National's yin and yang v Labour's frugal fear factor

With little money in the government's coffers heading into Election 2023, the Caucus podcast looks at how the two main parties plan to use fear, frugality and friendliness to win your vote.By Tim WatkinAnalysis: Labour's campaign strategy of stinginess has started to take shape, as it rolled out tax and welfare policies this week.Labour's big reveals - taking the GST off fruit and vegetables and increasing in-work tax credits by $25/week in 2024 - also pulled back the curtain on how it hopes to steal the election from National and ACT. While a big fuss was made of the details of the GST policy in particular - and its rejection by tax and health experts - this week's Caucus podcast discussed the politics behind the policy.The design flaws have been well traversed and Finance Minister Grant Robertson's discomfort with the policy couldn't be clearer, as was Jacinda Ardern's, David Cunliffe's and David Shearer's in previous iterations of Labour. It's a tortured political manoeuvre for Robertson, who clearly is no fan of the policy. He told the Auckland Business Chamber last March that it would make no sense take the GST off fresh beetroot and leave it on tinned beetroot if you wanted to help low income New Zealanders, yet that's exactly what he's just promised to do.He has to argue the new Grocery Commissioner will ensure that GST-savings will be passed to the consumer, when reports in Britain have shown the removal of the 5% VAT from period products led to just a 1% cut in prices. You know who also has a Grocery Commissioner (or a Grocery Code Adjudicator)? Britain. As Guyon Espiner mentions in the podcast, it's also a tough sell for Labour as a party that likes to pride itself on backing evidence-based policy, as seen during its pandemic response.But this is a different Labour Party with a different leader. And Chris Hipkins' Labour is pitching itself as a careful economic manager, a safe pair of hands during a cost of living crisis, a party led by a working-class lad who knows times are tough and is reining in those big-spending lefties in his ranks. It's determined to give National no scope to use its usual 'typical tax and spend Labour' charge. Indeed, this week it looks like Labour is trying to turn the tables on National. It has been proudly stingy with these big announcements that, frankly, weren't that big. …Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details