Episode 144 - Which party released the best policy this week? #Election2026

Now, the election campaign is in full swing, guys.

I think we've now got eight weeks to go until November 7th.

So I think in terms of how we approach the podcast, we're going to try and turn it into a bit more of a quickfire recap on all of the political and policy announcements over the last week.

try to cram in a few more topics in a shorter format just so that listeners, if they're not tracking the headlines day in, day out as we are, as political tragics, you get the kind of highlights of what's happening through the campaign and a bit of high-level takes on how the campaign's overall progressing.

And what sort of policy ideas are out there? What sort of themes are being surfaced, right? What are the

issues? What are the politicians telling us about what they're seeing in terms of the issues they're choosing to emphasise or de-emphasise? What are they

telling us that we care about? That is a massive part of it.

It is a massive

part of it.

So on that, I think my high level take on the last week or two is that nationals managed to define the terms of the campaign for now.

And I think they've convinced at least the media of a couple of things.

One is it's a cost of living election.

The second is that tax is a cost of living issue.

And the third is that the left is a package deal.

So just to run through those, you've seen the no new taxes commitments.

And now every time Labour and the Greens and Te Pāti Māori make an announcement, the immediate question is, how are you going to pay for it? Tax.

The other thing that I think Nationals achieved is they've made the left into a kind of package deal blob.

So if you vote for Labour, you're getting Te Pāti Māori and the Greens policies.

The right remains a menu, though.

So there's still this sense there's a lot of differentiation between ACT, New Zealand First, and National.

I think because they're incumbent, right-wing voters have a bit more confidence that they understand how that team will work together.

Do you know

what's funny, though? Because Labour has tried to play the same game on the coalition with this, saying, you know, like, oh, look, they're the ones that are racist.

They're trying to do this.

They're trying to do that.