New Zealand is officially in recession, which will fuel political debate and electioneering. That's just as well though, because as the 1News political reporting team discuss on this week's podcast, election policy has started to pour in.
Read on and listen below.
New Zealand is now officially in a technical recession, with indicators showing six months where the economy was shrinking rather than growing, as the country continues battling cyclone recovery and pandemic headwinds.
It comes as Stats NZ released its latest data for the period between January and March, showing a decline of 0.1% in New Zealand's gross domestic product.
Political response ensued, from every part of the spectrum. National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis slammed the Government for creating an "incredibly fragile" economy, calling it "Robertson's red light recession".
Green Party finance spokesperson Julie Anne Genter called for a tax on the wealthy because, "it's not okay to expect everyday people to pay the price of a slowing economy while the rich sit by and get richer". ACT said Labour's economic management was to blame for low productivity and the weak economy.
Never fear though, because it's policy season - this week we've seen agriculture policies (National, ACT and Labour) and tax policies (Greens).
National leader Christopher Luxon found himself in a bit of a pickle though, finding himself clarifying comments that New Zealand had become "very negative, wet, whiny and inward looking" while chatting to a farmer at the announcement of National's agricultural emissions policy.
He said it wasn't the country itself he was talking about, it was the Labour Government.
1News political reporter Cushla Norman said the use of the phrase may not "play badly" - politically - for Luxon, as some may feel - as the opposition had expressed - that Labour was "gaslighting" the public over things being better than they actually are.
She said she'd observed Luxon on walkabouts with the public, saying he "projects optimism".
She said he is "quite enthusiastic [and] jovial".
"[He] asks quite a lot of questions, he seems quite interested in people.
"He often is saying we're the best country in the world but we've got a lot of problems that we need to fix, and I think in this hot mic clip, we heard more of the negativity than [the positivity]."
1News senior political reporter Benedict Collins said being leader of the opposition was always difficult because being critical was a big part of the job.
Inside Parliament is the 1News politics podcast — you can find it on all good podcasting apps.
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