Election 2023: The Front Bench
Oct 5, 2026 · 33 min · 11 segments
**Every Monday until the election The Front Bench will take on the biggest talking points of the election campaign. Heather du Plessis-Allan, Newstalk ZB Senior Political Correspondent Barry Soper…
Trish ShersonPanelist
Heather du Plessis-AllanHost
Josie PaganiPanelist
Barry SoperPanelistSlightly different today, obviously, and different every Monday throughout the election because we are now in full campaign mode as we wind the clock down.
We'll get you across what the hell is going on with cricket at the moment.
And most Kiwis don't expect the government to fund their weight loss jabs.
That's after 6.30pm. All right, is there anything more predictable in an election campaign than the Green Party promising more trains and the National Party promising to build roads? And that is what has just happened at the last weekend.
Obviously, you shouldn't believe the Greens that they're going to get you more trains because they will never get any leading party in government to give them enough money for these expensive trains.
In 2017, National promised to build Mill Road if they won the election.
They obviously didn't win the election, so Labour came in and scrapped the promise.
And then in early 2022, because it was election year again, Labour promised to build Mill Road again.
And then they scrapped it again because they never really meant to build it in the first place because Labour never actually wanted to build roads.
And then in 2023, because it was election year again, National promised to build Mill Road.
And they put it in the go-slow lane for the Roads of National Significance because they probably never really meant to build it.
Because they knew they never had the money to pay for it because they had frozen the petrol tax for three years already and there wasn't enough money in the road building kitty.
And then five and a half weeks ago, and we covered this on the show, we found out that NZTA had stopped buying the properties needed for Mill Road if they were really going to do the upgrade.
And they'd started emailing the landowners and cancelling the contracts.
So do you really believe, not even six weeks after cancelling the plans with the people who own the land that would be required, that all of a sudden we're going to build the road again and we're going to start emailing them again and go, whoops, sorry, contract's back on.
And even if it is real, National will have trouble convincing people to believe it's real because fool me once, etc.
But do you see what I mean? when I say there is nothing more predictable than trains from the Greens and roads from National in an election.
Slightly different today, obviously, and different every Monday throughout the election because we are now in full campaign mode as we wind the clock down.
We'll get you across what the hell is going on with cricket at the moment.
And most Kiwis don't expect the government to fund their weight loss jabs.
That's after 6.30pm. All right, is there anything more predictable in an election campaign than the Green Party promising more trains and the National Party promising to build roads? And that is what has just happened at the last weekend.
Obviously, you shouldn't believe the Greens that they're going to get you more trains because they will never get any leading party in government to give them enough money for these expensive trains.
In 2017, National promised to build Mill Road if they won the election.
They obviously didn't win the election, so Labour came in and scrapped the promise.
And then in early 2022, because it was election year again, Labour promised to build Mill Road again.
And then they scrapped it again because they never really meant to build it in the first place because Labour never actually wanted to build roads.
And then in 2023, because it was election year again, National promised to build Mill Road.
And they put it in the go-slow lane for the Roads of National Significance because they probably never really meant to build it.
Because they knew they never had the money to pay for it because they had frozen the petrol tax for three years already and there wasn't enough money in the road building kitty.
And then five and a half weeks ago, and we covered this on the show, we found out that NZTA had stopped buying the properties needed for Mill Road if they were really going to do the upgrade.
And they'd started emailing the landowners and cancelling the contracts.
So do you really believe, not even six weeks after cancelling the plans with the people who own the land that would be required, that all of a sudden we're going to build the road again and we're going to start emailing them again and go, whoops, sorry, contract's back on.
And even if it is real, National will have trouble convincing people to believe it's real because fool me once, etc.
But do you see what I mean? when I say there is nothing more predictable than trains from the Greens and roads from National in an election.
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