An announcement to extend free lunches at school turned into a playground scrap between the two major political parties on Friday.
Labour's promising to extend the programme and claiming National wants to cut it back to bread and milk.
There were no chippies on the side of the burgers today but there was a Chippy serving them up and promising lots more lunchboxes - $650 million worth.
"Today I'm announcing if re-elected Labour will extend free lunches through to the next term of Government," Hipkins said.
He served up that promise with a side of attack, saying National could cut the program back to milk and bread.
"Oh my goodness. I mean, you just can't make this stuff up," National leader Christopher Luxon responded.
"Look it's an election campaign and it's a mix of what we do and a risk of change of Government," Hipkins explained.
"What I have said consistently is we support the programme," Luxon said.
Hipkins has spent the last few days on a campaign roadie through the lower North Island to help Cushla Tangaere-Manuel keep Ikaroa-Rāwhiti red.
"I'm not a fly-in visitor that's just going to drop in, I'm gonna commit to them and I'll listen and show up, that's what I'm here for," Tangaere-Manuel said.
And to help his rising star in snazzy sunnies, Kieran McAnulty, hold onto Wairarapa which Labour flipped in 2020. But the public wasn't sure.
"Haven't decided," one person told Newshub.
Looks like there's still quite a bit of work to do here.
"I don't think I'll win with the same majority; I don't anyone will think that," McAnulty said.
Could a wealth tax policy have made that work any easier?
"We are not implementing a wealth tax, simple as that," Hipkins said.
A poll commissioned by the Better Taxes for a Better Future Campaign and released exclusively to Newshub shows broad support for high earners paying more tax.
It asked how much tax should be paid by people earning over $180,000 and people who own assets worth over $5 million.
- 61 percent said they should pay more
- 26 percent thought they should pay the same
- just 4 percent said they should pay less
Drilling into the political persuasions of those who want the wealthy to pay more - 75 percent of Labour voters, 84 percent of Greens and about half of National and half of ACT's voters want the wealthy to pay more tax.
ACT and National are both proposing a tax cut for that group.
"It doesn't surprise me - most people will say yes when asked if other people should pay more tax," ACT leader David Seymour said.
Despite that widespread support, Hipkins is standing by his call to rule out a wealth tax.
"I've ruled it out because I looked at it closely, it wouldn't have worked or been implementable," Hipkins said.
Hipkins needing to take a close look at everything given Labour could be staring down the headwinds of change.
