Under the policy, public transport users in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch would pay no more than $20 a week, while those in other regions would be capped at $10. Labour says the average user would save about $25 a week, or roughly $1200 a year.
Speaking to Richard Martin on The Front Page, Newstalk ZB’s Ethan Griffiths says the simplicity and timing of this policy announcement “can’t be ignored”.
“Fuel prices at the moment – for people that do own cars – are substantial. It’s a real hit in the pocket for many people, and sometimes public transport is not cheap,” says Griffiths.
The announcement comes just weeks after the Government’s Budget, which was light on new spending initiatives.
It also returns Labour to familiar political territory and Griffiths says launching with a cost of living policy makes sense politically.
“It is true Labour. They have, for a long time now, been very interested in subsidising public transport.”
National has criticised the proposal’s funding model and questioned whether Labour’s $65 million cost estimate is realistic. The money would come from the National Land Transport Fund, which Griffiths says is already “quite oversubscribed”.
“That is the fund that your fuel excise goes towards, for example, and it’s used to fund major infrastructure and roading projects around the country.
“Treasury has warned in the past that there is so much money that the Government is allocating from this fund, it is at very real risk of not all the projects being able to be funded.”
Whether Labour’s fare cap policy stacks up financially remains to be tested, but its simplicity and focus on cost of living may provide a strong clue about the party’s campaign strategy.
“The question is, what more can the Labour Party do to try and attract voters?” Griffiths says.
“We had one of their candidates this week who claimed that the party was working on some form of tax relief, which is interesting for the Labour Party.
“Generally, it’s not a route they go down. That’s more of a policy line that we see from the right of politics, so it will be interesting to see whether that candidate was speaking out of turn or whether ... there might be another significant policy coming along in the pipeline.”
Griffiths says Labour’s fortunes come election day may hinge on an old political maxim, “oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them”.
“That is the thing that people will be thinking of generally as they go and vote. ‘Am I better off than I was three years ago?’ If the answer for most of those people is ‘no’, then chances are we will have a change of government, and that’s something that Labour needs to grab a hold of.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more on:
- Why Labour’s newest candidate has police bosses asking questions
- The Hipkins holiday home row and why voters care
- Is Chris Hipkins actually in a stronger position than anyone expected?
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
