Mowbray has admitted his motive is not just to counter a similar campaign by Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori for the centre-left, but to turn more people against MMP.<\/p>\n
Asked by RNZ\u2019s Guyon Espiner if the campaign was intended to discredit MMP, he said \u201cabsolutely\u201d.<\/p>\n
He believes that MMP is a \u201ccomplete dog\u201d of an electoral system. \u201cMy big push on all this is in fact to show people how bad MMP is.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes that the smaller parties have too great a say in MMP and, ironically, is encouraging people to vote for smaller parties to highlight that. <\/p>\n
An overhang allows a party to keep all electorate seats it wins, even if there are more than its party vote entitles it to. It distorts the proportionality of Parliament, which is the central tenet of MMP. Here\u2019s how the rest of the week has gone for the main parties:<\/p>\n
National\u2019s old attack lines<\/p>\n
A tough week. It has been hard for the party to get clear air and has spent much of the week reviving old attack lines about $18 billion holes and nine new taxes and fighting the deep pockets of Harry Mowbray and Don Brash\u2019s overhang campaign. <\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s big unknown<\/p>\n
The party may be relieved its support was not apparently dented by the gang saga, and the resignation last week of its T\u0101maki Makaurau candidate for campaigning with gangs. But what cannot be measured is whether the party would have gained momentum if it had not been bogged down in the issue for two weeks.<\/p>\n
Greens\u2019 big flub<\/p>\n
Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick and Marama Davidson have had a relatively good week publicity-wise, with the exception of Davidson flubbing on the Government\u2019s cost of borrowing, suggesting it was 1% to 2% when it is 4.94%. Every time National warns about the possibility of Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick as Minister of Finance in a Labour-led Government, her heart swells with pride.<\/p>\n
Act leader David Seymour visits Rollickin Gelato in Christchurch to try out the flavour named after him – “David S\u2019more”. Photo \/ Anna Heath<\/p>\n
Act\u2019s error-free week<\/p>\n
The best campaign of the week. No obvious errors, no errant candidate videos and whenever Labour warns about the possibility of David Seymour as Finance Minister, he likes to keep the dream alive. Deputy leader Nicole McKee was tested in her appearance in the TVNZ Kaupapa debate, but did not disgrace herself.<\/p>\n
NZ First says it aloud<\/p>\n
Mixed fortunes. Ron Mark\u2019s video sounding off against man-buns, diversity hires and woke bull**** in the Defence Force offended many but it is increasingly the party that says aloud the bits that others only dare utter in anonymous social media posts. Winston Peters continues to draw big crowds at public meetings with Papakura and \u014crewa over the weekend.<\/p>\n
An opportunity for No 5<\/p>\n
Opportunity\u2019s Christchurch Central candidate and No 5 placed candidate Eden Skipper got a national platform on the TVNZ Kaupapa debate alongside six sitting MPs. He held his own.<\/p>\n
Co-leader back on the trail<\/p>\n
Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was back on the trail this week after a month\u2019s leave to spend time with and farewell her mother. She appeared on Wakaata M\u0101ori\u2019s raucous Whakatau debate, and Rawiri Waititi fronted for TVNZ\u2019s more orderly Kaupapa debate.<\/p>\n
Caucus discussion revealed<\/p>\n
When Aged Care Association chief executive and ex New Zealand First MP Tracey Martin thanked her old boss Winston Peters for speaking to the association conference in Wellington on Friday, she told them that Peters had once helped get a pay rise for the cleaners in their offices. There had been a campaign for MPs to spend a night alongside cleaners to better understand their work, which was being discussed at caucus. Peters instead suggested the MPs take a pay cut in favour of the cleaners. <\/p>\n
Most original policy award<\/p>\n
It has to go to the person promoting a new member\u2019s bill for introduction to Parliament to put a stop to the nightly television clips of politicians scooping ice cream; the Short Campaign (Rollickin\u2019 Gelato) Candidate Exclusion Bill \u201cprohibits every candidate for election to the House of Representatives from entering or being present on the premises in Christchurch trading as Rollickin\u2019 Gelato during the short campaign, being the period beginning on writ day and ending with the close of polling day\u201d. Well done to press gallery rival and Post political editor Henry Cooke.<\/p>\n
Most in touch with the cost-of-living award<\/p>\n
One of the best segments in the TVNZ Kaupapa Debate yesterday was when the seven candidates were presented with five grocery items and asked to estimate their total price: a loaf of sliced brown bread, one block of butter, 1kg of beef mince, one dozen eggs and a 2-litre bottle of milk. You might be surprised at the results, when measured by the difference between their guesses and the reality.<\/p>\n
Act deputy leader Nicole McKee was the winner, estimating they cost $47, just $1.20 less than the actual total of $48.20 (according to the latest food price index). Green co-leader Marama Davidson did worst, estimating they cost $70, or $21.80 too much. National\u2019s Tama Potaka did second best, $6.80 over, Opportunity\u2019s Eden Skipper next at $8.20 under, Labour\u2019s Willie Jackson next at $10.20 under, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori\u2019s Rawiri Waititi next at $11.80 over, then Shane Jones at $13.20 under, and lastly Davidson. Davidson claimed to have seen such high prices at her local supermarket in Manurewa. Jones says he never does the shopping. \u201cI\u2019ve got daughters, wives and other people to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
They said it<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s all these lunatics out there saying support National by voting for somebody else.\u201d National MP and frustrated Epsom candidate Paul Goldsmith on Herald NOW.<\/p>\n
Campaign quiz<\/p>\n
In what electorate is \u014crewa and who is the sitting MP?<\/p>\n
Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong is planning to run in the 35th Auckland Marathon on Sunday. Photo \/ Alisha Lovrich<\/p>\n
Looking ahead<\/p>\n
Saturday: David Seymour is campaigning in Epsom, Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick is campaigning in Auckland Central, Christopher Luxon is campaigning in Auckland.<\/p>\n
Sunday: Qiulae Wong is running the Auckland marathon (11km), and Winston Peters has a public meeting in \u014crewa at 3pm.<\/p>\n
Quiz Answer: Whangapar\u0101oa, currently held by Mark Mitchell.<\/p>\n
ICYMI<\/p>\n
Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny talked to Opportunity\u2019s largest donor and board member AJ Wilderland<\/a> <\/a>about what motivates him and how post-election talks might go. Political editor Thomas Coughlan has been on the campaign trail<\/a> with Act leader David Seymour and Tamaki candidate James Christmas. Derek Cheng takes a look at Labour\u2019s law and order policy, or the lack of it in its manifesto:<\/a> \u201cThere is barely anything substantial in it,\u201d writes Cheng. \u201cNor is there any pledge to reverse what the coalition Government has done: the gang patch ban, the longer sentences, Three Strikes 2.0 or the public funding of cultural reports.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mowbray has admitted his motive is not just to counter a similar campaign by Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2246,95,6726,11164,1738,3276,313961,72765,5903,1888,9859,222984,13480,702,302,5511,16427,26097,111,43,139,425,69,1523,6736,686,102],"class_list":["post-645871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-2246","tag-and","tag-become","tag-began","tag-campaign","tag-chris","tag-chrises","tag-diary","tag-election","tag-first","tag-harry","tag-harrys","tag-hipkins","tag-it","tag-its","tag-just","tag-luxon","tag-mowbray","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-now","tag-nz","tag-over","tag-was","tag-week","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}