On the Campaign, September 15: What you missed on the election campaign today

A rural issues debate, hosted and moderated by Newstalk ZB host Heather du Plessis-Allan, took place at the Mystery Creek Events Centre, just outside Hamilton. The panel featured Damien O’Connor (Labour), Eugenie Sage (Green Party), Todd McClay (National), Andrew Hoggard (Act), and Mark Patterson (New Zealand First).

While the first televised leaders debate does not take place until next Tuesday, two debates last night have already showed where some voters are swinging.

The main party’s financial spokespersons - Labour’s Grant Robertson, National’s Nicola Willis, the Greens’ James Shaw and Act’s David Seymour - butted heads in Queenstown last night for the ASB Great debate.

At the same time, Hamilton played host to a debate on rural issues, hosted by Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan and organised by Dairy NZ, Beef and Lamb and Federated Farmers. In attendance were Labour’s Damien O’Connor, National’s Todd McClay, the Greens’ Eugenie Sage, Act’s Andrew Hoggard, and NZ First’s Mark Patterson.

Speaking to On the Campaign, the Herald’s daily election podcast, du Plessis-Allan said National’s Todd McClay was the big winner, while Labour’s Damien O’Connor performed well but not well enough to counter the toxic view farmers have of the Government.

Du Plessis-Allan said she expects Labour to lose many of their rural seats in a “bloodbath”, but does not think those votes will automatically go to National.

“I think what you will see is a huge swing from Labour to Act. I think part of that is they have been courting the farmers for a long time, but also people like [former Federated Farmers president turned Act candidate] Andrew Hoggard are bringing the votes over.

“Don’t expect red to blue, expect red to blue and yellow.”

The Herald’s Derek Cheng was at the ASB Great Debate, and said Willis and Seymour received the most warmth from the room, but Seymour won the debate in his eyes with his interjections and good humour throughout.

However, some of Willis’ answers provoked a “gasp” from the audience.

“One of them in particular was when she was asked National’s plans on interest deductibility and the brightline test and rolling those changes back and what effect that would have on house prices, and she said ‘I don’t know what effect that will have on house prices’, and the audience was deafeningly silent and was taken aback by that.”

Another comment from Willis potentially caught her leader off guard this morning, when she told Breakfast she will resign if the party’s promised tax cuts can’t be delivered, as the debate continues over the foreign buyer tax policy.

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

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