Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins set for the home straight.
Jacinda Ardern and Judith Collins set for the home straight.
Jacinda Ardern began the final week of the campaign outlining her vision of what New Zealand could achieve in 10 years' time.
Judith Collins began the final week outlining her idea of a nightmare scenario should Labour and the Greens hold power together after Saturday's election.
Ardern remains the undisputed favourite to form a second-term government, with or without the Greens, while Collins is fighting to avoid a humiliating defeat.
Both leaders are refraining from saying or doing anything that looks prematurely victorious or defeated.
The final sprint to the finish will see Ardern head to Hamilton today and Collins head to Christchurch and they meet head to head for the last time on Thursday for TVNZ's leaders' debate.
Ardern will also appear on Mike Hosking's Newtalk ZB Breakfast show this morning from 7am to 9am. Listen and watch live on nzherald.co.nz, Newstalk ZB and iHeart Radio.
Ardern's message throughout the week will be the same as that she made before 800 party loyalists at a rally in Wellington yesterday – to promote Labour as the party of stability, that responded well to the Covid-19 crisis, but has more to do.
"If there's one thing I learned over the last three years ... it's what you do when the unexpected hits that counts," she said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during her speech at the Labour Party rally in Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"We can all campaign on long lists of policies and ideas, but you truly get to know your government when disasters strike."
She quoted the words of Sir James Henare: "We have come too far not to go further, we have done too much, not to do more."
She said Covid had the potential to make child poverty, the housing crisis and climate change worse.
"But thankfully before the pandemic arrived on our shores, we sowed the seed of change."
The idea of Ardern outlining the 2030 vision – child poverty halved, housing waiting list met, 100 per cent renewable energy – served to suggest that while Labour was essentially campaigning on Covid management, it would not forget its core policies.
Labour's rally in the Fowler Centre in Wellington. Photo / Derek Cheng
Collins and National's campaign strategists decided to begin the final week with a tax attack – declaring Sunday to be "Stop the Wealth Tax Day."
Labour has ruled out implementing the Greens' wealth tax – a 1 per cent tax on people's net's wealth over $1 million and 2 per cent on wealth over $2 million.
But Collins was adamant that Labour could renege on those commitments during coalition talks.
National leader Judith Collins on the hustings in New Lynn. Photo / Jason Walls
It was clearly targeted at trying to win elderly home-owners – who appear to have abandoned National in droves for Jacinda Ardern through the Covid health crisis.
"There should be a lot of people worried that if you you've paid off your house in Auckland and you are retired and you happen to have some money in the bank, then you're probably going to be subject to a wealth tax if James Shaw gets his way," Collins said.
A tax attack on Labour and the Greens was an effective weapon in the 2017 campaign when Ardern left open the possibility of implementing a capital gains tax during the current term. National was so effective that Ardern then ruled out implementing any CGT this term.
Green Party co-leader James Shaw campaigning in Auckland. Photo / Dean Purcell
Yesterday, Ardern again ruled out implementing a wealth tax and dismissed National's latest tax attack: "I consider it the last roll of the misinformation dice."
Greens co-leader James Shaw last week gave oxygen to the tax weapon when he told Newstalk's Mike Hosking that the wealth tax was a new version of a CGT it would try after the Coalition Government not only rejected a capital gains tax, but Ardern said Labour would never campaign on it again under her leadership.
The Greens have stepped up their campaigning presence in Auckland where they are trying to win Auckland Central and get over 5 per cent Party vote nationally.
But Shaw admitted that the popularity of Jacinda Ardern was affecting his campaign.
"She's kind of blocking out the sun at the moment which is making it a very tough operating environment," he told TVNZ's Q + A.
Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters. Photo / Tania Whyte.
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters will hold public meetings in Whanganui today and Tauranga tomorrow. He was in Palmerston North yesterday promising a five per cent pay rise for Defence Force personnel and saying that border quarantine facilities should be at military bases.
Act leader David Seymour will campaign in Tauranga today. He attacked the Government border exemptions policy yesterday as elitist, saying it allowed them for international rugby players, Hollywood stars and America's Cup billionaires.
"What about RSE workers, fisherman and international students?"
Act leader David Seymour at an Act barbecue in Mission Bay. Photo / Brett Phibbs
