Oct 12, 2026 · 34 min · 14 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
Josie PaganiPanelist
Barry Soper
Heather du Plessis-AllanHostHow grim is this election campaign? I mean, I don't [laughs] I don't want to bring you down on a Monday afternoon, but do you realize that we have another four full weeks of this crap ahead of us?
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.
It's a perfectly fine idea to roll that out, but it is not gonna 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.
But that is not what's, what is being discussed on a Monday four weeks out from the election.
We are discussing school uniforms, and we are discussing the Green's plan to regulate AI when there is very little chance of a nation of five 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.
At least they're bold, and they deal with national wealth, as mad as they are.
Everything else is not gonna 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 healthcare 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 gonna 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.
The Front Bench.
How grim is this election campaign? I mean, I don't [laughs] I don't want to bring you down on a Monday afternoon, but do you realize that we have another four full weeks of this crap ahead of us?
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.
It's a perfectly fine idea to roll that out, but it is not gonna 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.
But that is not what's, what is being discussed on a Monday four weeks out from the election.
We are discussing school uniforms, and we are discussing the Green's plan to regulate AI when there is very little chance of a nation of five 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.
At least they're bold, and they deal with national wealth, as mad as they are.
Everything else is not gonna 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 healthcare 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 gonna 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.
The Front Bench.
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