Francesca Rudkin: We need more civility in this election season

Last week I started my editorial with: ‘Well, it was a rather chaotic, eventful week in politics wasn’t it’, and went on to speak about how I thought it was a mistake that the Prime Minister has decided to decline appearing in a weekly spot on TVNZ’s Breakfast.  

But it appears that ‘chaotic’ and ‘eventful’ is likely to be how we’re going to describe the next 27 weeks until the election, if the coalition can hold itself together through to November.  

The nonsense and the scheming this week included what could quite possibly have been a leaked story about embattled TVNZ reporter Maiki Sherman, lawyers letters flying between media companies keen to report the juicy details, Winston Peters releasing emails under an OIA request revealing the Prime Minister’s potentially damaging views on the US war against Iran, and a feisty retaliation by the National Party on NZ First. All I could think at the end of this week was - surely both the media and politicians can do better.  

I get it - everyone is coming out firing on all cylinders - that’s what you’ve got to do in election year. National has a new campaign leader and communications adviser, and I am sure many National voters like the new fighting spirit being shown by the Nats. After all, the Foreign Affairs Minister was out of line this week.  

But with Winston Peters stating, 'No, we won’t do a deal with Labour or their Marxist and separatist mates', then you’d think that having ruled out being part of an opposing coalition there would be some shared effort to sell this one to voters.  

The number of people who this week said to me, 'I don’t want to vote for any of them' was a bit of a surprise. Civility is often put aside during an election year, and yet I think it’s what most of us are craving right now. We’d like the people we have entrusted to run the country to act like grown-ups and get on with the job without the backstabbing. 

Budget month is going to be tough, and yet all National and the coalition have to do to sell this budget is deliver it straight-up. We all know the story - whatever economic recovery and confidence we were gaining heading into 2026 has been wiped out by decisions made elsewhere in the world.  

It’s not just our story - it’s happening everywhere. This week, the Bank of England warned inflation could hit 6.2 percent in the UK by early 2027, and food prices could rise by 6-7 percent by the end of this year. In Australia inflation rose to 4.6 percent in March, with an expectation it will peak higher with consumer prices now growing at their fastest pace in two and a half years.  

No. It’s not the economic recovery story National was hoping to campaign on, but with little policy or innovation coming from the Labour Party there is an opportunity to double down on their fiscally responsible approach to managing the economy.  

The revelation of Christopher Luxon’s support for the war wrecking our economy - isn’t helpful for him. But what would be more damaging is having coalition party leaders calling out each other for poor judgement over the coming months.

Luxon has done a good job keeping the coalition together, but if they’re going to spend the next 6 months sabotaging each other rather than continuing to work on how they can come together on policy, selling the budget will be the least of National’s problems. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talk ZEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
So last week I started my editorial with, well, it
was a rather chaotic, eventful week in politics, wasn't it,
and went on to speak about how I thought it
was a mistake that the Prime Minister had decided to
decline appearing in a weekly spot on TVNZ's Breakfast. But
it appears that chaotic and eventful is likely to be
how we're going to describe the next twenty seven weeks

(00:33):
until the election, if the coalition can hold itself together
through till November. The nonsense and the scheming. This week
concluded what could quite possibly have been a leaked story
about embattled TV and Z reporter Mikey Sherman lawyer's letters
flying between media companies keen to report the juicy details,
Winston Peters releasing emails under an OIA request revealing the

(00:55):
Prime Minister's potentially damaging views on the US war against Iran,
and a feisty retaliation by the National Party on New Zealand. First.
You know, all I could think of at the end
of this week was surely both the media and politicians
can do better.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Everyone is coming out firing on all cylinders. That's what
you do in an election year. National has a new
campaign chair and communications advisor, and I'm sure many National
voters like the new fighting spirit been shown by the Nats.
And after all, the Foreign Minister, the Foreign Affairs Minister,
was out of line this week. But with Winston Peters
stating no, we won't do a deal with Labor or

(01:30):
their Marxist and SEPARSS mates, then you'd think that having
ruled out being part of an opposition coalition, there would
be some shared effort to sell this one to voters.
The number of people who said to me this week,
I don't want to vote for any of them was
a bit of a surprise. Civility is often put aside
during an election year, and yet I think it's what
most of us are craving right now. We'd like the

(01:52):
people we have entrusted to run the company country to
act like grannuts and get on with the job. Budget
month is going to be tough, and yet all National
and the coalition have to do is sell this budget.
To sell this budget is to deliver it straight up.
We all know the story. Whatever economic recovery and confidence
we were gaining heading into twenty twenty six has been

(02:14):
wiped out by decisions made elsewhere in the world. It's
not just our story, It's happening everywhere. This week, the
Bank of England warned inflation could hit six point two
percent in the UK by early twenty twenty seven and
food prices could rise by six to seven percent by
the end of the year, and Australia inflation rose to
four point six percent in March, with an expectation it
will peak high with consumer prices now growing at their

(02:34):
fastest pace in two and a half years. No, it's
not the economic recovery story National was hoping to campaign on,
but with little policy or innovation coming from the Labor Party,
there is an opportunity to double down on their fiscally
responsible approach to managing the economy. The revelation of Christopher
Lux's support for the war wrecking our economy isn't helpful
for him, but what would be more damaging is having

(02:56):
the coalition party leaders calling out each other for poor
judgment over the coming months. Luxon has done a good
job keeping the coalition together, but if they're going to
spend the next six months sabotaging each other, but rather
than continuing to work on how they can come together
on policy, selling the budget will be the least of
National's problems.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it B from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.