Transtasman Political Letter – 4th August 2005

TransTasman - 4th August 2005

So it was going to be a yo-yo election campaign, National in front, then Labour, but it’s Labour detonating the bombs…As the smoke clears, it’s not just National looking a bit charred

…NZ First and the Greens got some of the blow-back

…Students see the Labour policy as manna from heaven, some are already planning a property investment …And they mightn’t need to worry about retirement income: the super fund has a super year. Has Cullen in his third term as Finance Minister got any more bright ideas?

Clark Sees “Electrifying” Effect

Labour’s new policy on canceling interest on student loans has had an “electrifying” effect on the election campaign, according to PM Helen Clark, who is this week wheeling out the party’s fourth pledge card item: an end-date (2020) for the settlement of Treaty of Waitangi claims.

Labour Drops Some Bombs On National

Labour is back on top after bombing National on several fronts in the first phase of its campaign to win another term. Its student loan initiative, and the fierce light it shone on National’s nuclear wobbles, reinforced the lift in party morale which followed new polls showing a dramatic reversal in Labour’s ratings.

The Slickest In The Business?

Labour’s campaign strategists are proving they are the slickest in the business, timing their moves neatly not just to throw their opponents off balance, but to reap the (favourable) reaction in polling, to build a cumulative impact.

Promise And Hope Mantra

The blistering verbal attack on Westpac economist Brendan O’Donovan this week by Education Minister Trevor Mallard invoked ghosts of Sir Robert Muldoon.

CAPITAL TALK

Richard Prebble may have been Parliament’s longest serving MP when he made his valedictory speech in Parliament last week. But it cut little ice with the Labour Party’s political hierarchy. None turned out for his post speech function.

PLAY OF THE WEEK

Maate!!!

Forget the blue collar vote, we advised exactly a year ago. Watch the “black T-shirt vote” - thirty-ish, Led Zeppelin-listening petrolheads. How right we were.

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