Transtasman Political Letter – 1 September Digest

TransTasman 1 September 2005

The politicians pick up the pace, out come the dirty tricks, the polls close up, Labour and the Greens get even cosier, the Nats’ tax package works for them, but is Winston Peters looking backwards and losing his grip? ... Meanwhile, what’s happening to the economy: is it as strong as Cullen says?

Labour & Nats Neck-and-Neck

Now the election gets interesting. After polls at the weekend showing National closing the gap on Labour, a TV3 poll released on Wednesday night put National two points ahead. That’s still margin-of-error territory, and other polls due out next weekend will be studied closely to see whether they confirm the trend.

Centre-Right Majority Seems Elusive

National, bothered by what it claims is a “dirty tricks” campaign, was in danger of going off-message this week, and voters who were initially captured by its tax cut package, now need reassurance they can get the money.

A Kingmaker Without His Clothes

The question is whether Winston Peters has misjudged the mood of the nation. Did he really believe he was going to be the kingmaker?

Windfall Coming For Government

The Govt could be in for a windfall if Meridian goes ahead with the sale of its Aust assets, valued at as much as $A1.5bn.

CAPITAL TALK

Extremely hard political ball, sour grapes or just plain mean spirited? This was the question being asked in Parliamentary corridors this week after a decision by Defence Minister Mark Burton.

PLAY OF THE WEEK - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Tales of people going through National finance spokesman John Key’s rubbish have been added to the whole affair of the stolen emails. We predicted last week the election would now get nasty and this is probably only the start.

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