Labour in a pickle over our economy

• Published date: 28 May 2023
• Publication title: Herald on Sunday

There’s just not enough time for things to improve. Prices are high now. They’ll be high in October. Mortgage repayments are high now. They’ll be high in October. Good luck getting a pay rise that covers all that off between now and then

Which isn’t great for Labour. It’s always at a political disadvantage on the economy. Historically, voters have preferred National as the ones to sort out a financial mess.

That’s not always fair on Labour, especially given the hard yakka Michael Cullen put into paying down Crown debt in the Clark Government.

But sometimes it is fair. And it will be fair this year.

In the last two weeks Labour’s made a hash of convincing voters it understands how grindingly hard the cost-of-living crisis is. Megan Woods’ five tips to “Find money in weird places” was so tone-deaf it belonged in an AmDram opera.

Kiwis are beyond being told to unplug appliances to save on electricity costs. They’ve been dealing with soaring inflation for two years now. The people who are falling behind on their mortgage repayments or taking on two jobs over six days to feed the kids have already turned the hot water off on the washing machine. Telling them to find money in places they’ve already exhausted is not just pointless, it’s insulting.

At best, turning off appliances and cutting showers short will save an estimated $550 a year.

Sure, that’ll help, but when the official cash rate is 22 times higher than it was a year and a half ago, the problem is way bigger than something that can be fixed with 10 bucks a week.

The Budget didn’t do anything to reassure Kiwis that Labour fully understands what real life in 2023 is like. A $5 discount on antibiotics screams “out of touch”.

It says a lot that the major party that benefited from the Budget in this week’s poll was National. It went up 3 per cent. Labour dropped 1 per cent in the TVNZ- Kantar poll...