Election 2020: Jacinda Ardern’s absurd day in Christchurch, still fighting the wealth tax

Campaign diary: Two campaigns were held in Christchurch on Wednesday.

The first, the one you’ll see, is the one you’re probably used to: Jacinda Ardern visiting an iconic local business, Jacinda Ardern touring a local landmark, Jacinda Ardern visiting crowds at the mall.

If this sounds very familiar to you, it’s probably because it is. Be it leader John Key, Bill English or Ardern circa 2017, this is standard campaign material.

The other campaign that took place in Christchurch was different. It was absurd, or perhaps literary, depending on your inclination. If you were feeling charitable, it was the kind of literature that is intentionally absurd.

The elephant in the room is the wealth tax. Something that the Greens would like to do and that Labor would very much like to stop talking about.

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But let’s talk about what Labor did. Ardern’s media got up in Christchurch and focused on little more than estate tax.

Judith Collins has found it to be a useful baton for beating Labor. Ardern can scrap the tax all he wants, but as long as there’s a long shot that he needs the Greens’ support after the election, Collins can paint it as anything but inevitable.

This has forced Ardern, and indeed Labor, to describe the tax in increasingly creative versions of nonexistence.

This started when Labor finance spokesman Grant Robertson said he was running to implement labor tax policy.

Ah, some thought, could this mean that Labor would implement its tax changes, and also those of the Greens? No, no, it wasn’t. It was not so.

Ardern and Collins’ back and forth over the tax last week has become the political equivalent of Monty Python’s sketch of the dead parrot, with one politician claiming the tax is dead, deceased, or deceased, while another claiming it is. lively.

Ardern in Christchurch continued to discard and discard and discard and discard and discount the estate tax vigorously.

The conversation quickly turned to whether Ardern would resign if the tax were implemented, probably not a question Ardern thought he would answer considering that recent polls have opened up the possibility of voters obtaining the first absolute majority in 24 years, such a long time. Ardern herself was unable to vote back then.

“The fact that the opposition continues to raise it is sadly a desperate tactic in the final days of the campaign,” Ardern said. “I have made my position very clear, I have discarded it …”

Leaving no stone unturned, the media asked again.

“Isn’t he going to come anywhere near the negotiating table?” asked a journalist.

“We have ruled it out,” Ardern said.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Stuart Nash, apparently unbeknownst to Ardern’s team, went on the radio to say he would resign before implementing a wealth tax.

Ardern was asked: would he also resign if the estate tax passed through the cabinet? Would the discarded estate tax become the “estate tax on my corpse”?

“I made my position and the position of Labor absolutely clear, we have discarded it, it is not up for discussion,” Ardern said.

But would he quit? “It’s not in the plan, there’s no need for hypotheses,” Ardern said.

But what if there was a slim chance that she would quit if the tax was raised? Well, apparently it won’t appear.

“I will not allow it to happen as prime minister,” Ardern said.

And there you have it. The estate tax disappeared beyond the veil of this period, or the next, and entered the political purgatory of other “now and never” policies such as raising the retirement age and the capital gains tax.

Did any of that matter? Well, apparently not; Going back to the other campaign, the campaign you recognize, things seem, well, normal. Ardern toured the Hamilton Jet plant, meeting with apprentices; He stopped by Christchurch’s beautiful New Regent Street and chatted with Rollickin ‘Gelato, the company that conducts an ice cream poll of people’s favorite politicians.

He joked with staff that the survey, which has David Seymour and ACT at the helm, probably wouldn’t set a new standard in predictive surveys. An employee invited her in to sign something. Despite the fact that the day is already delayed, Ardern agreed, although one has the feeling that with only two days left, she is ready for the campaign to end.

There was one last stop in Christchurch: Westfield Riccarton, a huge shopping center between Hagley Park and the University. Jacindamania was on full display; The high school students chanted Ardern’s name as his truck pulled up. They waved banners, kindly provided by local MPs, including campaign manager Megan Woods.

Seeing Ardern in a crowd lends itself to hyperbole. The crowds are huge, their worship religious. Ardern usually receives flowers or gifts.

It’s fair to say that the ins and outs of the estate tax weren’t on people’s minds. There were some insults: “I hope you lose” and even a racist insult, but Ardern’s instincts are good. He handled both incidents without flinching.

About an hour after arriving, Ardern was gone. To Auckland, where elections are won and lost.

The wealth tax controversy has brought an unpredictable end to the campaign. No one would have predicted with unemployment heading toward the highest rate in decades, amid a housing crisis and global pandemic, that the tax liabilities (or lack thereof) of millionaires would dominate the final days of the campaign.

But few things about 2020 have been predictable.