Marama Davidson has fought five elections and a by-election, but says this campaign feels different, with growing frustration about the cost of everyday life.
“This one feels busier, I got to say,” she told Te Ao with Moana.
“But also, people can see that they’re getting ripped off. There’s a lot more awareness now that people are working hard and they’re getting ripped off at the supermarket, at the banks and you know, power companies.”
Swarbrick said voters were exhausted and ready for change. She compared the coalition Government to a bad relationship.
“The vibe on the street is people are exhausted. They desperately want change.
“We get the politics we think we deserve, much like we get the love we think we deserve. And this government is a really crappy boyfriend who keeps telling you that up is down and left is right and black is white.”
Wealth tax ‘profoundly popular’
The Greens are campaigning for a 2.5% annual tax on individual net wealth above $10 million, excluding the family home.
Marama Davidson says the policy reflects growing public concern about the gap between what wealthy New Zealanders pay in tax and what ordinary workers pay.
“Two thirds of the country actually support our wealth tax,” Davidson said. “When the super rich are paying effectively half the tax rate of my favourite barber, tradies, nurses... teachers.”
She said the consequences show up in under-pressure public services and infrastructure.
“People can also see our crumbling health department and emergency medical departments, our water infrastructure and poo in Wellington harbour.”
Swarbrick said the wealthiest New Zealanders pay an effective tax rate of about nine cents in every dollar, compared with 22 cents for average workers.
“Not only is that fundamentally unfair, but it’s robbing us of the resources necessary to invest in building our collective infrastructure, so all of us have the opportunity to thrive.”
She rejected the suggestion that the policy was too radical.
“And look, if that’s radical to some people, so be it. We’re focused on doing what works.”
Davidson added:
“... and they’ll still be super rich.”
Swarbrick said the greater radicalism was accepting extreme concentrations of wealth.
“We feel it is far more radical to accept that somehow it is normal that you have 150 dynasties that right now control more wealth than half of this country.”
Division and distraction
The Greens have faced questions over images of Green and Te Pāti Māori candidates meeting with the Mongrel Mob, while the Government has also campaigned on drug testing beneficiaries.
Swarbrick said the party would not be drawn into what she described as a deliberate attempt to shift the election debate.
“We know what the government wants to be talking about, which is division and distraction,” she said.
“So, we just completely refuse to engage in those games.”
She dismissed the beneficiary testing proposal as a return to old political tactics.
“The National Party’s polling badly, so they press the big red button and punch down. We’re back in the days of beneficiary bashing.”
Davidson turned National’s “fixing the basics” message back on the Government, pointing to unemployment, hardship, business failures and homelessness.
“Our policies have driven record unemployment, especially for young people, our greatest resource. We have seen an extra 50,000 children and their whānau pushed into material hardship… record liquidations of small and local businesses… record homelessness. That’s pretty basic.”
She said the Greens had spent years developing and testing their alternatives.
“Our freaking policies have been independently costed. We’ve evidenced them. We’ve kicked the tyres out of them for several cycles of elections now.”
Rent controls
Labour leader Chris Hipkins told Te Ao with Moana that evidence shows rent controls don’t work.
Swarbrick rejected that argument, saying the Greens’ proposal was about limiting unpredictable rent increases and holding landlords and property managers to account.
“Well, that’s not true,” Swarbrick said, laughing.
She said rent controls should be paired with a register for landlords and property managers and a rental warrant of fitness.
“So that people don’t get away with bad behaviour.”
Te Tiriti as a ‘protection barrier’
A Whakaata Māori-Curia poll found 72% of respondents believed the Government had weakened the Treaty relationship.
Davidson said the Government had attempted to undo decades of relationship-building, despite opposition from business, councils, unions, health groups and developers.
She said Te Tiriti was also relevant to economic and social issues beyond the constitutional debate.
“Te Tiriti offers a protection barrier against corporate exploitation, yes, of our water, but of workers’ rights, of community voice and of social cohesion.”
Swarbrick said rebuilding the Crown-Māori relationship would be an early priority for a Green-led government.
“The Crown has been a consistently terrible treaty partner, but nothing more egregious than what we’ve seen over the last three years.”
The Greens would also fund marae as critical infrastructure, particularly during emergencies.
“When the roads are closed, marae are open,” Davidson said, describing the policy as an exercise in mana motuhake where Māori would decide how funding was allocated.
Davidson rejected suggestions that the Greens’ rise in support was a result of Te Pāti Māori’s strategy, pointing instead to the party’s longstanding position on constitutional change and Te Tiriti.
She credited former Green MP, Catherine Delahunty and Jan Logie with pushing constitutional transformation through successive election campaigns.
“I’m really proud of our consistent standing and understanding that the only way we can achieve social justice, economic justice, environmental justice, climate justice is by upholding Te Tiriti.”
Working with National
Davidson rejected suggestions from Opportunity Party leader Qiulae Wong that the Greens could have worked with National to block parts of the Government’s agenda.
She said the Greens had offered Prime Minister Christopher Luxon their 15 votes to support solar panels and batteries for homes.
“We heard nothing. Therein lies the reason why we haven’t had a phone call from National in our entire existence. So, let’s be realistic about who will actually work with whom.”
In a quickfire round, the co-leaders committed to restoring locally made school lunches, repealing the Regulatory Standards Bill, reinstating the offshore oil and gas ban, introducing rent controls and recognising the state of Palestine.
Swarbrick said the election came down to who benefits from New Zealand’s economic settings.
“This is not so much a ‘cost of living’ crisis as it is a cost of greed crisis. And that’s what we have our sights set on tackling.”
