Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Is Labour really in it to win it here?

Yeah, so it's not good for Labour in the latest Taxpayers' Union-Curia poll. They've now fallen to 26 percent, which is below the 27 percent they got at the last election. Now, this is not a surprise to me, and it shouldn't be a surprise to you, because we've been saying consistently on this show all year that Labour was going to come down in the polls once the policy started being released. Basically, what's happened up to now is that Labour has said very little. They've been a blank canvas of silence, if you like, which has allowed voters to project whatever they wanted onto Labour.AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME If you like the idea that Labour represents kindness, project it on. They're saying nothing to dispel that notion. If you believe Labour is competent, project it on. If you believe Labour will fix the cost-of-living crisis, healthcare, education, the roads, the economy and, heck, why not the whole world? Go for it. Project it on. But the problem with that small-target strategy is that it becomes increasingly problematic the closer we get to an election. Even though Labour is still not saying very much, everyone else around it is, aren't they? And it's pretty mental, isn't it? The Greens with their Soviet-style supermarket plan and wealth tax. The Opportunity Party with its land tax and plans to raise the youth justice age. Te Pāti Māori with its proposal to establish a Treaty Commission that could stop Parliament from making laws. Because Labour is saying so little, it ends up being tainted by all these other policies. What's more, if there's one thing voters are really hankering for this election, it's vision. It's a plan to get us out of this mess. You could argue this is actually a problem for both major parties, Labour and National. But Labour isn't producing a vision because it's not saying anything. Frankly, I've got to be honest with you: I'm starting to wonder whether Labour is even really campaigning at more than about 60 percent at the moment. Its performance is so lacklustre that I'm beginning to wonder if it's actually in it to win it. Notably, Chris Hipkins hasn't said this time that it's a rogue poll, like he did last time. Instead, he's said there's work to do. And that's because he knows this isn't a rogue poll, is it? This is a trend that started in March, when Labour's polling began to fall, and it hasn't stopped. And this may not be the end of it. Twenty-six percent may not actually be the bottom. LISTEN ABOVE