National's Christopher Luxon and Labour's Chris Hipkins clashed during the fiery Newshub Leaders Debate on Wednesday night.
The face-off between Hipkins and Luxon, moderated by Newshub's Patrick Gower, was a high-octane event, with applause, laughter and gasps from the live audience throughout.
There were commitments from the leaders, including lowering the age of bowel cancer screening and doing more bipartisan work on moving communities away from flood zones.
Experts mostly agreed Hipkins won, with Luxon conceding he made a clanger at the start when he got mixed up on the illegality of MDMA.
These updates have now finished.
1:22pm - Mark Mitchell has met with a hīkoi of the whānau of gang members who are gathering in opposition of National's gang policies.
The group were calling for gangs to have a say in policies which affected them. Mitchell listened but refused to accept their petition – which had to be accepted by a Parliament staffer instead.
He said gangs are responsible for some of the country's worst violence.
Mitchell also refused to apologise after assuming one of the people present was a gang member when he said he wasn't.
"That was your assumption. You're stereotyping me. I support my whānau here," they said.
They asked Mitchell to "back pedal and apologise" but he refused saying they were there in support of gangs.
"I'm not going to apologise to you. You're standing on the steps of Parliament as part of a gang hīkoi, protesting our policies," Mitchell said. "So if you’re telling me you're not a member of a gang, good on you. I applaud you, but I'm not going to apologise to you."
1:08pm - Luxon says gang crime is out of control and promises to give police more power to crack down on gangs if National is elected.
"National is going to uphold the simple right of a New Zealander to feel safe in their own home and community."
National's Paul Goldsmith said the four main measure of the party's policy is banning all gang patches in public, allowing police to give out notices to suspected gang members who are gathering in public, allowing police to stop known gang members from associating with each other and giving police the power to undertake warrantless searches.
12:31pm – National police spokesperson Mark Mitchell says the party would introduce legislation to crack down on gangs within the first 100 days if its elected to government.
"National's tough new gang laws are based on similar powers introduced in Western Australia that have been highly successfully in dismantling gangs from the inside and halting their ability to operate in public with impunity," Mitchell told RNZ.
12:28pm - National leader Christopher Luxon has provided "proof" he is in Te Puke on Thursday and not holidaying in Hawaii.
Last year, the Opposition leader got some flack after photos were shared on his social media accounts showing him meeting with businesses in Te Puke, when really he was on holiday in Hawaii.
Luxon has joked about the gaffe on several occasions since, and did so again on Thursday while visiting the small town on the election campaign.
He took photos in front of one of the town's giant kiwifruits, holding a newspaper with today's date.
"I wanna prove to [Newshub senior political reporter] Amelia Wade that I am not in Hawaii, I am here in Te Puke today. This is why we are doing this. This is proof of life," the National leader said, laughing.
Watch the video here.
11:16am – Hipkins has hit out at Luxon during a speech at the Ngāti Hine Health Trust.
The Labour leader said the Opposition's plan to scrap the Māori Health Authority isn't "leadership".
"Christopher Luxon is choosing to continue to deliver poor health outcomes for Māori because it gets a few points in the polls. That just isn’t leadership," Hipkins said.
"Now I am not here to say as the Leader of the Labour Party we’re perfect and I’m the only one who can deliver solutions to the challenges Māori face. That's not it at all. I have no intention to ride in and save the day.
"But I’m here to say it’s time for Governments stop thinking they know best when it comes to Māori.
"It’s time for Māori to do the leading, and for Governments to walk alongside. And it’s the wrong time to undo the hard fought gains that have been made.
"That’s why I support the Māori Health Authority – because it will ensure Māori have a health system built for them, by them, and works for them. I support Te Tiriti and any Government I lead will uphold it.
"We all assume that the Treaty is set in stone, but the ACT party with the help of National and New Zealand First will chip away at its place in our country until all that is left is rubble."
10:43am – The New Zealand Nurses Organisation has released its election scorecard ranking each parties promises.
Wellington-based veteran registered nurse Helen said while nurses appreciated the progress made by Labour there was still much work to be done to reverse the damage.
"Labour has a good Health Minister, but she needs to be braver, advocate for the health workers and lead the way to better health outcomes for all," she said.
Auckland-based registered nurse Dawn felt more work needed to be done by Labour to increase the nursing workforce. "Currently we are facing challenges with ever increasing workloads without increasing resources."
Aged care Nurse, Anita is distrustful of National saying the party did not have the best track record in health spending or supporting health workers.
"National has a terrible track record with healthcare. The pay increases offered under the last National government were lower than inflation during their term, so nurses essentially had a pay decrease."
Keelan is concerned that neither major party has a plan to fully address the large pay disparity for nurses working for Māori and Iwi providers.
"Why does National continue to ignore Pay Parity for nurses who work for Iwi and Māori providers? National took over after the 2008 elections and did nothing for Māori nurses working for their Iwi or Māori providers during that whole time they were in power".
Plans by National and Act to disestablish Te Aka Whai Ora are also of particular concern to nurses.
"Both Act and National party have said they will disestablish Te Aka Whai Ora which would neglect their responsibilities to the treaty. Māori were assured equal rights and yet have poorer health outcomes and shorter lifespans than non-Māori. To meet treaty obligations Te Aka Whai Ora really needs to stay," Anita said.
However, Keelan praised Te Pati Māori for committing to additional funding for Te Aka Whai Ora and supporting Māori nurses.
"I love the determination of the Māori Party to improve working conditions and pay for Māori nurses and health for Māori across the country."
Helen also saw Green policies as positive and the party as supportive of health workers.
"I have appreciated the support from several Green MPs who have stood beside the nurses at our rallies and spoken up in the House advocating for health workers and improving our health system.
NZNO President Anne Daniels said the responses showed common concerns but also similar hopes for improvements in the health sector.
"We have been appealing to politicians from all parties to make the current health crisis and more especially the workforce crisis a priority in the upcoming elections," she said.
"Nurses and healthcare workers’ vote. They are on the front line of a health system in crisis and are looking to see which parties have a credible plan to fix our health system for our health workers and the communities we care for. That’s why today we are releasing a health policy election scorecard to help inform nurses as they head to the ballot box - who will deliver the nurse we need?"
9:44am - The NZ First candidate whose quote was read out during the leaders debate is defending himself.
Rob Ballantyne told Stuff's Tova podcast he agrees the quote is racist, but only if it's taken out of context.
"If you take them out of context, like they were Tova, then yes, I do recognise that."
But Ballantyne said it wasn't racist in the context it was said.
"I was not talking about mainstream Māori, I was talking about the disingenuous Māori elite," he told Stuff.
The quote in question is: "Cry if you want to, we don’t care. You pushed it too far. We are the party with the cultural mandate wand courage to cut out your diseases and bury you permanently."
9:39am – Here are the quick fire questions from the debate in case you missed them.
9:25am - ACT is promising to "end Labour's war on landlords" by reinstating mortgage interest deductibility from April 2024 if it's elected.
"Landlords have been scapegoated and blamed by Labour for the housing crisis when the real cause is a lack of housing supply," ACT leader David Seymour says.
"ACT will end Labour's war on landlords, including by immediately reinstating mortgage interest deductibility from April 2024.
"We will also protect the community from unruly tenants in state housing by making it easier to evict them, putting them at the bottom of the housing waitlist, and giving more deserving families a home.
"Labour's policies of removing mortgage interest deductibility, bright-line test extensions, and Residential Tenancies Act, and other, changes have piled cost and bureaucracy on landlords.
"Policies introduced to 'protect' tenants have ended up hurting them with higher rents. Real solutions for renters don't involve pitting tenants against landlords but making it easier to build houses to bring rents down and give tenants more choice.
ACT will:
- Reinstate interest deductibility for residential landlords with effect from April 2024, rather than phasing it in over three years. ACT's fully costed Alternative Budget accounts for this.
- Abolish the bright-line test, a stealth capital gains tax introduced by National.
- Simplify the process for evicting unruly tenants. ACT would amend s55A of the Residential Tenancies Act so, rather than having to issue tenants with three written notices within 90 days, landlords would only have to issue two written notices within a year.
- Reverse Labour's changes to notice periods for landlords and tenants. ACT will return tenants' notice period to 21 days (currently 28) and landlords' to 42 days if they want to sell or move in (currently 90 days if they want to sell or 63 days if they want to move in).
- Enable landlords to charge a pet bond to increase the number of rentals allowing pets.
ACT will also "make it easier to evict disruptive Kāinga Ora tenants". ACT will:
- Remove National and Labour's damaging 'sustaining tenancies' policy.
- Amend section 55A of the Residential Tenancies Act so, rather than having to issue tenants with three written notices within 90 days, landlords would instead only have to issue two written notices within a year.
- Reduce bureaucracy around termination. Sign-off would only be required from the service unit manager, not the Deputy Chief Executive and Chief Executive.
- Specify that a tenancy can be terminated and not simply transferred to a different Kāinga Ora property if the tenant engages in dangerous or severe disruptive behaviour. Such behaviour would include drug production or supply, acts of violence, presentation of weapons, persistent intimidation or malicious harassment, and threatening or intimidating behaviour.
- Clarify that tenants who are terminated for anti-social behaviour will be moved to the bottom of the public housing and emergency housing waitlists.
- Clarify that the requirement for Kāinga Ora to 'prove' anti-social behaviour can include testimony from other residents in the neighbourhood. Both parties would have access to a private hearing by the Tenancy Tribunal to give testimony. This will protect witnesses and tenants in vulnerable situations who may be victims of abuse or intimidation.
- Apply section 53B of the Residential Tenancies Act to all forms of tenancy, rather than just periodic tenancies. When a tenancy is determined to be terminated, reduce required notice for tenants from 90 days to 21 days.
- Require Kāinga Ora to engage with Police if they are made aware of illegal activity.
- Introduce a duty for Kāinga Ora to process and consider all public complaints, and to inform complainants of its decision.
"These tenants would not simply be moved on to another Kāinga Ora tenancy. ACT would move them to the bottom of both the public housing and emergency housing waitlists. This will introduce consequences for bad behaviour and provide an incentive for tenants to change their beha viour. And it will give more deserving people on the housing register who have not treated the community with disrespect a chance to be housed," Seymour said.
9:01am - The CEO of Hospice New Zealand is not "very confident" in the commitment made to nurses in Wednesday night's Newshub leaders debate.
It comes as 12 leading primary care organisations issued a grim warning that they're at risk of collapse due to staff shortages and a lack of funding.
Whānau Āwhina / Plunket, Family Planning and Te Kahu Pairuri o Aotearoa / Hospice New Zealand have all been forced to cut back or close some services.
During Newshub's leaders debate, moderator Patrick Gower asked Labour and National leaders if they thought nurses who work at general practices should be paid the same as those employed at a hospital.
National leader Christopher Luxon said no matter where the nurse works, whether it be in aged care, community practices or at Te Whatu Ora "they should be paid the same".
Luxon said he would get it done if elected, and so will Labour leader Chris Hipkins.
"Yes and we've put $200 million in just this year to achieve that," Hipkins said.
But Hospice New Zealand chief executive Wayne Naylor isn't holding his breath.
"I don’t feel very confident because our experience in the past is the government just puts band-aids on our services, one off bits of money that doesn't provide a sustainable way forward."
Naylor told AM hospices have been "carrying for a while" a nursing vacancy of about 10 percent, which works out to be 60 nursing jobs across a workforce of about 600.
"From an economic perspective they're leaving because they need to earn more money, not because they want to change jobs."
Read the full story here.
8:56am - Analysis is starting to flow in over who won last night's debate with experts suggesting Hipkins took the victory. But Luxon isn’t conceding defeat telling Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking Hipkins was too focused on National during the debate.
"I think the sad thing is all he's talking about is me and National," he told Hosking.
