Leadership rumour laughed off as Willis and Sepuloni clash

RNZ News

a day ago

Minister of Finance Nicola Willis.
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
You can listen live to RNZ's political panel on Morning Report at 8am every Wednesday.
Analysis -
Finance Minister Nicola Willis' seven interruptions in 30 seconds is a targeted attack on Labour's rumoured capital gains tax policy reminiscent of Sir John Key's "show me the money" moment.
But the strategy this early is not the slam dunk Key's jibe - less than a month before the 2011 election - was hailed as by columnists.
Speaking on
Morning Report'
s political panel, opposite Labour's deputy Carmel Sepuloni, Willis interrupted her opponent to ask - six times - how Labour would pay for its promises, with a distinct seventh interruption half way through for good measure.
Labour's promises at this point are, however, only promises to reveal policy at some point including a tax policy before the end of the year, which could explain how other promises would be paid for. This takes some sting out of the Finance Minister's criticism, but also leaves Labour without an effective way to combat it.
The panel started with host Ingrid Hipkiss asking about Willis' recent trip to London.
"If we're really quiet, Carmel, do you think we'll be able to hear the gentle whispers coming that we may be speaking with New Zealand's next prime minister?" she said, referring to a social media post by a former gossip columnist Willis had laughed off the previous day as coming from "an exuberant fan".
Sepuloni was quick to emphasise the rumour of division, saying "the conversations around rolling the leadership really ramped up" during the London trip last week,
Labour Party Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni and Labour Leader Chris Hipkins.
Photo:
RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Willis again laughed the suggestion off, saying a leadership spill was "not on the cards" and suggesting that while plenty were quick to criticise, "every now and then, there's a fan who's just as exuberant in the other direction, and that's all there is to it".
She said the trip had been "fantastic" and allowed her to speak lenders the government was borrowing from, and "they can see that we're a sensible government, doing the right things to manage the public finances, they back our plan".
Sepuloni said Willis needed to recognise "much of that debt has actually been built up under her watch".
"They decided to give out tax cuts that they were told were unaffordable and give tax breaks to places like landlords, 2.9 billion to landlords, tax breaks to the tobacco industry. I think New Zealanders are questioning the priorities of this government."
Hipkiss asked Sepuloni the inevitable question about what Labour would do, leading to the following exchange with Sepuloni talking over Willis' interjections:
Sepuloni:
Our priority would certainly be on what I've mentioned already. We need support
Willis
: How would you pay for it? Is the question.
Sepuloni
: need suport for New Zealanders to get into work....
Willis
: How would you pay for it?
Sepuloni
: Well, we certainly wouldn't be giving tax breaks....
Willis
: How would you pay for it?
Sepuloni
: ... value of 2.9b ...
Willis
: so you wouldn't give tax relief to people struggling.
Sepuloni
: to landlords, our focus would be on work ...
Willis
: how would you pay for it
Sepuloni
: ... and jobs. We wouldn't have been pausing and ...
Willis
: How would you pay for it?
Sepuloni
: ... and ending up with 18,000 fewer jobs in the ...
Willis
: How are you going to pay for it?
Sepuloni
: ....construction industry. It's about choices Nicola, and your government have made choices that are completely out of step with what New Zealanders want.
Willis
: Okay so she gave a long answer, and this is exactly Labor's problem. They want to promise everyone everything, and they will not front up with how they want to pay for it, because the way they want to pay for it is putting new taxes on an economy that is already struggling.
The discussion soon veered back to the coalition's approach, with Willis again
highlighting the crackdown
on local councils' spending and the government's "concerns" about keeping food prices under control.
"The last government attempted some reforms in that area. It's pretty clear they're not delivering enough. So we are working hard on what the next steps are," she said.
Sepuloni came in with an interjection of her own - Labour's frequent refrain that the government has been unable to find a single family receiving the maximum $250 a fortnight from the FamilyBoost scheme.
Willis had to
rework the scheme
after it was revealed to be
less effective than expected
.
"This was a government that promised thousands of families $250 extra a fortnight through their FamilyBoost scheme and now they can't identify one family who have received it," Sepuloni said.
"I am just going to correct a factual error there," Willis said, "because there are more than 60,000 families that have received a cheque - money into their bank account."
"Everyone who has applied has received their full entitlement, and actually now there's a human reality to that I saw at Parliament a couple of weeks ago, an Uber driver, he stopped me, he said 'I want a photo with you, because that family boost money has made such a difference to my family'."
It was unclear what "error" Willis was referring to: many families are receiving some funding but no evidence has been forthcoming of any families being eligible for the maximum amount under National's tax policy from the last election.
"I'm glad you had another exuberant fan," Hipkiss observed, "let's move on to teachers and correcting factual errors".
Public Service Minister Judith Collins
corrected herself on Tuesday
after claiming last week striking teachers were earning an annual salary of "about $140,000",
far more than what most would earn
.
"It's actually really disappointing that we've got a government who have been pointing the finger at our teachers and blaming them for going on strike when actually this is off the back of them having their pay equity claims pulled, and now what we're seeing is that they've been offered a 1 percent [annual] increase," Sepuloni said.
"We're just saying 'look (secondary teachers' union) PPTA, represent your workforce fairly, come and do your job which is negotiate with us, let's strike a deal," Willis replied.
"We value teachers very, very much. They are going to be the key to us lifting educational achievement in our schools. They're going to be the key to getting a replacement to NCEA working and we want to negotiate with them to get a fair deal."
Collins last week billed the strikes -
taking place today
- as a "political stunt". On Tuesday she said it was a case of mixing her messages up a bit.