Ryan Bridge: The coalition is stealing Labour's thunder

You know immediately when something makes good political sense. 

You can usually tell, not by listening to the Minister announce it, but by listening to the Opposition oppose it. 

Crime is topic du jour as the Government's rolling maul of thundercloud announcements continue. 

It's one of the party's strongest, biggest levers to pull - it's one of the few election issues on which the Nats outpoll Labour.

So it's no wonder they've pulled out all the stops this after a few weeks of shaky polling and being on the defence. 

The problem for Labour with crime is simple: nobody trusts them. 

The facts are as follows: crime went nuts. Labour's policy was reduce the prison population. 

Which is what makes this such a hard week for Labour, not the Greens and TPM who sing a different song on law and order, but for Hipkins. 

How do you credibly stand up and argue against longer sentences for thugs who bash first responders? How do you oppose getting tough on coward punches? How do you oppose fines for people stealing cuts of meat or booze from the supermarket? 

The answer for Labour so far has been, you do oppose these things. They have come out against almost every single change. 

And that plays into the perception they're still weak on crime. 

That they haven't been to the gym to get stronger, tougher on crime, they've instead further withered. 

Of course, this problem could be solved if we knew anything about what Labour is planning, policy wise. 

But Chippy' strategy is shock and awe - they're holding cards very close to the chest until the election.

In the meantime, they do the run the risk of looking weak while the Coalition steals the thunder.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You know immediately when something makes good political sense. You
can usually tell not by listening to the minister announce it,
but by listening to the opposition oppose it. Crime is
the topic Jeju this week, of course, and it's one
of National's strongest, biggest levers. It's got to pull. It's
one of the few election issues on which they outpoll Labor,

(00:23):
so it's no wonder that they've pulled out all the
stops this after a few weeks of some shaky polling
and being on the defense. The problem for Labor with
crime quite simple. No one trusts them. The facts are
as follows, crime went nuts. Labour's policy reduce prison population,
which is what makes this such a hard slog, A

(00:44):
hard week for Labor, not the Greens into Party Maori,
who sing from a very different songsheet on law and
audibit for hapkins. How do you credibly stand up and
argue against longer sentences for thugs who bash first responders?
How do you oppose getting tough on coward punches? How
do you oppose fines for people stealing cuts of meat

(01:05):
or booze from the supermarket while the rest of us
pay ever higher prices? The answer for Labor so far
has been you do oppose these things. They've come out
against pretty much every single change that's been announced, and
that plays into the perception that they're still weak on crime,

(01:26):
that they haven't been going to the gym to get
stronger and tougher on crime. They are instead further withering away.
Of course, this problem could be solved if we knew
anything about what Labor is planning policy wise for the
next election, but Chippy's strategy is going to be shock
and awe. They're holding cards very close to their chest

(01:47):
until the election. In the meantime, they do run the risk,
don't they, of looking weak while the coalition steals their thunder.
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