On the Campaign, September 11: What you missed on the election campaign today

National Party leader Christopher Luxon at Ellerslie's Fairy Festival and Pirate Party in Ellerslie Village Town Centre in Auckland. Photo / Brett Phibbs

On the election campaign, a lot can change in just a few days.

While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was looking increasingly on the downward at the end of last week, with National’s Christopher Luxon riding high in the polls and coming out on top when it came to personal politics, a rough interview this weekend has seen the two Chrises swap places.

Luxon was grilled by Q+A’s Jack Tame on Sunday, where the ongoing questions over how National will be able to afford its economic plan saw Luxon struggling to answer many of the questions.

Speaking to Hamish Fletcher for On the Campaign, deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan said the interview was “a bit of a train wreck”.

“Christopher Luxon really failed to perform there, and Jack Tame kind of wiped the floor with him. It was pretty difficult watching.”

Coughlan said Luxon’s failure to answer some of the key points on the foreign buyers’ tax plan - mainly the legality of it, and the modelling around how many houses would need to be sold - need to be answered.

“If Luxon isn’t able to comprehensively answer them, that works out to be quite a big hole in their tax plan.”

For Hipkins, at least, Coughlan said the Prime Minister found his “mojo” over the weekend and seems to have found a better head-space after facing questions over his falling poll performance.

Plus, numerous policies were released this weekend around housing, health, prisons and protecting our oceans. And Luxon faces more drama after comments from Act leader David Seymour on how their likely coalition could look.

Listen to the full episode of On the Campaign for the full rundown of today’s big election stories.

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