Election 2026 Campaign Diary: Nicola Willis takes a dig at NZ First’s spending promises
New Zealand First may be feeling the heat over the burgeoning costs of its election promises and refusal to produce a fiscal plan.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis made a pointed reference to the party having no fiscal plan while answering a question at the annual New Zealand Herald Mood of the Boardroom event, and she suggested it was a party that liked to spend money before it is even collected, ahead of a Budget.
“I’m on the seventh floor in the Beehive. On the one hand I’ve got the people with the loud music and the tendency to spend it before it arrives, and then on the other side I’ve got my friend who’s a bit of a dry accountant, and I sit in the middle during the Budget process and there is meeting after meeting after meeting.
“It is hard and I have lost years of my life ... Sometimes heads have to be knocked. Sometimes whisky has to be poured, but we get it done.”
She shares the seventh floor of the Beehive with NZ First leader Winston Peters, who is fond of music and the odd tipple, and the tinder-dry Act leader David Seymour.
The Green Party is releasing its final fiscal plan on Friday morning and all other parties, besides NZ First, have released fiscal plans or alternative budgets in varying degrees of detail.
Former Defence Minister and 2026 candidate Ron Mark has just produced the party’s defence policy, including a target to spend 3% of GDP on defence by 2032, which would take it from $5.49 billion at present to $18.23b in 2032. He also wants to see Defence Force personnel expand from 15,000 to 20,000. Other big-ticket items include buying back the BNZ, and cutting company tax from 28c to 20c for businesses with turnover of less than $30 million.
By the way, Education Minister Erica Stanford was rated top minister for the second year running in the annual Mood of the Boardroom survey of chief executives.
He said what?
Speaker Gerry Brownlee has just cause to be concerned about the rise in threats made against MPs in this election campaign. But to relate it to the mainstream media running quick-fire questions of politicians during debates, as he did on RNZ, is over the top. Almost all televised leaders’ debates have had a segment or two for lighter quick-fire questions to offset an otherwise serious agenda. He suggested media organisations were treating elections like entertainment, and that was exacerbated by a general level of anxiety in society.
They are disappointing remarks from an otherwise excellent Speaker. He occasionally demands short answers from ministers and he himself often exemplifies politics as entertainment.
If Brownlee’s finger is to be pointed at any section of the media, it should be at unregulated fringe media who tend to express themselves in extreme language and/or social media whose algorithms can expose impressionable people to extreme content. And he could remind MPs themselves to be mindful of their language. It’s a pity his comments came on the back of the New Zealand Herald’s excellent Powerbrokers’ Debate on Wednesday (including some quick-fire questions), which many commentators said was a pleasure to watch. RNZ political editor Jo Moir said it was best of those so far.
They said it (at Mood of the Boardroom)
National’s Nicola Willis: “You [Barbara Edmonds] can’t just wish Chlöe Swarbrick away. She’s very real and she’s on 16%.”
Labour’s Barbara Edmonds: “She [Nicola Willis] sees an economy, I see a country. Workers aren’t just a cost line. They’re the nurses, the drivers, the care workers, apprentices and the customers in every single one of your businesses.”
Campaign quiz
Which Labour list MP is standing against Mental Health Minister Matt Doocey in Waimakariri?
Looking ahead
Friday: The Greens are releasing their fiscal plan at 11am, Christopher Luxon and Chris Hipkins will be in Hawke’s Bay, David Seymour will be making a health speech in Auckland.
Saturday: Winston Peters has a public meeting in Thames at 2pm.
Quiz Answer: Dan Rosewarne, a former Army officer.
Policy update
Labour would fund an extra 1000 teacher aides over four years at a cost of $80m.
Act wants a target of 10,000 enrolments in charter schools and to have at least one charter school option in every major town in New Zealand by the end of the next parliamentary term.
National would ring-fence 20% of social housing places (up to 450) to seniors from the housing flexible fund, and expand granny flat rules to tiny homes.
NZ First wants defence spending to rise to 3% of GDP by 2033.
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Adam Pearse reports on Winston Peters having second thoughts about retirement village reforms announced recently by Minister Tama Potaka.
Read about the Powerbrokers’ debate on Wednesday night and who our commentators picked as the winners.