On the Campaign, September 28: What you missed on the election campaign today

Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon are grilled by Patrick Gower during the initial Newshub Leaders' Debate at Q Theatre in Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

The latest televised leaders’ debate was declared largely a win for Labour’s Chris Hipkins over National’s Christopher Luxon - but will the fiery debate be enough to help either leader?

The two faced off last night in a debate hosted by Newshub’s Patrick Gower, and many commentators agreed afterwards it was a more lively debate than the first one hosted by TVNZ 1. The leaders sparred over emissions, the economy, gangs and healthcare, while finding some common ground on issues like foreign affairs, cancer screening and forestry slash.

NZ Herald editor-at-large Shayne Currie was in the room for both debates, and told On the Campaign host Georgina Campbell the vibe was completely different for this debate.

And the outcome was different, with Hipkins emerging as the victor for all the Herald commentators.

“I think he came prepared for a kind of a street fight, in a nice way. He had the lines ready to roll. He was much sharper, he wasn’t waffling,” Currie said.

“Hipkins got into Luxon straight away from the start, physically faced him, almost at 90 degrees at times, and he was actually funny. He had some great one-liners. And he had kind of a smile on his face as he spoke, whereas I think in the first debate, I kind of felt he was a little glum. The energy levels never really got to a point where he sparked up either himself or the audience - whereas last night, straight from the start, he was out of the box.”

As for Luxon, Currie said the National leader was no “slouch” during the debate, but had the biggest stumble when he was pushed on entering a coalition with NZ First and Winston Peters.

When asked if Peters was good or bad for the country, Luxon said repeatedly: “I don’t know him.”

Currie said that answer went down badly in the room.

“To say you don’t know somebody [when] you may well be coalescing with them in 15 days’ time is a pretty interesting response, and you’re gonna have to get to know this person very, very quickly if you’re going to be running the country together.”

As for what impact this could have on the debate, Currie said he doubts that any undecided voters would come away with a certain view of either major party, and expects the main percentage point changes will come from the minor parties.

Also on this episode of On the Campaign, NZ Herald reporter Melissa Nightingale joins Campbell to report on the Freedom and Rights Coalition political rally that turned up to Parliament today.

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

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