Political commentators, experts and economists have weighed in on last night's Multi-Party Debate, discussing who remained "on message" and who they were pitching on the night.
The kingmakers went head to head in TVNZ's Multi-Party Debate last night, as ACT's David Seymour, the Greens' Chlöe Swarbrick, NZ First's Winston Peters, Te Pāti Māori's Rawiri Waititi and Opportunity’s Qiulae Wong faced off over major election issues.
Waititi and Peters traded multiple barbs, while Wong pushed back against claims of her inexperience.
Peters and David Seymour sparred over raising the minimum wage, while Chlöe Swarbrick and Wong argued over whether parties should work with National to gain influence and stop unpopular policies.
Multi-party debate: Ranking performances from best to worst - watch on TVNZ+
The debate also saw fiery exchanges over wealth taxes, political donations and Seymour's donor-backed cancer hospital idea, which Swarbrick compared to "The Hunger Games".
Victoria University Political scientist at Lara Greaves and lawyer and political commentator Liam Hehir joined Breakfast to discuss who stayed "on message", and which voters they were targeting.
Asked who was a standout performer, Lara Greaves said “I think Rawiri Waititi did pretty damn well, actually”.
Victoria University political scientist Lara Greaves and lawyer and political commentator Liam Hehir discussed who stayed "on message", and which voters they were targeting. (Source: Breakfast)
"You've got to consider a year ago where that party was at. It was a complete mess. We were all going 'will Te Pāti Māori ever be back? What's going to happen to this party?' And what we've seen with Te Pāti Māori, we've seen Rawiri Waititi, and we've seen Oriini Kaipara and other debates they really hammer the data, the statistics. They've got examples prepared,” she said.
"I think he's appealing to his audience, right? Because he's kind of got almost the easiest job of the minor party leaders. He's got a clear audience in the seven Māori electorates and just trying to get their electorate vote. So, he's got a clear person or people in mind with his task at hand."
Hehir agreed, saying Waititi was very "on message" the entire night.
"With these minor parties, they're always going for a segment of the population for a specific constituency. In Rawiri, he was very on message the whole night. The other person who was on message the whole night was Qiulae Wong from the Opportunity Party, and what was so noticeable about her was that she was constantly pitching at centre-right voters," he said.
“She was talking about how Christopher Luxon spurning her twice doesn't deter her. You might think that she was pitching at Luxon, but actually, what we've seen from elections in New Zealand in the past is that when voters start to get shaky on the National Party and start to get tactical voting in their mind, they will often go for a centrist party."
Speaking about Winston Peters' performance, both Greaves and Hehir said he "stuck out like a sore thumb" in terms of how he came across compared to the other leaders.
"Matua Winston, he's been around a long time and he's just not as quick as he used to be," Greaves said of the 81-year-old.
“The thing is that he's older now, and I know there are a group of people who love him and will vote for him and will follow him, but you know if you think of Winston like 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, years ago, he had the quick tongue the quick wit, and it wasn't there so much,” she explained.
Asked about their final takeaways, Hehir said the minor party performances has “never been more important”.
"Opportunity is the one that has the most potential for growth. But what I would say is that normally we treat this debate, the multi-party debate, as kind of like the kids' table of being in politics.
“But the minor parties have such a big vote share, and the major parties are so unpopular. Actually, it's never been more important than ever to pay attention to the minor parties."
'They all had their moments'
1News political reporter Sophie Trigger and BNZ Business Breakfast presenter Mei Heron discussed the latest 1News Verian poll and TVNZ Multi-Party Debate. (Source: Breakfast)
1News political reporter Sophie Trigger and BNZ Business Breakfast host Mei Heron discussed the latest 1News Verian poll and TVNZ Multi-Party Debate on Breakfast this morning.
Trigger said "I thought that they all performed well. They all had their moments, they all managed to get their lines across. I think there was always going to be a lot of focus on Qiulae Wong, especially considering that poll with Opportunity firmly in that kingmaker position on 8%".
“I think she was very strong last night, particularly given her ability to criticise either side, which is important for a kingmaker,” she added.
Heron agreed, saying this was a "really important chance for these parties to differentiate themselves, to show everyone out there that they're not like the others”.
“We really saw that around some key policies. If we think about wage, if we think about tax, for instance, even the likes of minimum wage. New Zealand First and ACT right now think very, very differently, and those things have big impacts when it comes to the economy and business as well,” she said.
Speaking about the Opportunity Party’s "interesting" position, Heron said it could have the potential to backfire.
“You talked about the fact that they managed to criticise both sides last night, and how that was important in a kingmaker position. On the flip side, though, I do wonder whether that puts them in a slightly strange position where it doesn't bring about a lot of certainty for voters for them.
“And the reason why I bring up that word is because it's the word that comes up over and over again for businesses, particularly as this idea that they want some certainty to be able to do what they can do. That's a bit tricky when you can go with either side, and businesses are sitting there going, ‘OK, where would you go?’
“Although, I think that's why the Opportunity Party felt like it had to bring out those bottom lines, didn't it? Because it felt like it needed to prove some certainty there,” she said.
Economist weighs in
Infometrics chief economist Brad Olsen said minimum wage was one of the topics businesses would be most interested in. (Source: Breakfast)
Infometrics chief economist Brad Olsen joined BNZ Business Breakfast to discuss the varying political policy proposals and their potential implications for New Zealand’s business landscape.
He said "one of the biggest topics of the night of interest to business was around the minimum wage" and the varying views within the coalition.
Olsen noted that the Green Party proposed lifting the minimum wage to the living wage level over time, ACT’s David Seymour wanted no increases to the minimum wage and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters suggested increases should align with the rate of inflation.
"There is this big question going forward, where there are big cost of living challenges, and if you're trying to keep workers, you of course want to pay them well. But equally, those minimum wage increases have added a lot of pressure over time, so definitely a bit of a split there in views and a big question for the next government,” he said.
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Olsen was asked if any of the policies that were pitched last night would make any impact quickly to Kiwis, to which he said “that's probably the biggest concern”.
"Most of the ideas were around breaking up things, breaking up the gentailers, breaking up the supermarkets, everything else. I don't know about you, but I look at that and I go, 'that's not 100-day thing'."
"You might be lucky to get some law passed within 100 days that says you might commission a further study before eventually doing it over a couple of years, but it's not going to be quick.
“I think it did highlight a little bit that politicians are very good at promising a lot, but their actual expectations of being able to get stuff done quickly is a whole lot more limited," he explained.
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