weekly subscriber-only Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Welcome to the Politics Briefing. For those of you shocked by yesterday’s union advertisement against Christopher Luxon on the front page of The New Zealand Herald, I would say: first, advertising has been the Herald’s core business since 1863 just as journalism has been, it was clearly labelled an ad, and it helps to pay the wages of journalists. Second, take a look below for the latest coverage of Herald journalists on the campaign trail, including a new piece on Luxon by political editor Claire Trevett who was “trapped in a Mazda” with him for two and a half hours recently.

Bishop goes ballistic

National campaign manager Chris Bishop went ballistic over the advertisement yesterday, claiming it was too personal and predicting on day one of the campaign that “this is going to become the most negative election campaign in New Zealand history”. Admittedly, it was a pretty grim photo of Luxon the Council of Trade Unions chose to run. The ad ran through six points, three of which were about policy and three of which were more subjective, such as the claim that Luxon was “out of touch and focused on the wealthiest few”.

Prime Minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National was being too thin-skinned and that he had copped plenty of negative ads produced by National and right-wing groups such as the Taxpayers’ Union. He’s right; Bishop himself produced an attack ad recently describing Willie Jackson as “unhinged”.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins shows off his own attack ads in Parliament on Monday. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The trouble for Labour is that National’s outrage over the ad has taken the focus away from National’s $14.6 billion tax plan and how it will pay for it, and away from Labour’s promise of free dental care for the under 30s. That is a good reason for National to possibly exhibit more outrage about the ad than it genuinely feels.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson and shadow finance minister Nicola Willis clashed this morning at the Deloitte and Chapman Tripp Election Conference hosted by Business New Zealand, along with Act’s David Seymour and the Greens’ Julie Anne Genter.

Chaotic v soulless launches

Labour and National’s campaign launches at the weekend could not have been more different. Labour’s appeared to have a bit more soul to it, with compere Oskar Kightley, singer Reb Fountain and ex-PM Helen Clark as the warm-up acts before Hipkins’ speech. But it was chaotic given that half a dozen Vision protesters smuggled themselves into the event.

National had been stricter on admissions and it was a better-organised if soulless production. Luxon gave a short, focused speech, setting out eight pledge-card priorities, and he and his family presented well in a way that looked prime ministerial, which is surely what was intended.

Todd McClay’s job

Nagging questions about National’s tax plan persisted into the weekend, four days after its announcement. It became clear that the party had sought advice from trade experts about the legality of its plan to tax foreign buyers 15 per cent on the sale of homes priced over $2 million. However, it had not sought advice from tax experts until after the policy was announced.

National MP Todd McClay was tasked with seeking expert advice about the party's tax plan. Photo / Andrew Warner

Luxon told reporters on Sunday that Todd McClay had been given the job of getting expert advice - McClay is not only a former trade minister but a former revenue minister too. Some experts have cast doubt on the legality of the tax, such as Professor Craig Elliffe of Auckland University, as well as the projected revenue from sales. Thomas Coughlan went in search of experts yesterday willing to discuss it and found one - former deputy IRD commissioner Robin Oliver, who believes it will be okay. Incidentally, both Elliffe and Oliver were on the last Tax Working Group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen.

Coming up

This afternoon, five party leaders - Winston Peters, James Shaw, David Seymour, Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins - will speak to the Business NZ election conference in Wellington.

Tonight, the latest Taxpayers’ Union debate will feature Willie Jackson, Simeon Brown, David Seymour, Ricardo Menendez March, John Tamihere and Jenny Marcroft. It will be moderated by the hosts of The Working Group podcast, Martyn Bradbury and Damien Grant.

Oops

My newsletter on Friday said former justice minister Kiri Allan’s case was due back in court on Monday this week. That has been delayed to September 14.

Quote unquote

Act leader David Seymour. Photo / Paul Taylor

“I wouldn’t trust you to run the economy of Venezuela, let alone New Zealand” - Act’s David Seymour to the Greens’ Julie Anne Genter this morning.

Brickbat

To the organisers of Labour’s campaign launch, who were too slack with the entry criteria and let in Vision protesters. If you can’t run your own campaign launch ...

Bouquet

Sending Chris Hipkins birthday greetings today for his 45th, and Chris Bishop belated greetings for his 40th birthday yesterday.

Latest political news and views

- National Party leader Christopher Luxon takes Herald political editor Claire Trevett for a drive to his childhood haunts and his Auckland electorate.

- Insults flew at the first major multi-party finance debate of the formal election campaign, with National’s finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis lambasting Labour’s Grant Robertson for breaking promises to rein in spending.

- Since the National Party unveiled its tax policy a week ago, it has faced intense scrutiny over whether its plans to pay for the plan stack up. Thomas Coughlan looks at the facts.

- Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has addressed a union advertisement targeting National leader Christopher Luxon, saying National and National-aligned organisations often attacked the Labour Party.

- The National Party says a union advertisement on the front of the NZ Herald newspaper shows Labour diving into the “most negative campaign in history”.

- Some Hawke’s Bay residents who are fighting to stay in their cyclone-damaged properties have welcomed National’s plans for a new Cyclone Ombudsman.

- The head of the University of Waikato was intimately involved in National’s policy of establishing a medical school at the university.

- Former justice minister Kiri Allan has opened up about the grief she has experienced over the last month and her new mental health diagnoses.

- OPINION: Christopher Luxon’s aim at the National Party’s campaign launch was not to offer up treats for voters, but rather to convince voters he was primed and ready to become Prime Minister, writes Claire Trevett.

- OPINION: It was evident from Nicola Willis’ interview on TVNZ’s Q+A on Sunday that National had not sought advice on tax treaties before the party’s tax policy was released, writes Audrey Young.

- National has launched its election campaign with an eight-point pledge card telling voters it will tackle inflation, lift school achievement, focus on law and order and reduce health waiting times.

- NZ First leader Winston Peters is promising to spend hundreds of millions of dollars compensating people who lost their jobs due to Covid mandates and those proven to be injured by the vaccine.

- OPINION: Labour’s campaign launch delivered a surprise dental care policy - as well as plenty of hype and protests, writes Claire Trevett.

Podcast update

Thomas Coughlan, who normally hosts the Herald’s politics podcast On the Tiles, is taking a break so he can join the campaign trail. Instead, from September 6, a temporary podcast called On the Campaign will be hosted each evening by Wellington-based reporter Georgina Campbell and NZ Herald deputy editor Hamish Fletcher. I’ll be back with another Politics Briefing on Friday.

Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.