Policies and pledges from a weekend on the campaign trail
Policies and pledges from a weekend on the campaign trail
Plus: Act floats a confidence-only partnership – and raises the prospect of (you guessed it) a coalition of chaos.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, September 11, by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Can banks really justify continuing to raise interest rates? Peter Jackson’s growing real estate empire may hold clues to location of movie museum; Noelle McCarthy on her new podcast Dear Jane. But first, is David Seymour’s threat to turn off the money tap for real?
Seymour threatens to withdraw supply unless National come to the table on policy
In a weekend of announcements from all the major parties, potentially the most consequential wasn’t actually a manifesto promise. Act leader David Seymour, frustrated by Christopher Luxon’s fondness for rejecting Act policy out-of-hand, said he was considering a confidence-only deal with National, leaving the “supply” part of “confidence and supply” to one side. Translation: Act would keep National in government, but National would have to seek approval for spending on a case-by-case basis. That’s a recipe for chaos, and would ultimately bring down the government if Act refused to vote in favour of a National budget. Speaking to RNZ on Saturday, constitutional law expert Andrew Geddis said he suspected Act’s threat was "more of a negotiating ploy" but, "if… it's been said by one of the parties that this is something they're prepared to do, then I guess we have to take that seriously".
Act would ‘build like the boomers’ – but what would that actually mean?
Act made news again on Sunday when it released its housing policy – and an exhortation for New Zealand to “build like the boomers”. If you’re surprised by the suggestion that boomers have been champions of homebuilding in recent decades, you’re not alone. However, according to its press release, Act is actually referring to higher building rates in the 1970s than today. “‘Boomer’ has been used as a term of derision, but that generation knew how to build houses,” Seymour said. As well as scrapping the reformed Resource Management Act – now known as the Natural and Built Environment Act – Act would allow builders to opt out of council building consents, RNZ reports. Both changes would dramatically improve the supply and cost of new homes, Seymour claims. Building insurance would fill the gap left by expensive consents. “We say if you can get it privately insured, you can build it,” he said. “If you can't, maybe someone's trying to tell you something.” For more on Act’s bid for government, be sure to check out Stewart Sowman-Lund’s report from the campaign trail this morning on The Spinoff.
National announces health targets, says EV drivers would pay road user charges
Seymour’s potential coalition partner also announced some new policy over the weekend, including a set of health targets for a National government and a scheme to pay GPs for achieving immunisation targets. The government already has similar targets in place and a recently launched immunisation payment scheme, prompting health minister Ayesha Verrall to call National’s policy a “cut and paste” job. “National either aren't aware or were hoping we didn't notice them flogging our policy,” she said. Over on the transport beat, spokesperson Simeon Brown told Stuff’s Catherine Hubbard that National would make electric vehicles subject to road user charges from March next year. As with diesel vehicles, EVs would be charged based on the number of kilometres they travelled, and Brown said National wants all vehicles to eventually pay this way, rather than through a fuel excise tax. It was a so-so weekend for Luxon, who faced some brutal questioning from Q&A’s Jack Tame on Sunday. The Herald’s Claire Trevett (paywalled) says it was a “‘gruesome” showing where Luxon “looked like the first-term MP that he is”.
Hipkins launches pledge card, Davidson and Shaw make final big policy announcement
As for Labour, leader Chris Luxon launched his personal 'pledge card' featuring nine policies – one more than Luxon’s last week – that would be rolled out in the next term if Labour wins. “Hipkins’ card was clearly aimed at painting Labour as the Chris Hipkins Labour and distinguishing his own priorities from those set out in 2020 by Jacinda Ardern,” writes Trevett. Finally, to the Greens, who said they would introduce legislation to create an Ocean Commission in the first 100 days, and pass a Healthy Ocean Act in the next three years. Having released policies nearly every Sunday over the past few months, this was the Greens’ final big-ticket announcement before the election, RNZ reports. Time for a round of applause, says Vernon Small in the Sunday Star-Times (paywalled). In a week when the other parties were misfiring all over the motu, “the Greens were the epitome of good sense and discipline”, he writes. If you haven’t caught the Gone by Lunchtime interview with the Green co-leaders yet, let this be your reminder to load it up on your podcast player for your morning commute.
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Read more about her journey here. (Sponsored)
Can banks really justify continuing to raise interest rates?
Both Stuff and the NZ Herald have stories on mortgage rates this morning – specifically, whether banks have any real justification for continuing to raise them. Last week ASB increased its two-year rate to over 7%, prompting economist Brad Olsen to call for more transparency from banks on their reasoning for increases, and Squirrel head David Cunningham to call out Matt Comyn – Chief Executive of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, which owns ASB – as the person largely to blame for New Zealand’s still-rising rates. Stuff’s Susan Edmund took up Olsen’s challenge, asked banks what’s going on, and took their responses back to him. Olsen says he is happy with some of what they said, but notes that none of the banks referred to their net interest margins – an often unspoken driver of rate increases. In the Herald (paywalled), Jenée Tibshraeny finds there are some decent macroeconomic reasons for recent rises, but it’s still possible that banks are increasing rates more than they need to. If the current spike in net interest margins don’t fall soon, the Commerce Commission’s banking inquiry “better ask questions”, she writes.
Peter Jackson’s growing real estate empire may hold clues to location of movie museum
Matt Nippert has a good investigation into Sir Peter Jackson’s property empire in the Herald on Sunday (paywalled). Nippert finds that Jackson’s property holdings have doubled in value since 2019, expanding from largely film-related businesses in Wellington’s Miramar “to now include vast warehouses in Upper Hutt and luxury residences in Masterton and Queenstown worth more than $350m”. It appears that Jackson also recently purchased the E tū Wellington headquarters on McGregor St in Rongotai, which has a rateable value $2.5m. A company owned by Jackson’s Wingnut Group Management, has over the past few months acquired every other property on the block, Nippert reports. “Several sources have speculated that the land could be used to develop Jackson’s long-mooted movie museum, after earlier attempts to build one as a public-private partnership with the Wellington Council foundered.”
Noelle McCarthy on her new podcast Dear Jane
She arrived off the boat from Ireland, and within a couple of years was interviewing the prime minister weekly. That led to one of the biggest political scoops of the decade, a long career at RNZ and the extraordinary life she lays bare in her acclaimed memoir Grand. Now McCarthy runs the exceptional podcast company Bird of Paradise, and has collaborated with The Spinoff on Dear Jane, a brand new narrative podcast out now, which reflects on one woman's experience as a 14 year old girl in an inappropriate relationship with the youth group leader at her church.
Click and Collect
National’s promise to scrap the clean car discount has prompted a rush to buy EVs, with one Christchurch dealer seeing a 50% boost in sales (The Press, paywalled).
The death toll of the Marrakesh earthquake is now over 2,100.
Click and Elect
Māori are “not indigenous”, according to Winston Peters.
Freedoms New Zealand supporters were protesting at the NZ First public meeting – which came as a surprise to Winston Peters (and the rest of us). “About eight months ago they wanted me to join them,” he said. “It’s the most unusual election in my long career.”
Christopher Luxon refused to answer Newshub’s questions about where National would find $594m in cuts to “back room bureaucracy” in the public service.
Campaign trail update: Hipkins is in Nelson today, and Luxon is in Wellington and Paraparaumu.
Introducing Dear Jane, a limited series podcast out today, Jane writes about her experience as a young teen in an intimate relationship with a mid-20s youth group leader . What happens when David Seymour isn’t fronting an Act public meeting? Stewart Sowman-Lund heads to Kerikeri to find out. Duncan Greive uncovers the mysterious origins of “Up the Wahs”. Alex Smith writes about sharing a house with a ghost – turns out, it’s not so bad. Charlotte Muru-Lanning chats with one half of the soon-to-be-launched wine label Tawhita about what it means to make wine, Māori style.
Sporting snippets
It’s one-all in the Black Caps’ 20Twenty series after England won in Southampton by 79 runs.
RWC: Defending champions South Africa easily beat Scotland, 18-3.
The US Open women’s champion for 2023 is 19-year-old American Coco Gauff.
Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.
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