It’s about the economy—and getting results (Subscriber)
From foreign policy to republicanism, from continuing the nuclear ship ban to changing the New Zealand flag to there being a climate emergency, the two Chrises displayed a remarkable level of amity in the 1News leaders’ debate last night, up to and including both of them hosing down a mischievous hypothetical from moderator Jessica Mutch on a clash between China and Taiwan and revealing that each had bought their first home aged 24.
Given that the Labour leader is in a polls slump and badly needed a circuit breaker moment in debate one, diplomacy and reasonableness was not what Mr Hipkins needed.
Apart from occasional muttering that Mr Luxon’s comments were "just not true" or "just nonsense", Mr Hipkins battled to lay a glove on Mr Luxon, and he seemed to realise it, getting more tetchy as the debate rolled on.
The National leader had been very careful to lower expectations about this debate, praising his opponent’s skills. In reality, he did not need to be so cautious. Mr Luxon easily achieved his primary aim of not being smashed.
In fact, Mr Luxon held his own more than comfortably, and was able to get his regular talking points out with little trouble. Not enough for him to count himself the debate winner, but he certainly was not the loser either.
How to tackle the cost of living crisis provoked early sparks.
"The thing about the National Party is that it’s all about marketing and spin. When you break it down the National party’s tax cuts don’t add up," Mr Hipkins said.
"They have $6billion worth of cuts and they cannot say what public services they are going to cut, let alone the $20b worth of New Zealand houses that they plan to sell to foreigners."
Mr Luxon fired back, saying his proposed tax relief was "‘better than a couple of cents off your beans and carrots".
"He’s suggesting that a grocery commissioner is going to go around with a clipboard looking at the price of bananas up and down this country," Mr Luxon said.
"You get a couple of cents off your fruit and vegetables and then what he’s gone and done is increase the tax on fuel so that every freight carrier that is moving food from the farm to the store actually has a rise in costs."
Mr Luxon was keen to depict himself as an outsider to politics — "unlike Chris" — who was used to finding solutions and delivering results.
Mr Hipkins, on the other hand, was happy to note his governmental experience and the "enormous responsibility" he had in helping New Zealand endure the Covid-19 epidemic.
There were also clashes between the two men on crime — where Mr Luxon’s talking points sounded cliched and trite and Mr Hipkins constructive and progressive — and rents, on which Mr Hipkins sounded shrill in his attempts to demonise landlords, while Mr Luxon sounded more reasonable in saying that many would be Labour party members with a second property investing for their retirement.
Essentially this debate was one Chris-all — the two men and the two parties’ differences were not starkly exposed, leaving the neutral with the impression that whoever you vote for, a Chris will always win.
