First week and big picture

With a hiss and a roar the first week is done and here are some quick reflections from me:

1. Labour is setting the agenda. The talk is about the economy, taxes, fair wages and whether or not state assets should be sold. That's what we wanted to be talking about.

2. Phil Goff is performing very well. When someone has a long and strong track record as a minister, you wonder how they will go in the front of things. I could not be happier with how Phil has stepped up, and commentators have noticed it too.

3. The emerging choice is quite stark. On economic, environment and social policies, Labour is setting out a bold agenda for change. National is setting out a timid agenda to continue New Zealand's failing status quo.

I've been doing long days in Wellington on a range of campaign projects as well as talking with punters. The vibe is ok, but then it is Wellington which is a little bit lefter than the rest of the country. Labour's campaign is working well internally and fundraising is going ok too, despite the mountain we have to climb politically.

20 days more hard slog. Putting our case for how New Zealand needs to change to everyone we can.

Keep a sharp eye on the polls in the next two weeks.

I'll try and blog more too.

Favourite policies out so far for me — broadcasting, and EQC, and still the transformational capital gains tax we did in July.

Today's environment launch has gone well too.

And so we roll on... Continuing to set the agenda and see a curiously flat-footed set of opponents spend their time on our ground.

Comments

[rjs131]

Jordan, in all fairness, how can broadcasting be your favoured policy? isnt it just saying - we want to have lots of public service television which no one will watch but we dont how we will do it and we dont know how much it is going to cost so we will have a talk about it after the election?? Isnt that a summary of the position?

[Jacob]

TVNZ 7 has quickly become a favourite channel of mine and it'd be a shame to see it go. It's great to have a source of quality news and commentary on TV!