NZ Politics: Defining The Difference Between National And Labour
February 18th, 2010
Opposition Leader Phil Goff saw the Key speech as a “step-back” and promised a stern fight against any increase in GST. Hyped up as Big Tuesday, he says it turned out to be “Tiptoe Tuesday.” In light of the relatively tepid welcome the Prime Ministerial statement received, Labour could feel it has regained the political initiative. Goff’s strategy is to win back disaffected middle and low-income voters. He told Parliament “people who earn the least are going to be the worst affected, and we have no confidence the Govt will look after these people.” This goes to the core of the debate, in effect defining the sharp difference between Labour and National. Labour is still focused on redistributing wealth, National in trying to grow the cake so everyone will be better off. As Vernon Small put it in the Dominion-Post “beyond tax, there are enough nudges and winks to indicate there is a very real National agenda in the pipeline for 2010.”
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Duncan Cotterill