Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon will go head to head at the first live Leaders' Debate this week. Photo / Getty Images
After another weekend of campaigning ahead of next month’s general election, the first major televised debates are taking place this week, with eyes on all parties to see how they perform.
The showcase event this week is the first televised leaders debate. Chris Hipkins and Christopher Luxon will go head to head in a TVNZ 1 debate on Tuesday at 7pm.
Luxon has spent much of the past week trying to play down his election chances while hyping up Hipkins, referring to the Prime Minister as “a champion debater - he’s probably the best debater in our Parliament, and probably in New Zealand”.
The National leader suggested he had very little debate experience and often lost to his wife. However, some deep diving by Labour’s own Deborah Russell showed that Luxon won a debating cup when he was a student at Christchurch Boys.
Asked about that on the campaign today, Luxon admitted to his prior success - but does not think that changes anything and is still viewing himself as the underdog going into the event tomorrow.
“I did some debates in high school, three or four, back in 1988, but I wouldn’t say that counts. We’re up against a very good debater, Chris Hipkins, champion university debater, best debater in Parliament.”
Luxon admitted he may have offended his own MP, Chris Bishop, with those comments.
Hipkins told media he had not dwelled much on the challenge so far.
“I haven’t spent a huge amount of time preparing on the debate, but I will be focusing my mind on that over the next 24 hours as we head into the debate tomorrow night.”
Hipkins did confirm he has not done any debating practice with any of his MPs standing in for Luxon.
The minor parties will face off against each other on Thursday night in a debate hosted by Three and Newshub, with more importance on them than usual as polls suggest both Labour and National will need at least one coalition partner to get into government.
Act’s chance to make a big splash on the campaign was upstaged by protesters yesterday. NZ Herald reporter Adam Pearse joins host Georgina Campbell on today’s On the Campaign to recap what exactly went down there.
Listen to the full episode of On the Campaign for the full rundown of today’s big election stories.
On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available evenings every weekday.
Expectations tempered around return to surplus in 2027/28.