Andrew Dickens: It's too early for polls

We’re awash with polls.  

The Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll and research from Horizon.  

It all says we’re not happy with the country right now. Therefore, we’re not happy with the Government.   

And no kidding - things have not been good for a while now.  

No matter who was in power a correction was needed.  

We swamped the nation with cash at the start of the pandemic. Unnecessarily we can now say with hindsight, and then we paid the price.  

So, the Government is going to be on the backfoot, no matter who they are.  

I actually think the surprising thing is how the coalition’s support is holding up.  

Sure, Luxon has his problems. Sure, Seymour and Peters say the most triggering things knowing that there’s a bunch of people who love it.  

But are the opposition making any sense at all and acting like they’d do better?  

Chris Hipkins over the weekend played cagey with his party's positions,  

When asked about the capital gains tax, he prevaricated and then talked cryptically about tax reforms. 

And that’s about all the policy talk I can rustle up from Labour.  

The Greens and the Māori party just keep on saying what they always say, but just personally they appear to be still on holiday.  They’re certainly not in the house.  

So, all this poll says is that our blocs are evenly matched in tribal terms - the trick will be the swinging voters who vote for self interest.

But let’s see what things will be like in 18 months' time.  

A poll at this time is like some small talk at a party that hasn’t started yet. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
To another poll, a couple of them, actually the Taxpayer
Courier poll. We also got research from Horizon and all
this stuff just says we're not happy with the country
right now. Therefore we're not happy with the government. No kidding.
Things have not been good for a while now, no
matter who was in power, a correction was needed. Economically,
we swamped the nation with cash at the start of
the pandemic unnecessarily, we can now say with hindsight, and

(00:22):
then of course we paid the price. It's not be nice.
So the government is going to be on the back
foot no matter who they are. I actually think the
surprising thing about this poll is how well the coalition
support is holding up. Sure Luxon has his problem, Sure,
Seymour and Peters say the most triggering things, knowing that
there's a bunch of people who love it. But are
the opposition talking any sense at all? Are they acting

(00:43):
like they do any better? I went searching for policy
from labor. Chris Hipkins over the weekend played cage with
his party's positions. When asked about the capital gains tax,
he prevaricated and then talked cryptically about tax reforms. What
does this mean? Is that what you're voting for. That's
about all the policy talk I can wrestle up from Labor.
The Greens at the Boundary Party appear to still be
on holiday. So all this poll says is that our

(01:07):
blocks are evenly matched in tribal terms, and the trick
will be the swinging voters who vote, of course for
self interest, and they'll do that in eighteen months time,
So let's see what things are like in eighteen months time.
A poll at this time is like some small talk
at a party, but the party hasn't even started yet.

(01:28):
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