Has this election campaign peaked early?
National’s campaign manager Simeon Brown has proved unremitting and indefatigable in pressing the tax button over and over, and looks committed to keep pressing it all the way to November 7. Labour, in response, has attempted tax-themed counterstrikes of its own. In a new episode of Spinoff politics podcast Gone By Lunchtime, Ben Thomas, Annabelle Lee-Mather and Toby Manhire ask whether the die is cast.
With politicians across the board shrugging off requests for factual corrections and apologies have we waded into a post-truth, alternative-fact mire? Is Chris Hipkins hugging National close or spooning them?
Plus: is Te Pāti Māori’s policy to entrench te tiriti as radical as some have suggested and how did Willie Jackson do in outling his own party’s Māori campaign?
