National's new cost of living policy announced on Sunday will do 'absolutely nothing' for struggling Kiwis, Newshub's Patrick Gower believes.
National said their policy could save an extra $800 a year for a typical earner in New Zealand under their proposed tax cuts.
In Luxon's first major speech as National leader, he promised to raise income tax thresholds to help Kiwis deal with the "cost of living crisis".
It comes as the cost of living skyrockets with Kiwis spending on average an extra $4000 and $5000 in the past 12 months on basics such as food, rent and fuel. The majority of the increase is fuel with an extra $678 a year at the pump on average.
As part of his policy, Luxon said if he was elected in 2023, National will repeal the removal of interest deductibility for landlords.
But Gower told AM on Tuesday this will do nothing for struggling Kiwis and only make landlords richer.
"There are two people in this country that like to call things a crisis, I'm one of them - journalists - we love doing it and so do opposition parties," Gower said.
"It is a crisis though, but what I saw from Christopher Luxon yesterday was that part of his solution was to effectively give money back to landlords by removing Labour's plans to take off that interest-free area, that is effectively making landlords richer.
"So if the National Party thinks it's going to go to the next election campaigning on the cost of living by making landlords richer, that plan yesterday announced by him, I'm sorry Trish Sherson that would do absolutely nothing for those two people that were on the program this morning."
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledged on AM it was a tough time for many Kiwis but stopped short of calling it a crisis.
"I wouldn't describe it that way, there is an impact that people are feeling undeniably but I wouldn't describe it in that way," Ardern told AM on Monday
But two Kiwis have refuted Ardern's belief. Mum of five Krystine Nation and concerned Kiwi Steve Christodoulou says it is a crisis and families are struggling.
Speaking with AM On Tuesday, Nation said her family's food bill has increased by $7000 in the last year.
"To say there isn't a crisis… she [Ardern] needs to get on the ground floor," she said. "I couldn't understand why we were struggling so much when in the first lockdown I was teaching people how to buy their groceries for $200 a week and live comfortably…In just over a year my groceries have increased $7000 annually.
"That's a lot, my husband hasn't received a $7000 increase in his pay. Not only that there is the petrol, the rent, I have spoken to so many people about this."
Political commentator Trish Sherson agreed with Nation saying it is a crisis and will be an important issue leading up to next year's election.
"The Prime Minister doesn't want to call it a crisis because that's what National have defined it as," she told AM.
"What we are seeing this week is after four and a half years in the political wilderness, National have finally got their finger on the pulse and they are going after the cost of living hard.
"It is the same strategy that Labour employed before the 2017 election calling the housing crisis a housing crisis but what I think you have heard this morning is the really real stories of everyday New Zealanders or middle New Zealanders, that's sort of the 400,000 New Zealanders that left National and went to Labour last time.
"So it's a really important debate both in the household but at a political level and this is going to shape up for the next election."
