India FTA Unites NZ First, Greens
National’s much-touted free trade deal with India featured in the Rural Issues Debate at Mystery Creek, Hamilton on Wednesday night.
It's way too early to panic and polls this far our are usually a 'protest' of sorts, with punters showing frustration rather than actual voting intent.
However, there are three good reasons to worry if the trend sets in: Labour, Greens and Te Pati Māori.
For instance, the policy lunacy the Greens are touting - to triple the government debt threshold to 60% of GDP, described by them as "carefully calibrated radicalism" - makes the Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern six-year lolly scramble seem fiscally conservative by comparison.
The Greens go as far as to describe fiscal restraint as "outdated 'orthodoxy' rooted in the 1980s".
