Chris Bishop: National Campaign Chair claims gangs are campaigning for a third Labour term following string of attacks

It’s been a big week in politics, as a host of Labour's policies have been tipped on the scrap heap as the new coalition Government starts passing laws at pace.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis joins the Weekend Collective to share who her politician of the year is, as well as what we can expect from the mini-budget.

Plus, Jason Walls joins the show to discuss the key moments from the year that's been in politics.

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This week on the Sunday Panel, Coast day host and Victoria University Senior Law Lecturer and columnist Morgan Godfery joined in on a discussion about the following issues of the day- and more! 

We started the year with Jacinda Ardern resigning and ended it with a completely different Government - how are we feeling about 2023 as a year? And how are we feeling heading into 2024? Are we in a good place as a country?

Who's our politician of the year? The Herald's Claire Trevett named Winston Peters- do we agree? Did he steal the limelight from Luxon?

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On our first Sunday back at the beginning of this year, the Labour Government confirmed who our new Prime Minister would be.  

So much has happened since then.  

When Chris Hipkins took on the role, it felt like he went straight into election mode, aware he had only 9 months to convince us he had the vision, leadership and relatability for the job, and that he understood what New Zealanders needed and wanted.  

Other political parties soon followed, and while the election campaign was officially only 5 weeks long the year felt like one long audition for the role of Prime Minister and Government.  

And now, in our last show, the country ends the year in a completely different place – a place of revelations and repeals which are setting a sombre tone for 2024.  

The reveals this week were gobsmackingly bad for the opposition. First there was the Auditor General’s report that stated two of Labour’s spending programmes – the $12b New Zealand Upgrade Programme (NZUP) and the $3b Shovel-Ready Programme (SRP) that were announced in 2020 to keep the economy going during the pandemic – were poorly run, with little transparency and value for money.    

Then Nicola Willis pulled the plug on much needed new Interislander Ferries project in response to a massive budget blow out, whose blame she lay at the feet of the previous Finance Minister.  

A day later, it was confirmed the economy has been in a per capita recession for much of the past year. And the good news doesn’t stop there.   

This week will bring more revelations as the Government opens their books for the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update. I’m not sure the opposition will want to turn up for this.  

And if you want to know how all this news will affect us in 2024, you only have to look at the list of what is being repealed and cut to stop spending money – and take note of Nicola Willis’ mini mini-budget on Wednesday. It will give us a taste of what to expect in the Government’s May 2024 budget.  

If I was going to describe 2023, I’d say it was the year when the wheels fell off in slow motion. 2024 is lining up to be the year when the brakes go on. It’s going to take a bit to slow and stop our fiscal freefall and it’s not going to be much fun. It seldom is when the party ends.  

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About now most of us are on the countdown. The countdown to Santa Claus’ brief visit and the end of the year. The countdown to some time off, a chance to stop and reset. Or perhaps it’s the countdown to returning home to spend quality time with family. It may just be the countdown to the end of Christmas music for another year.  

You get the picture. 

But while many of us are ready to slow things down, I enjoyed seeing politicians ramping up in Parliament this week and doing what they do; introducing themselves, dropping insults and throwing dirt and getting on with the policy promises laid out during the election campaign. 

And gee, it was an action-packed week. 

There were justifications and an embarrassing mistake over the dumping of anti-smoking legislation. Te Pati Māori mobilised Māori to take to the streets for National Māori Action Day protesting the coalitions polices.  

There were leaks about the Government’s plan for Fair Pay Agreements and Regulatory Impact Analyses - which indicated some legislation may not get the usual level of regulatory scrutiny. 

Then there was the drama and theatrics of swearing in MPs, with one new MP’s maiden speech earning a standing ovation from all corners of the house. The star of the week, National MP James Meager, joins us shortly.  

We also had impassioned speeches about the Israel Palestine conflict, barbs traded about the financial state of the books left by the previous Government, and real concerns about the blow out in costs for infrastructure projects.  

All this in one short week.  

The Government is moving fast. There’s a lot happening and while we’re all very keen to clock out the reality of what Kiwis voted for is just kicking in, so it’s important we pay attention to Parliament over the next two weeks.  

It felt like a long election campaign and it was great when it ended. I almost appreciated the long lull between election day and the announcement of the coalition Government agreement. But it has been a long time since the 53rd Parliament was dissolved on 8th September - it’s good to be back.

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The Labour Party leader says National's throwing away years of work for ideological reasons.

Chris Hipkins has unveiled his shadow cabinet, and vows they're ready to hold the Government to account.

Prime Minister Chris Luxon's revealed his 100-day plan, which includes reinstating the Resource Management Act- which Labour repealed.

Hipkins says it won't take the country forward.

"They were banging on for years about how flawed the RMA was and how it needed to be overhauled. And now they're wanting to go back to the RMA, so it's not like they're going to drive something forward- they just seem to want to throw everything into reverse."

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Despite some setbacks, Luxon has unveiled his Government's 100-day plan.

The plan features 49 action points, including repealing the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax, the Clean Car Discount scheme, and Fair Pay Agreement legislation- and setting new targets for the health system.

Political commentator Grant Duncan says the Government's next phase will need to do more to fix the issues they planned to address.

"They need to get serious about their actual plans, particularly with rebuilding the economy. Just repealing stuff isn't rebuilding the economy."

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Winston Peters has doubled down on conspiratorial comments about the media, and gone further.

Yesterday, he called a $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund a Government 'bribe'.

Today, ahead of the Government's first Cabinet meeting, Peters asked media to tell the public what criteria had to be signed up to- to get the money.

ZB political editor Jason Walls says Luxon will likely be annoyed with Winston's remarks.

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The Government's plan to slash the public sector is having an adverse impact on Wellington's property market.

According to ANZ's latest property report, Wellington's housing market is lagging behind the rest of the country as people brace for job losses.

ANZ economist Andre Castaing says housing markets all over the nation are expected to go sideways within the next year.

"The housing market in Wellington- we would characterise that as having the potential to be a touch slower. However across the country, there's a range of things impacting house prices."

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Congratulations to the new coalition Government, which was sworn in today by Governor General Dame Cindy Kiro.

And as our new Prime Minister says- they're ready to get stuck in.

But things are already getting better. Some say it's just because of the vibe. But don't discount plain good luck and timing.

The so-called hermit kingdom is over. As we heard a week ago, nearly a quarter of a million people chose to emigrate to New Zealand in the past year.

Today we learn tourism is up- and spending in the year to September hit $30 billion dollars.

That's up $6.6 billion on the previous year - and pretty much back to pre-Covid levels.

This while the international spend is still recovering.

As Nicola Willis finally gets her warrant to fool with the economy, the economy appears to be turning a corner.

In today's paper is a report that economists believe the Reserve Bank will not be raising interest rates anytime soon. It also reports that markets are predicting a rate cut as early as May and as many as 3 cuts through 2024. Which is great news for first-home buyers.

With all this good news, there's still one thing that bugs me about this Government and that's the disconnect that you feel when a tax cut has to be funded by a tax rise.

You'll remember that was the problem I had during the election where the tax cut for the squeezed middle was funded by a wealth tax on rich foreigners buying houses. For a Government averse to taxes, it seemed off brand.

The new version came up after the Government's surprise axing of the smokefree programme, and I say surprise because no one can find mention of it in any pre-election manifesto but axed it has been on New Zealand First and ACT's insistence.

Yesterday on Newshub Nation, Nicola Willis said extra revenue from more widespread cigarette sales would help fund tax cuts in lieu of the now-scrapped foreign buyers tax.

This was a loose thing to say prompting accusations that long-term public health had been sacrificed for a short-term cash-grab.

Which is a bad way to start a term.

It's not rocket science. If you cut a tax you cut expenditure. You don't tax a fall guy to make it work. That's inequitable.

Jack Tame asked Nicola Willis if she accepted more people would die because of cancelling the #Smokefree policy.

Willis says- "I have not seen advice or analysis of that so I am not prepared to answer that question".

FFS, this is what we can expect in the next three years.

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This week on Politics Central, Nicola Willis joins the show to explain why she has the political chops to be our new Finance Minister- and how her English Literature degree plays into that.

Later, ACT Leader and incoming Minister for Regulation David Seymour explains what his new roles entail- and why so many public sector jobs need to be slashed.

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