Finance Minister Nicola Willis has labelled New Zealanders “impatient” for electing the Government and expecting it would “wipe away the Labour years and fix it straight away”.
She was reacting to the latest Ipsos Issues Monitor, which showed National trailing Labour as the party preferred by Kiwis to manage the cost of living.
While the National Party has gained ground in the latest survey, closing the gap on Labour in several issue areas, the opposition party is still either ahead or equal on 15 of 20 issues.
Asked about the results on Ryan Bridge Today this morning, Willis said New Zealanders have had a tough few years.
“When they elected a change of government, they wanted us to wipe away the Labour years and fix it straight away. I think people are impatient,” she said.
“I think that they are impatient.”
Challenged by Bridge on her language, Willis said she had “sympathy” for Kiwis’ position after a period of rising prices.
“I think I am impatient as well. Everyone wants it to happen quicker,” said Willis, also the National deputy leader. “The problems that Labour built up are taking time to fix.”
She believed Labour’s economic agenda would “weaken the foundations of our economy, put more pressure on inflation and make things worse for everyday people”.
“I share their impatience. I want to see this fixed quicker. But there is no band-aid solution.”
According to the Ipsos survey, inflation/the cost of living continues to be the top issue for New Zealanders, as it has been for four years now, with 59% of participants identifying it.
Labour is viewed as the party most capable of managing the cost of living by 35% of participants, down from 36% in the survey conducted last October.
National is making some headway, however, with 28% backing the centre-right party. That’s up from 24% late last year, closing the gap with Labour from 12 points to seven.
On the survey results, showing Labour was trusted more on the cost-of-living, Willis said it was too soon to make that conclusion. She criticised Labour for not proposing many policies yet.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon this morning said it had been a “tough time” and still was for many New Zealanders.
“When you have had years of high inflation, the issue is, even though we have got inflation in the band, people still feel life is expensive. Those prices have been baked in. The inflation from previous years is baked in.”
He didn’t think the answer was returning to the Labour Party.
Luxon, the National leader, said despite some positive indicators, like rising business and consumer confidence, “people still need to feel it and I think that is what people are playing back”.
NZ First leader Winston Peters has previously acknowledged the Government hadn’t turned the economy around as quickly as it should have.
He told RNZ last year: “We know we have got a situation where we haven’t turned the economy around in the way we should have, as fast as we should have.
“I know it can be turned around, but not with this sort of strategy where you’re not actually fixing the economy, you’re just getting rid of assets.”
In a speech last September, Peters said the Government inherited an “economic tanker” that was “on autopilot heading for disaster”.
“The Government was given the wheel with the expectation to turn it off its wayward course,” Peters said at the time.
“It takes time to turn around the ‘economic tanker’ the Labour Party left this government. It is imperative we get our economy pointing in the right direction – and we are. The difficulty cannot be understated.”
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s Chief Political Reporter, based in the Press Gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.