Speaking to On the Campaign, the Herald’s daily election podcast, du Plessis-Allan said National’s Todd McClay was the big winner, while Labour’s Damien O’Connor performed well but not well enough to counter the toxic view farmers have of the Government.
Du Plessis-Allan said she expects Labour to lose many of their rural seats in a “bloodbath”, but does not think those votes will automatically go to National.
“I think what you will see is a huge swing from Labour to Act. I think part of that is they have been courting the farmers for a long time, but also people like [former Federated Farmers president turned Act candidate] Andrew Hoggard are bringing the votes over.
“Don’t expect red to blue, expect red to blue and yellow.”
The Herald’s Derek Cheng was at the ASB Great Debate, and said Willis and Seymour received the most warmth from the room, but Seymour won the debate in his eyes with his interjections and good humour throughout.
However, some of Willis’ answers provoked a “gasp” from the audience.
“One of them in particular was when she was asked National’s plans on interest deductibility and the brightline test and rolling those changes back and what effect that would have on house prices, and she said ‘I don’t know what effect that will have on house prices’, and the audience was deafeningly silent and was taken aback by that.”
Another comment from Willis potentially caught her leader off guard this morning, when she told Breakfast she will resign if the party’s promised tax cuts can’t be delivered, as the debate continues over the foreign buyer tax policy.
Listen to the full episode of On the Campaign 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.
