Election 2023: The Front Bench
Oct 12, 2026 · 34 min · 15 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 ShersonGuest
Heather du Plessis-AllanHost
Josie PaganiGuest
Barry SoperGuestComing up today, Brad Olsen will assess National's fiscal plan for us after five o'clock.
We will speak to the principal of the charter school, well, the first state school to go charter school.
Why are farmers struggling to make phone calls? And Nicola Willis, National's finance spokesperson, is with us after six, as per usual, on a Monday.
I don't want to bring you down on a Monday afternoon, but do you realise that we have another four full weeks of this crap ahead of us? Unbelievable.
Four full weeks of small beer politics about the price of airline tickets and school uniform logos.
I mean, honestly, is that what the contest for the election of our central government has come down to? How many logos you're allowed to have on your school uniform items? Now, that is not to say that it is not a decent policy.
But it is not going to change the direction of this country, is it? And this country needs to have its direction changed and voters know it.
I think, based on what I'm hearing from political parties, voters know and accept and have fore of their mind that we are broke as a country.
Voters know that something massive has to happen to fix our situation.
That is not what is being discussed on a Monday four weeks out from the election.
And we are discussing the Greens' plan to regulate AI when there is very little chance of a nation of 5 million people really having a discernible impact on a technology that's being described as akin to the Industrial Revolution.
Now, I can count on my hand the number of policy announcements that have been genuinely interesting and viable and that will change our country's wealth.
And if you want to include the bonkers ideas, Opportunities Land Tax and the Greens Wealth Tax, at least they're bold and they deal with national wealth as mad as they are.
Everything else is not going to help us to actually build up the wealth that we need in this country to retain the talent that we need and to pay for the health care that we will all need one day.
Are we really going to spend the next four weeks ignoring the country's debt, ignoring the fiscal deficit and just discussing banning hidden transaction fees on your ticket purchase to go to the Lily Allen? Is that what we're going to do? I mean, surely the parties don't have four weeks worth of these tiny policy announcements to take us all the way through to Election Day.
Coming up today, Brad Olsen will assess National's fiscal plan for us after five o'clock.
We will speak to the principal of the charter school, well, the first state school to go charter school.
Why are farmers struggling to make phone calls? And Nicola Willis, National's finance spokesperson, is with us after six, as per usual, on a Monday.
I don't want to bring you down on a Monday afternoon, but do you realise that we have another four full weeks of this crap ahead of us? Unbelievable.
Four full weeks of small beer politics about the price of airline tickets and school uniform logos.
I mean, honestly, is that what the contest for the election of our central government has come down to? How many logos you're allowed to have on your school uniform items? Now, that is not to say that it is not a decent policy.
But it is not going to change the direction of this country, is it? And this country needs to have its direction changed and voters know it.
I think, based on what I'm hearing from political parties, voters know and accept and have fore of their mind that we are broke as a country.
Voters know that something massive has to happen to fix our situation.
That is not what is being discussed on a Monday four weeks out from the election.
And we are discussing the Greens' plan to regulate AI when there is very little chance of a nation of 5 million people really having a discernible impact on a technology that's being described as akin to the Industrial Revolution.
Now, I can count on my hand the number of policy announcements that have been genuinely interesting and viable and that will change our country's wealth.
And if you want to include the bonkers ideas, Opportunities Land Tax and the Greens Wealth Tax, at least they're bold and they deal with national wealth as mad as they are.
Everything else is not going to help us to actually build up the wealth that we need in this country to retain the talent that we need and to pay for the health care that we will all need one day.
Are we really going to spend the next four weeks ignoring the country's debt, ignoring the fiscal deficit and just discussing banning hidden transaction fees on your ticket purchase to go to the Lily Allen? Is that what we're going to do? I mean, surely the parties don't have four weeks worth of these tiny policy announcements to take us all the way through to Election Day.
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