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National accuses rival Labour of mean spirited attacks over union billboard showing a scowling picture of Christopher Luxon

Public Policy / news
National accuses rival Labour of mean spirited attacks over union billboard showing a scowling picture of Christopher Luxon
Luxon
One of the CTU adverts that have annoyed the National Party.

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." 

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23 Comments

Hells bells what else would you expect. If ain’t true, it don’t hurt. Provided what is broadcast is not in category of the much vaunted hate speak criteria, it’ll be what it is. Can’t stand holier than thou complainants.

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11

"Iwi/Kiwi" again ?

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I think they are right. If you don't own property, National will not be good for you.

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14

Me to Luxon

Just like John Key will sell the Country out.

No good for young Kiwis or our country.

So this add in the herald today right on the money.

Nice to see some honesty and some who has called it

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9

Negative advertisements depicting the others as the bad guys is never good, no matter who writes them.  It says more about the author than the target.

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12

and unfortunately, one side has been doing it for a while so for the other side to respond was expected to then cry wolf is a bit lame, time for chris bishop to pull his man panties up and get on with the job of getting your message out there.

 

 

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9

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?🧐😔

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Labour and their leftie mates (TPM and Greens) are truly a nasty dishonest bunch. JA was a nasty one before she buggered off. They have left NZ a mess. With any luck they will be gone in October but I would put any dirty trick past them beforehand. 

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7

Can you raise the level of dialogue, perhaps?

Less slandering and more fact, is my suggestion. 

Somebody else might like to consider what 'balance' looks like... 

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10

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-…

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12

Looks like Labour read it.

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8

There is no comparison with what National did.

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3

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

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5

Dishonesty is bringing back deductibility and saying landlords will reduce rents. That's a joke, they will charge whatever they can get away with.

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6

Maybe Chris Bishop needs to go back to his tiddlywinks.

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6

or he could ask his dad to also cut it out

His father is political journalist, and founder of the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union, John Bishop,

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1

But where is the lie?

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4

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'...  

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2

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?

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2

Why is the CTU not campaigning on all of Labour's awesome achievements over the past six years? Surely that would be more effective. I mean the list is endless.

National's mistake here is whinging about it. 

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9

Does Luxon really look that much like Muldoon...or is that a  photoshopped mix of the two?

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7

I thought the same thing.  A blast from the past.

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4

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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