Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is Labour really in it to win it here?

0:00Yeah, so it's not good for Labour in the latest taxpayer's Union Curia poll. They have now fallen to 26%, which is below the last election result that they got at 27%. Now, this is not a surprise to me and it shouldn't be a surprise to you, because we have been saying consistently on the show all of this year that Labour is going to come down in the polls. Once the policy starts being released, because basically what's happened up to now is Labour has said very little. They've been a blank canvas of silence, if you like, which means that voters could up to now basically project whatever they wanted onto Labour. If you like the idea that Labour is kindness, projected on, they're saying nothing to dispel that notion. If you believe that Labour is competent, projected on, if you believe that Labour will fix the cost of living crisis and healthcare and education and the roads and the economy and heck, why not our world? Go for it, project it on. But the problem with that small strategy is that it becomes really problematic the closer we get to an election, because even though Labour is still not saying very much, everyone else around it is, aren't they?

1:01And it's pretty mental, isn't it? The Greens with their Soviet-style supermarket plan and their wealth tax, the opportunity party with its land tax and its plans to raise the age of youth justice, the Māori Party with its plans to establish a treaty commission that can stop Parliament making law. And so because Labour is saying very little, it ends up being tainted with all these weird policies. And once more, if there is one thing that voters are really hankering for this election, it is vision. It's a plan to get us out of this mess. And you could argue that this is actually a problem for both parties, Labour and National, but Labour is not producing a vision, because it's not saying anything. Frankly, I've got to be honest with you, I'm starting to wonder if Labour is even really campaigning at any more than just about 60% at the moment. Their performance is so lackluster. I'm actually wondering if they're in it to win it. Notably, on the poll, Chris Hipkins has said, he hasn't said this time that it is a rogue poll like he did last time. He said there is work to do. And that's because he knows this is not a rogue poll, is it? This is a trend that started in March when his polling started falling and it hasn't stopped.

2:04And this may not be the end. 26% may not actually be the bottom.