Venu Menon
Wellington, September 20,2023
Blame it on the format, but neither Chris emerged taller than the other in Tuesday’s televised debate between the leaders of the two main political parties of New Zealand.
Labour’s Chris Hipkins and National’s Chris Luxon kept their pistols holstered much of the time, and fired blanks whenever they drew.
Luxon took aim at Labour’s showpiece policy of dropping GST from fruits and vegetables, but failed to hit bulls-eye. Hipkins got Luxon in his cross-hairs on National’s proposed tax on foreign buyers, but let him slip away.
The debate was inconclusive on the need for a capital gains tax, with neither side deep-diving into the issue.
Partly, the format of the debate did not allow either party to plumb the depths of the topic under discussion. The stop-watch was applied too freely by the moderator.
As a result, each side tended to pirouette away in any direction they chose, with Hipkins going off about the need for a “clean, green economy” while Luxon drummed on about “a world-class education.”
Hipkins appeared to pin National on its costings (or lack thereof) and vindicated Labour on that count by arguing the government was increasing fuel tax by 4 cents in order to pay for new roads.
Hipkins showed seasoned judgment by opting for neutral ground when asked to praise his opponent. He endorsed Luxon’s family values, and got the compliment back from Luxon. At this point, the moderator looked schoolmarmish, taking the scrap out of the debate.
The scrap resumed with Hipkins taunting Luxon to prove his trustworthiness by releasing National’s tax plan. But, again by the characteristic intervention of the chair, Luxon was busy trotting out his corporate bio-data instead of responding to Hipkins’ taunt on trust. The clock ticked on as Luxon drew his self-portrait for the benefit of the audience.
He woke out of his autobiography and prodded Labour about the protracted Covid lockdown.
Surprisingly, New Zealanders heard a somewhat skewed version of that chapter of their lives with Hipkins invoking the country’s island-nation geographical status and access to “limited information.”
In the blink of an eye, the debate then leapt from Covid to a potential invasion of Taiwan by China. Hipkins led a classroom revolt and the moderator was told she had crossed a red line. The sparring stopped momentarily as the combatants shook hands, with Luxon saying, “I’m with Chris.”
The gloves came off on co-governance. Hipkins supported “shared decision-making,” while Luxon was against having “two systems with two sets of bureaucracy.”
Luxon was committed to rolling back the Maori Health Authority, if National was elected. But Hipkins pointed to the lag in health delivery and outcomes for Maori and Pacific people. But Luxon was firm that health services could not be determined by ethnicity.
Luxon went for the big brushstrokes, promising a dedicated Minister of Mental Health. Put on the back foot, Hipkins fell back on Labour’s dossier of work done in the field, especially free mental health counseling. “That’s delivered over a million counseling sessions,” he said, and added: “It takes time to build the systems.”
Labour’s promise of free dental care for under-30s came up. The live input from an Auckland hospital dentist who identified sugar as a key element in tooth decay, as well as being a risk factor in cardiovascular disease and diabetes, shifted the focus of the debate to the need for a sugar tax and a ban on fizzy drinks.
Luxon dithered on both counts, while Hipkins got the better of that exchange by making what was the sole policy announcement of the evening, by committing to a ban on fizzy drinks in high schools.
The debate paid lip service to the hot-button issue of retail crime, with Luxon recycling a fine-tuned version of National’s boot camp solution and Hipkins continuing to repose his faith in rehabilitation over punishment for young offenders.
Both men agreed there was a climate crisis.
The first leaders’ debate of the 2023 election campaign touched all the topics relevant to New Zealanders. But that’s the problem. It did not leave a big footprint.
Venu Menon is an Indian Newslink reporter based in Wellington
