The Labour Party has gone from "being nice" under Jacinda Ardern to "being nasty", according to the National Party.
The comment came in the wake of an advert and billboards from the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) showing National leader Christopher Luxon scowling in a way that led to media comment he was being portrayed in the manner of the Italian dictator Mussolini.
The ad also said Luxon was out of touch and was focused on the wealthy few. The same ad appeared on the CTU's Facebook page.
"Thanks to the Labour Party and their mates, this is about to become the most negative election campaign in New Zealand's history," National's campaign chairman Chris Bishop says.
"It is disgraceful....they are now going to resort to negativity and scurrilous lies about National because they have got nothing left."
The CTU is defending its campaign,
"We are running a strong, evidence-based campaign," it says.
"It sets out why Christopher Luxon and National are out of touch with what matters to the lives of working people – and out of touch with the challenges New Zealand faces.
The CTU adds polls show many New Zealanders agree Luxon is out of touch with their lives.
The Labour leader Chris Hipkins is defending the ads, which he says raise some legitimate points. Hipkins also thinks the National Party is being a bit precious.
"The National Party and their surrogates including the Taxpayers Union, Groundswell, Hobsons Pledge and so on, have been running attack ads against me and the Labour Government since the day I took on the job."
"I have not called a press conference or issued a media statement every time they have done this," Hipkins said.
Hipkins then produced a series of National Party posters showing Labour leaders in a negative light. One of them, see below, portrays Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson with a vacuum cleaner clearing out people's wallets.
Hipkins then went on to describe Bishop's view about the most negative election campaign in history as "utter rubbish."
But Bishop thinks the public will reject the Labour style.
"I just don't want the conversation over the next few weeks to be about what the CTU thinks about Christopher Luxon," he said, calling their billboards "an American-style attack campaign."
23 Comments
True..but you’ve got to admit the front page ad of Luxon yesterday did have a real feeling of American style politics. in particular, the picture chosen comes to mind as trying to portray someone as being angry and dark. Wonder how all the members of said union felt about having their hard earned $ used for the advert?🧐😔
Nicky Hager wrote a book titled Dirty Politics which exposed the National Party's style of politics. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/23/-sp-new-zealand-election-…
and dont tell me there was not pressure by the minister to find out who was the source
Nicky Hager gets interim costs award against police for illegal search case | Stuff.co.nz
The biggest lie currently, by a country mile, is the failure of the MSM to address the real existential issues.
Reporting he-said/she said (although even that is probably not PC nowadays) is equivalent to avoidance. And given that that avoidance is 'of the overarching truth'...
As a subscriber to the Herald I've learned to ignore page A1 and A2 because they are invariably a paid advertisement usually for electrical goods. The paper begins on Page 3 where it starts with its boast of being 'Newspaper of the Year' and 'Website of the Year'.
Today's true headline was "Migrant scam: 188 fiirms eyed". Its tale of exploitation may well swing my vote. I'm impressed that Mr Little was willing to meet and be photographed with community leaders in Sunday's paper. But this issue was well documented by prof Stringer in Dec 2016. How can Labour defend its inaction for six years? I would never have dreamt of voting for National but if they can push this issue they I might. Which govt employed most migrant and labour inspectors?
The difference between the CTU advertisement and those that Hipkins later held up, was that the CTU poster was directly attacking a person rather than any specific policy or action. Those that Hipkins produced may well have featured Labour people, but they were linking these figures with policy or outcomes that they, as Ministers, were responsible for. That's why one could be seen to be a personal attack, the other not so.
However, I doubt that National is going to lose any sleep over the predictable efforts of the CTU and they should just forget the matter and move on, if our 'unbiased' journalists will let them. The next 'ghost campaign' National is likely to face will probably come from the Teachers Union.
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