Kerre Woodham: Yet another feel good policy

All feels a bit ground hoggy day, doesn't it?

Nicola Willis, the deputy leader of the National Party, broke the news that Labour would be removing GST off fruit and veg weeks ago and we discussed it then. Anyone who knows anything about tax, and that includes our very own Minister of Finance, has thought it's a silly idea. And that if the aim is to make life a bit easier for those families who are struggling, there are way better and more effective ways of doing that.

But that was before Labour started dropping in the polls, sinking like a stone. And Chris Hipkins wants to win this election. Doesn't matter if he has to join forces with the Greens, Te Pati Maori and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all. Doesn't matter if a policy has been discussed and then dismissed because it's not workable, and it's an effective. Let's bring it back. Even if only a couple of months ago the Finance Minister was ruling out removing GST on fruit and veg.  

That was Grant Robinson only a few months ago and he said this morning on the Mike Hosking Breakfast that three factors have since changed his mind.

Happy to be supporting the policy, my big toe.

He's swallowing rats and that's exactly what's happening because they want to win the election and you know, that's their job. You're a politician. You want to be in power. And you want to be the one creating policy because you think you've got all the ideas.

Do we want to remove GST from fruit and veg? Hell yes.

But it's exactly the sort of policies that Labour's been producing over the past six years. Feel good, sound good stuff, when they can't actually deliver anything, and it hasn't made a blind bit of difference and bettering the lives of New Zealanders.

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