Election 2023, On the Campaign September 8: What you missed today

Chris Hipkins had a bit of correcting to do this week. Photo / Mike Scott

The first full week of election campaigning has ended with questions raised about the number of falsehoods that Labour has made on the campaign trail so far.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had to correct comments he made saying that community service card holders got free public transport, when they in fact get it for half price.

It follows Labour posting ads saying National was going to remove free public transport for disabled people - a policy that does not exist.

On today’s episode of On the Campaign, the Herald’s daily election podcast, NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan told host Georgina Campbell this is just the latest of a growing list of false statements Labour has made on the campaign trail, with Ministers such as Andrew Little, Willie Jackson and Duncan Webb also attacking National and Act over policies that don’t exist.

“It just paints this picture of absolute desperation from a party that is performing very badly in the polls right now, that isn’t able to campaign on the facts, it’s campaigning in fact on made-up policies.

“There’s no evidence that it’s coordinated in any way, but clearly something’s gone wrong, because last election Labour had dozens of candidates and none of them got into this type of trouble. National’s got quite a few candidates this time around and isn’t getting into trouble on this scale.”

Also on today’s episode, Media Insider’s Shayne Currie joins to discuss what he’s learned about how media organisations are increasing safety for reporters out on the campaign trail. And we’ve got the latest policy announcements from National and Labour.

Listen to the full episode of On the Campaign above for the full rundown of today’s big election stories.

On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available evenings every weekday.