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CAMPAIGN JOURNAL: Judith Collins goes on to claim that Labor is keeping a secret.
During a whirlwind and uneventful campaign trip to Palmerston North on Thursday, the National party leader was eager to discuss secrets – the secrets that can propel a small New Zealand business into a lucrative overseas market. The secrets of innovation at a Massey University facility on the outskirts of the city.
And, as Collins claims, Labor’s secret tax agenda hides, despite finance spokesman Grant Robertson claiming that a new tax bracket is the only tax his party will generate if it is granted another three years in office.
“We are well aware that the Labor Party is simply using it as a stalking horse, and we are well aware that they actually have another plan in place that they campaigned on in the last election,” Collins told reporters.
DAVID UNWIN / STUFF / Things
National Party Leader Judith Collins visits Palmerston North ETECH Company.
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“I don’t think most New Zealanders are foolish enough to believe Mr. Robertson’s words on this matter.”
Labor, eager to confirm a proposed 39 percent tax bracket on income over $ 180,000 will be the only new tax, say National must be hiding its intentions to cut public spending to keep debt low.
Collins wants voters to think that his word is better than Robertson’s when he says National will not bring in new taxes.
It is not so clear whether his party would agree to the extent of the spending cuts promised by potential coalition partner ACT.
“We clearly don’t want to have waste, but we also have to understand that we need to grow the economy … They won’t see us cutting things like infrastructure or benefits for the people who need it, Collins said when asked.
Tax policy was not on the lips of the audience waiting at the Cuba Café when Collins arrived in Palmerston North.
The local chamber of commerce had brought together about 20 small business owners to share their stories of pandemic warfare with the opposition leader.
DAVID UNWIN / STUFF / Things
National Party Leader Judith Collins reviews a self-contained weeding robot.
Bernice Adlam, owner of the city’s Speight’s Ale House, said Stuff He was struggling under the social distancing requirements and cumulative restrictions, with about 40 fewer people in his restaurant at any one time.
A committed national voter, Adlam wanted a compromise that there would be no further increases in the minimum wage. Collins later said a national government would only delay the next hike, scheduled for April 2021, to give businesses a breather.
Adlam sat next to National Palmerston North candidate William Wood, 18, and said he sounded mature.
This eased her concerns about her age, a concern that she said others shared.
“He’s going to have to really go out there and give a lot of elbows and meet a lot of people, and that will make a huge difference for him,” he said.
Palmerston North has been a secure seat for the Labor electorate, and the 2017 election was a more marginal race for the party’s vote.
The new National candidate faces new Labor candidate Tangi Utikere, after local MP Iain Less-Galloway resigned amid a scandal in July. Wood will need to close a 6,000 vote gap.
Collins’ next stop was ETECH, a high-tech stainless steel manufacturer.
Don Sandbrook, CEO of partner company Greentech, showed him an automated weeding robot he was developing.
There was a high demand for labor in the fields in the United States, he said, and President Donald Trump’s crackdown on Mexican migrants meant fewer hands to lift a hoe. Your robot could be a big hit.
Speaking in the tea room over a cup of coffee, the forced conversation centered on the size of the wheels on Sandbrook’s brushcutter, built to drive over muddy fields.
“That must be for the terrain … That’s the secret, isn’t it? You really have to know how it works,” Collins said.
