The Chrises kick off their campaigns
The contrasting political styles of Hipkins and Luxon were on full display at this weekend's election campaign launches.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, September 4, by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Immigration officers pressured by higher-ups to ignore applicants’ criminal records, whistleblowers claim; Senior doctors and dentists to strike this week; ‘Filthy’ and ‘chaotic’ Dunedin boarding houses under investigation. But first, Labour and National launched their election bids in front of the cheering faithful – and more than a few protestors.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon address their respective campaign launches (Photos: Hagen Hopkins / Getty Images)
A tale of two campaign launches
One city, two big speeches, (at least) six protestors and an eight-point pledge card: it was the season’s major campaign-launch weekend, with Labour and National introducing their respective campaigns in front of flocks of Auckland party faithful, along with apparently every journalist in the city. Let’s begin with Labour on Saturday at the Aotea Centre, where prime minister Chris Hipkins laid out his case for another term – and did it with brio, according to the political press. It marked “an aggressive new phase” for the Labour leader, who displayed a “steely confidence” indicating he’s “determined to give winning a red-hot go”, writes Andrea Vance for the Sunday Star-Times. Hipkins’ speech was interrupted on at least six occasions by protestors from Freedoms NZ, and he “dealt with each of them with wit and humour,” says Stuff political editor Luke Malpass. “If anything it fired up the party faithful.”
Labour promise free dental – but not now, and not for everyone
The big news from the Labour event – other than the protests – was a pledge to introduce free standard dental treatment for everyone under 30, although not quite yet. The plan would expand dental care in two stages, to 18- to 23-year-olds from July 2025 and to all under-30s from July 2026. Asked by Jack Tame on Q&A about the delay, Hipkins said “You can't just flick a switch and turn on extra dental care for people overnight." Even with "unlimited" funding, there weren't enough dentists to make it happen, Hipkins added. To address that, Labour would also raise the cap on dental training places by 50%, and launch a campaign to recruit more dental workers from overseas starting in 2024. By the end of next term, if Labour is re-elected, "nearly 40% of all Kiwis will have access to free dental care," Hipkins told his Aotea Centre audience. The policy addresses, in part, one of New Zealanders’ biggest healthcare concerns, but Malpass says it doesn’t pass the smell test. “The $390 million costing for the policy looks implausibly low, and the labour force too small and too difficult to grow for the timeline given.”
National employs some US-style razzmatazz
Over to the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau, where National launched its own election campaign on Sunday. It was a slickly produced affair, clearly made “to look and sound good on television”, writes Claire Trevett on the Herald. Most notably, it featured an actual All Blacks stadium announcer individually introducing each MP and candidate as they entered the venue. As Tova O’Brien describes it, “The candidates went on to form a kind of guard of honour, lining the aisle down which Christopher Luxon – their king – waved, kissed, hugged and shook hands all the way to the stage.” To Toby Manhire, writing this morning on The Spinoff, it was “Las Vegas reimagined in the suburbs of Auckland, at times a UFC title-fight buildup, at others a school hockey prizegiving”. What the flashy launch didn’t feature is any new policy – the big announcement was a “wordy” new pledge card, really more of a pamphlet – which meant journalists were free to focus their questions on the feasibility or otherwise of National’s tax plan.
Lessons from a month on the road with Chris and Chris
The contrasting styles and skill sets of Luxon and Hipkins, on full display this weekend in Auckland, were also the subject of last night’s Sunday programme on TVNZ. As well as fronting the 25 minute video segment, John Campbell has written a lengthy reflection on what he learned from shadowing the two leaders, on and off, for the past four weeks. Luxon, he says, is fond of speaking in banalities and jargon. Having once worked at McDonald’s (as you may have heard), Luxon “dispenses aspirational and motivational homilies with the easy efficiency of a drive-thru”, Campbell writes. As for Hipkins, he’s as remarkably ordinary in real life as he seems, and on the campaign trail exhibits little of the passion that voters generally want to see from their leaders. Remarks Campbell, “It does seem only a matter of time before the PM starts turning up in his jammies.”
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Immigration officers pressured by higher-ups to ignore applicants’ criminal records, whistleblowers claim
NZ’s visa system is suffering from widespread manipulation and abuse, according to Immigration NZ (INZ) whistleblowers who say proper checks are falling by the wayside as management exert pressure “to just approve, approve and approve”. Steve Kilgallon’s investigation for the Sunday Star-Times includes a litany of allegations that applicants with criminal records and other blatant red flags are being routinely approved, both for visas and for the controversial employer accreditation scheme. Reports Kilgallon: “In one instance, where they held genuine concerns about an employer exploiting migrants, they said their manager told them ‘it had gone over their heads’ and he’d been instructed to issue the visa.” INZ acting head of immigration Catriona Robinson says there have been no “specific instructions” to ignore criminal records, but acknowledged having “streamlined the process for low and medium-risk visitor visa applications and this is having a positive impact for customers and reducing queues”.
Senior doctors and dentists to strike this week
Around 5500 doctors and 100 dentists will strike on Tuesday afternoon after attempts at mediation between Te Whatu Ora and the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) failed this weekend. The senior medical specialists will strike from 12pm to 2pm, with another two hour strike scheduled for September 13 and a four-hour stoppage in the works should the shorter strikes fail to create progress. This is the first time the union has gone on a nationwide strike. Some 250 planned medical operations will be postponed this Tuesday, reports the Herald’s Rachel Maher, in addition to outpatient visits during the strike. Te Whatu Ora’s Andrew Slater tells Maher it offered senior doctors and dentists salary increases over the next year of between 7% and 12.9%, an increase of between $15,000 and $26,000, but ASMS head Sarah Dalton says that’s not true. “I can tell you now that if we, if what they have put on the table would have offered, annualised, that level of increase to our members, we would have snapped it up, but it’s not,” Dalton said. Asked for a response, “Slater confirmed the figures were simply an increase to a 15-point system they already have in place, where the doctors receive a pay increase each year after a pay review.”
‘Filthy’ and ‘chaotic’ Dunedin boarding houses under investigation
The government is scrutinising 11 Dunedin boarding houses following an Otago Daily Times investigation into the state of the southern city’s boarding house sector. The ‘Houses of Horror’ report, published last month, found “homeless people, frequently filthy and in old clothes, were living in stinking, chaotic rooms. Bare, stained mattresses were a common sight.” While a nationwide audit was undertaken in June by MBIE following the Loafers Lodge fire, it only looked at three-storey buildings and focused on fire risk, which meant nearly all Dunedin’s boarding houses were missed. The new review will look at all 11 buildings included in a dossier the ODT compiled and sent to the government. "Vulnerable people are rotting in boarding houses, with constant knocks to their health and self-esteem, risking death including from suicide,” says Sammy Russell, who works with homeless people in Dunedin. “For me, it comes back to the question if your child became homeless, would you want them here? These are really nasty places."
Click and Collect
Around 70,000 people are stranded in the Nevada desert after heavy rain cut off access to the Burning Man festival. CNN is liveblogging the drama.
Activist Tāme Iti is one of the 18-strong cast of Celebrity Treasure Island 2023.
The trust renovating the 148-year-old Trinity Congregation Church in Christchurch’s CBD is asking for another $500,000 loan from the council to finish the job (The Press, paywalled)
Andrew Dickson asks why babies injured at birth aren’t covered by our national accident compensation scheme. Mad Chapman performs a close analysis of Sam Uffindell’s fleeting appearance in the National campaign launch video. Sam Brooks talks to actor and broadcaster Perlina Lau about her new gig on RNZ. Alex Casey introduces the next batch of brave celebrities washing up Celebrity Treasure Island. Rachel Judkins meets the Christchurch TikTok star talking about being childfree by choice. And Julia Mortimer writes about the awful yet profoundly ordinary experience of being cheated on.
Sporting snippets
The UK Telegraph ranked the world’s 100 best rugby players – and only two All Blacks made the top 20.
Former Zimbabwe cricket captain Heath Streak has died from cancer, aged 49.
The Black Caps have kept the T20 series against England alive with a 74 run victory at Edgbaston.
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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