Editorial: Christopher Luxon versus Chris Hipkins

Labour's Chris Hipkins and National's Christopher Luxon. Photo montage / NZ Herald

EDITORIAL

The family tents were still drying from the worst summer holiday in living memory when the Prime Minister decided to break camp and leave her party looking for a replacement.

A week later, all appears rather swiftly settled and the next big political question to be answered is: How will Prime Minister Chris Hipkins measure up against the Opposition leader?

Christopher Luxon has wasted no time dwelling on the change. He attended Rātana Pā with an unusually politically-charged criticism of co-governance. It wasn’t a message for the people of Rātana, however.

This was aimed at the right-wing constituency. He doubled down on RNZ’s Morning report the following day by saying Māori electorates “don’t make a lot of sense”.

Expect to hear Luxon’s “one person, one vote” mantra a lot in the coming months.

It will have been taste-tested by the party machine and found to be most appetising among the conservative set.

Meanwhile, Hipkins has deftly taken the podium in what feels like a continuation of his daily Covid updates with a promise of a refresh in his new Government.

He’s pledged the cost of living pressures will be his Government’s “absolute priority”, indicating he will steer the inevitable attacks and criticisms back to talk of the economy.

Hipkins is rolling the dice on inflation easing and Kiwis feeling the situation is improving or has at least “bottomed out” by October.

Here then, we can see how this election will shape up. Voters will be asked to choose between Labour’s business-as-usual or National’s business-as-it-used-to-be. Stay tuned.