The Front Page podcast: Does Labour’s superannuation promise give National an attack opportunity?

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon traded blows over the weekend. Photo / NZME

The Labour Party used its annual congress to draw a line in the sand on superannuation.

The party made a commitment not to raise the super age, differentiating it from the National Party’s commitment to steadily increase the retirement age in line with many other countries.

Speaking on The Front Page podcast, NZ Herald political editor Claire Trevett said despite concern from some experts on the growing expense of our approach to superannuation, this policy doesn’t open an easy attack line for the opposition to take advantage of.

The challenge for National is that in criticising Labour’s commitment to maintaining the status quo, the party will inadvertently draw attention to its view that the super age should rise.

“Wanting to raise the retirement age is not something that political parties tend to advertise,” says Trevett.

“The whole point of [this policy] is advertising that National wants to raise the super age and National clearly don’t want people to be thinking that because it’s a very low-profile policy of theirs… If they start attacking Hipkins over it, then they are only highlighting that they intend to raise it. And with them, there’s the added uncertainty in Act, who want to raise it a lot earlier than National does.”

But National didn’t sit on its hands and allow Labour to dominate the public conversation. Over the weekend, National announced they would be pulling the plug on the bipartisan housing accords signed in 2019.

“This wasn’t a shock,” says Trevett.

“It was done as an attempt to spoil whatever Labour was going to say on Sunday.”

So was this policy written off the cuff as some suggested? Who came out of the weekend looking stronger? And how likely is it that we could be headed for a hung Parliament?

Listen to the full episode of The Front Page to hear more on the political battle brewing in the lead-up to Election 2023.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am.

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