As political party leaders make their way up and down the country ahead of Saturday's election night, Labour leader Chris Hipkins took aim at NZ First candidate Michael Laws, National leader Christopher Luxon held firm on not working with Opportunity, and Treasury opened the government's books.
Will we have a government by Christmas?
“The sooner we get a Government, the sooner everybody can get back to work,” Hipkins said.
“I'm aware that the period between an election and when a Government's formed creates huge uncertainty for New Zealanders. There's a real-world consequence to all of that. Businesses don't go out and invest, they don't hire people, you know, government departments can't get on with the work that we need them to get on with. So the sooner we get a government in place, the better.”
Asked whether Labour would be in a position to form a government on election night, Hipkins said he'd envisaged Labour starting talks with other parties next week.
“It might be only relatively exploratory in the first instance while we wait for the formal vote count to be completed, but I certainly don't want to mess around.”
Luxon promised to “move as quickly as we possibly can through a negotiation.”
“But I also need New Zealanders to understand that the vote is not formally counted for three weeks after election day, and so the reality is we'll need to see the vote counted so we know exactly where we are.
"That will then inform a lot of what happens in negotiations from that point onwards. We'll move as quickly as we can before Christmas, but equally it'll take as long as it takes.”
Hipkins says Michael Laws ‘not a fit and proper person to be a Member of Parliament’
Hipkins was asked multiple times about NZ First candidate Michael Laws, who made headlines on Wednesday for his comments about Opportunity Party candidate Kayla Kingdon-Bebb.
Among other comments, Laws described Kingdon-Bebb as “every officious primary school teacher, female that I'd ever come across in my life”.
“Must be hell dating people like that, just quietly. Can you imagine what it's like post-sex? Did I say that out loud? Yes, I did,” he said.
Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong described Laws’ comments as “absolutely disgusting” and said she didn’t think someone like Laws should be standing as a candidate.
“They don't belong in politics,” she said.
On Thursday, Hipkins said Laws “should certainly be sacked.”
“Michael Laws is not a fit and proper person to be a Member of Parliament. This is a lifetime of behaviour for him. He's been in and out of politics. He's always been disgraceful in his behaviour. New Zealand First knew that when they selected him. It shows that that is the internal culture of New Zealand First,” he said.
Luxon has ruled out Laws – who is ranked six on NZ First’s list – from serving as a minister in a National-led Government after the election.
“The language was disgusting. As I said, there's no place for him in my cabinet in our government. And you know, if you want less of that, it's pretty simple. Party Vote National.”
Treasury says most key fiscal indicators in Government’s books ‘slightly better than forecast’
On Thursday, Treasury gave a peek under the hood of the Government’s finances after publishing the Interim Financial Statements of the Government of New Zealand for the three months ended September 30.
The September results are reported against forecasts and projections based on the pre-election economic and fiscal update 2026 (PREFU 2026), which was released back in September.
The Treasury said most key fiscal indicators for the September quarter were slightly better than forecast and debt indicators were “broadly in line” with forecasts.
Core Crown tax revenue was $31.5 billion, $0.3 billion higher than expected, while core Crown expenses were $37.4 billion, $0.5 billion lower than forecast.
On the debt front, net core Crown debt was $193.2 billion (42.3% of GDP), $0.2 billion higher than forecast. Treasury said this was largely driven by the core Crown residual cash deficit of $4.2 billion (which came in $0.2 billion higher than what had been forecast).
At $238.1 billion (52.1% of GDP), gross debt was $1.6 billion higher than expected. Treasury attributed this disparity to $1.0 billion in “unsettled trades on securities” by September 30, as well as higher-than-forecast derivative losses of $0.4 billion. Derivative losses are often caused by movements in exchange rates or interest rates – basically, they're driven by market volatility.
National deputy leader and finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said the Government’s books had improved due to higher-than-forecast revenue and lower-than-forecast expenditure and this reflected National’s work “to grow the economy and stop wasteful spending.”
“By sticking to National’s plan, there will be a brighter future for Kiwis, with a growing economy, less debt, more jobs, higher wages, and no new taxes,” she said.
New Zealand’s labour market is currently looking less than bright, however, following Statistics NZ reporting on Wednesday that unemployment has reached an 11-year high.
The country’s jobless rate increased to 5.7% in the September quarter, with 174,000 people unemployed. The last time the unemployment rate was at 5.7% was in the September 2015 quarter.
Kiwibank economists also expect the peak in unemployment is still ahead.
Speaking to interest.co.nz following Hipkins’ media conference, Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds rejected Willis’ claims of progress over the Government’s finances.
“Nicola Willis says that things are improving when I see that there are 51,000 extra Kiwis out of work since they've [National] come into office, 5.7% for unemployment, inflation is outside the bands,” she said.
“It's not a win.”
Additional reporting by Anna Whyte.
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