Set the table for bread and butter - or in this case, fruit and veg: Labour fired its opening election campaign salvo on Sunday with a starkly populist pitch for tax-free produce. The party is pushing ahead with the pre-announced policy despite hiccups in the reveal and near-universal opposition from experts - including in its own ranks: a clear sign the party is putting polling ahead of principle.  In this week's Focus on Politics, Deputy Political Editor Craig McCulloch assesses the political calculus behind Labour's vote-grabbing GST policy.

Even Labour’s own ministers have spoken out against this policy, it genuinely baffles me why they decided to go ahead with this.

  • DaveMA
    2·
    1 year ago

    What if you’re competing in a popularity contest?

    Political parties aren’t trying to do what is best in the long term, they are trying to get voted in at the next election (sometimes this involves doing what is best in the long term, but not that often).