Transtasman Political Letter – 1 September Digest
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TransTasman 1 September 2005
The politicians pick up the pace, out come the dirty tricks, the polls close up, Labour and the Greens get even cosier,
the Nats’ tax package works for them, but is Winston Peters looking backwards and losing his grip? ... Meanwhile, what’s
happening to the economy: is it as strong as Cullen says?
Labour & Nats Neck-and-Neck
Now the election gets interesting. After polls at the weekend showing National closing the gap on Labour, a TV3 poll
released on Wednesday night put National two points ahead. That’s still margin-of-error territory, and other polls due
out next weekend will be studied closely to see whether they confirm the trend.
Centre-Right Majority Seems Elusive
National, bothered by what it claims is a “dirty tricks” campaign, was in danger of going off-message this week, and
voters who were initially captured by its tax cut package, now need reassurance they can get the money.
A Kingmaker Without His Clothes
The question is whether Winston Peters has misjudged the mood of the nation. Did he really believe he was going to be
the kingmaker?
Windfall Coming For Government
The Govt could be in for a windfall if Meridian goes ahead with the sale of its Aust assets, valued at as much as
$A1.5bn.
CAPITAL TALK
Extremely hard political ball, sour grapes or just plain mean spirited? This was the question being asked in
Parliamentary corridors this week after a decision by Defence Minister Mark Burton.
PLAY OF THE WEEK - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Tales of people going through National finance spokesman John Key’s rubbish have been added to the whole affair of the
stolen emails. We predicted last week the election would now get nasty and this is probably only the start.
Transtasman is a subscriber newsletter published weekly and read widely in New Zealand and abroad. The following is a
summary of this week's edition. To subscribe and read the full newsletter see.. http://Transtasman.co.nz