It took less than 10 seconds for the cheers to start for Nicola Willis.
And that set the tone for the evening at the Queenstown Finance Leaders’ Debate. In front of an audience of 400, Grant Robertson, Nicola Willis, David Seymour and James Shaw came prepared to fight for the right to be the next Treasurer.
There was no doubt that this was a pro-National, pro-ACT crowd. The mere mention of the Greens’ wealth tax brought the crowd to its feet and certainly the loudest boos of the night.
Grant Robertson came prepared with his one-liner for Nicola Willis, referring to the topic de jour and the alleged holes in National’s tax plans – “show us the costings”.
While Willis stood her ground, she only added to the pressure on her party’s policies with the frankly astonishing admission that she didn’t know what the impact of the combination of reducing the bright line test and reintroducing interest deductibility for landlords would be on the housing market.
In a room that had been largely supportive of National, there were some bemused looks and the mood in the room certainly changed. She also came under fire when she said overseas buyers would only be a ‘tiny fraction’ of the market, with James Shaw questioning how ‘a tiny fraction’ of the market would generate enough revenue.
Pressed after the debate, she went on to say that she thought supply was the bigger issue affecting house prices. But she couldn’t give a definitive answer, and that in itself will only serve to prolong the issue.
The most distasteful part of the evening also goes to David Seymour. When asked by host Jack Tame what National would do about the budget for the Ministry of Pacific Peoples, Seymour quipped “I guess Nicola might have to increase her security budget”.
Probably on a par with the loud applause and support from the audience was when Seymour promised that 15,000 “faceless bureaucrats”, otherwise known as public servants, or real people with jobs, would be made redundant.
Was there a winner? David Seymour got the most laughs and cheers, James Shaw was Mr Serious, Grant Robertson had the best and most practised one-liner and Nicola Willis was the most popular, mainly because she was the National candidate.
