Sepuloni draws super battle lines

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

The main announcement from Carmel Sepuloni at the party’s Congress in Wellington was an announcement of things Labour won’t do, rather than what it will

None of them was surprising. The superannuation age would stay at 65, the Winter Energy Payment would stay, and …. wait for it …. government contributions to the NZ Super Fund would also stay.

The aim was not so much to show off Labour’s policies — but to advertise National’s and Act’s, both of whom want to lift the super age to 67 and have halted Super Fund contributions in the past.

It worked a treat. Within an hour, a thundering press release came from National’s Nicola Willis accusing Labour of “trying to score some cheap political points by hypocritical scaremongering.”

She accused Labour of being fiscally irresponsible for holding it at 65 — which is exactly what Labour says of National’s tax cuts.

Today is shaping up as another showdown — National is pulling a classic spoiler manoeuvre by deciding to announce an expected shift on its policy on housing intensification (breaking a bipartisan accord on the issue) this morning.

Leader Christopher Luxon will speak about it at the exact same time Labour’s leader Chris Hipkins is due to give his speech — and a small announcement — to Congress in the early afternoon.

Willis also asked the question of why Labour were announcing non-policies on super instead of announcing bold, new measures to address the cost of living.

For now, Labour is happy to let the measures it took in the recent Budget do the talking on that front. Its bigger-ticket...