On the Campaign, September 21: What you missed on the election campaign today

Would petrol prices really rise under National? Photo / 123RF

The latest back-and-forth between Labour and National on the campaign trail is centred around the price of fuel and climate emissions.

Labour has said that the price of carbon would rise under National if the party cuts all the climate policies the Government has introduced - something that National has denied, instead saying Labour’s policies won’t do anything to lower emissions.

NZ Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan has done an analysis of the accusations, with both sides wading into the complexities of carbon pricing and the Emissions Trading Scheme to make their claims.

However, he wrote for NZ Herald Premium that “this is a very serious question, and arguably one of the most serious claims made on the campaign”.

He told On the Campaign host Georgina Campbell things are little confusing, as both parties are right in their own way. He joined the episode to explain the policy tension in more detail.

Meanwhile, today’s GDP results sparked a mixed response from the political parties.

Figures released by Stats NZ showed that the economy grew 0.9 per cent in the second quarter, and GDP rose 3.2 per cent in the year to June 2023. The figures were higher than many economists had expected.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson told the media this shows the economy has turned a corner, and it is a “victory” for New Zealand.

National’s Nicola Willis retorted that Robertson is “gaslighting” the public, as people do not feel as though the economy is performing well.

Act released their alternative budget to show how they would run the economy, though it used modelling and figures that encompass the current budgetary period from July 1 of this year, putting it as a hypothetical scenario.

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

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