Another Poll highlights how Budget has hurt National

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When Panic meets Worried

Exclusive: National loses control of cost of living to Labour in new survey

The Government’s Budget is doing little to reassure voters National can manage the cost of living with a new poll showing more people back Labour to bring down prices.

The latest Ipsos NZ issues monitor survey, conducted immediately after this year’s Budget and obtained exclusively by the Herald, found National had lost New Zealanders’ confidence in managing inflation/the cost of living with voters instead trusting Labour more to handle what was considered the primary issue in the country.

Overall, Labour was considered more capable in handling 11 of the top 20 issues Kiwis were grappling with, including health, housing, education, transport, immigration and unemployment.

National trumped Labour in only three: the economy, crime and defence/foreign affairs.

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The Green Party was considered the authority on climate change and environmental pollution while Te Pāti Māori was the only other party to feature, believed to be the most capable on issues facing Māori.

Matthew Hooton pointed out before the 2023 Election that the National Party had become so intellectually vacant that they had lost any actual political philosophy and into this void Corporate Interests replaced ideology with donor interest deregulation talking points.

Implementing their policy platform simply meant passing law that only benefited their interests at the cost of the wider economy.

Labour is good for Capitalism.

National is good for Capitalists.

The Free Market Mantra of the NZ Initiative is a mask for those corporate interests...

MacCulloch highlights the oversized influence of The New Zealand Initiative

MacCulloch’s ire frequently targets the New Zealand Initiative, a think tank he repeatedly labels as the “National Party’s Adviser / Think Tank” and a lobbying group for corporate monopolies.

He highlights the connections:

    • Finance Minister Willis was a Director of the NZ Initiative.
    • The Prime Minister’s Chief Economic Adviser, Matt Burgess, was a Senior Economist at the Initiative and previously advised Bill English. Chris Luxon, as CEO of Air New Zealand, also used to attend Initiative meetings.
    • The Initiative’s board includes figures like Scott Perkins (Non-Executive Director of Woolworths), Chris Quinn (Chief Executive of Foodstuffs North Island), and Barbara Chapman (former Chair of a Big Bank).
    • The Chair of the NZ Initiative, Roger Partridge, is also the former Chair of Bell Gully, where Willis’ father was a partner.

MacCulloch accuses the Initiative of being “Pro-Monopoly, Anti-Consumer.” He cites their support for the Foodstuffs North and South Island supermarket merger, their push for lower bank capital requirements (which he argues would shift risk to taxpayers), and their opposition to requiring internet giants to pay for local news content (Google is a member of the Initiative).

He argues that the National Party hasn’t done the necessary work on economic policy, which means that the NZ Initiative can step in with some ready-made answers, which the Government essentially adopts as its policy. In this sense, MacCulloch accuses the Initiative of being a cypher for what the oligopolies want implemented by the Coalition Government.

The big banks, electricity companies, supermarkets, property developers, and petrol companies tell the NZ Initiative what policies would suit their businesses the best, and this is passed onto the Beehive, which loyally seems to implement them. According to MacCulloch, this has resulted in the Coalition Government becoming pro-monopoly.

This type of influence, together with donations and corporate lobbying, means that New Zealand’s political parties have been brought off. MacCulloch says such politicians should be forced to declare these connections: “It’d be good for them to be required to wear their gang patches announcing to Kiwis who and what they truly represent, rather than hiding in shadows.”

MacCulloch’s broader critique of the incompetence of Corporate NZ

Perhaps the most under-explored aspect of MacCulloch’s critique is his consistent condemnation of corporate New Zealand’s underperformance. He argues that the real drag on New Zealand’s productivity isn’t just government bureaucracy, but the incompetence of private sector leadership.

Business is too focused on getting either special legislative deals from the government of the day, or else corporate subsidies from the taxpayer. According to MacCulloch, the last Government’s Covid Wage Subsidy Scheme was a giant transfer of $18bn to some of the wealthiest businesses in the country, most of whom didn’t need it.

…this all means that when National pass policy, the venal nature of that pay off can not be hidden.

This Government took $12billion from pay parity workers and gave $6billion of it to the bosses.

They literally took from the poor and gave to the rich.

The brazen nature of that is enormous politically and voters who voted in post-Covid bitterness against Labour are recoiling at the extremism of the Rights policy agenda.

Todays GDP growth rating is driven not by extra production, but by currency fluctuations between America and NZ in our primary goods sector.

This Government is hoping to distract voters with culture war bait so they won’t notice their austerity budgets and privatisation agenda don’t spook the voters.

 

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23 COMMENTS

  1. I see the big deal Luxon has done is signing us up to Chinas belt and road program with out even realizing he has done it .He spouts on about $850 million of deals done yesterday when in fact they were done months ago and are not new but are just part of normal trade we do every day .

  2. If you are going to persist posting nonsense gordon I strongly suggest you reconsider and stop posting at all

    • really have you not read about the new visa for Chinese who stop over on the way to south America .We are now a link in the Chinese belt and road program .

    • ‘If you are going to persist posting nonsense gordon I strongly suggest you reconsider and stop posting at all.’

      Golly Gordon, ‘Der Führer hat es befohlen!

      You have been warned – Bob gonna findya and wank himself silly in frontya!

      Bob the First – Champion of Free Speech( for himself).

    • If you are going to persist posting nonsense Bob troll, I strongly suggest you reconsider and stop posting at all.

  3. “The latest Ipsos NZ issues monitor survey, conducted immediately after this year’s Budget and obtained exclusively by the Herald, found National had lost New Zealanders’ confidence in managing inflation/the cost of living with voters instead trusting Labour more to handle what was considered the primary issue in the country…..”

    So Labour must by logical conclusion be more competent with the economy. It has always been a myth that National are the economic wizards. National are way better than Labour though at spinning the bullshit.

  4. A ripper of a Post @ MB.
    national and labour and the sundry others are all the same thing. They’re roger douglas’s iteration of neoliberalism. Neoliberalism is a scam. A swindle. It’s a complex layering of lies and logical fallacies and many of you guys had better up your game re investigations into that or you’re going to start looking like minions to the greater scam.
    Buy it. Read it. Come to know the enemy.
    The Invisible Doctrine . The Secret History of Neoliberalism (& How It Came To Control Your Life)
    Peter Hutchison George Monbiot
    https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/the-invisible-doctrine-9781802062694

  5. Martyn – Not as badly as I believe it would have, they, the Government, hit KiwiSaver, and many NZers love KiwiSaver…hence why there are over 2 million KiwiSaver accounts across the nation.

        • No the GOVT contribution has gone from $1042 per year to 521 under John key now cut to $260 under luxon so that is a drop of 75% plus a 1% personal increase in payments so no that is not just a bit.

          WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN NATHAN ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL LIKE BOB.

  6. Thankfully it will be the hideous Willis’s last budget next year and then the brilliant Barbara Edmonds will gain control and undo the massive amount of damage Willis has done.

  7. ” The Government’s Budget is doing little to reassure voters National can manage the cost of living with a new poll showing more people back Labour to bring down prices ”

    What a joke. Kiwis are their own worst enemy. Its not just corporates and National the intellectually vacant.

    New Zealanders still don’t get it. The main parties manage the free neo liberal market on behalf of its donors and vested interests. Labour did not just lose because of covid related issues. It was their inability and refusal to regulate the system that is destroying peoples lives.

    No action on tax except to promise a few cents of your fruit and vegetables as a solution to extreme food price rises.

    Meghan’s Woods and Labours cabinet signed off on changes to the domestic electricity market has led in part to the unaffordable prices we are dealing with now.

    I and many people I talk to have zero confidence in the current parliamentary parties to actually do anything meaningful when it comes to governing and supporting in legislation measures that would go some way to addressing our most serious problems.

    Yes the current government is a group of right wing extremists but the alternative is hopeless.
    No action

    • Maybe you should look at the greens policies and you might change your mind I agree though Labour is nowhere near progressive towards change.

      • ” Maybe you should look at the greens policies and you might change your mind ”

        Yes I have read the Greens budget alternative and full support it. Unfortunately it won’t see the light of day in any government arrangement that involves LINO. Any government to replace the current shambles will certainly not be supporting anything that resembles a progressive alternative.

  8. ” the brilliant Barbara Edmonds will gain control and undo the massive amount of damage Willis has done ”

    Barbera is a supporter of the free market liberalism they adhered to when they were in government last time and got smashed at the general election.

    NZLP is as compromised as UK Labour who Hipkins when to see on ideas on how to get re elected while promising to uphold the free market and support the rich but promise to support working people.

    https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2025/06/19/dwp-welfare-bill-is-cruelty-to-disabled-people-disguised-as-savings/

    https://www.thecanary.co/editorial/2024/09/23/labour-cronyism/

  9. I wonder how popular Greens would be if they actually got into power and implemented their budget .In opposition many claims can be made which fall down once in actual power. This happened in Europe and Australia.

    • Like Nationals tax cut bribe. It went nowhere Trevor and with the many cuts and high inflation household debt has risen
      At least the greens budget will be meaningful.

  10. If we look back in time the best governments in NZ ran debt and invested in schools ,hospitals roads and electricity .All of those things were built in the 50s and 60s and have remained till now .Before then we had the massive building of houses which set kiwis up so far as having a home to raise the kids in .All those governments had way better tax policy as well and were not afraid to run debt to improve the country for ALL kiwis not just the small % at the top.

  11. Imagine how well the economy would be doing if Willis did not destroy it in the first 100 days scramble to see who could be the nastiest person in government .
    The construction industry would be going gang busters .Instead 380 construction companies have been liquidated in the last year ,the ferries have been sunk and 30000 new homes have been destroyed before they could be built .Along with that most of our newly trained builders and other trades people have left the country .Ot has been shut down because the government fails to understand no developer builds homes without taking on debt .The asset value of OT far exceeds its debt and clearly those assets are valuable going forward because Bishop is selling them off asap to help Willis look like she is balancing her budget .Those beautiful Ferries wont be arriving next year as planed and the million tourists that Luxon wants to flood the country with will instead have to risk their lives in 3rd world tubs and embark and disembark at rundown ports .Those tourists will see NZ as a third world country .All those closed businesses and those trades people were taxpayers that NZ no longer has .Along with rising unemployment and under employment the government is like a shop that closes its doors in the face of its customers and goes broke because they no longer have that income stream of thriving construction industry and high income trades people .And thats only one industry they have done their best to destroy .

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