Academics at Auckland University’s Public Policy Institute (PPI) have run their eye over last night's TVNZ Leaders' Debate and given their verdict.
They found that Hipkins was right to say inflation is coming down, but partly wrong to claim National tax cuts would worsen inflation.
Meanwhile, Luxon was incorrect to claim National invented the phrase “by Māori, for Māori” but on the mark in saying retail crime had doubled in the last two years. The PPI found Luxon to be the main offender on making false claims in the debate.
See the summary of their fact checking below and the full explanation of their findings here.
TRUE
• Inflation is coming down (Hipkins).
• No mobile dental clinics have been delivered (Luxon).
• More than 50,000 gang members have been charged under Operation Cobalt (Hipkins).
• Retail crime has doubled in the last 2 years (Luxon).
• 80% of bootcamp kids reoffended (Hipkins).
• Rents are up $180 per week (Luxon).
MOSTLY TRUE
• Three-quarters of young offenders in the Circuit Breaker programme have not re-offended (Hipkins).
• Labour gave $2.7 million for meth rehab (Luxon). They did, but not direct to gangs as indicated.
• The minimum wage has increased $6.95 per hour under Labour (Hipkins).
• There’s a deficit of 1700 doctors and 4800 nurses (Luxon).
• An extra 1800 police officers have been added (Hipkins).
• The current government aims to reduce prison population by 30% (Luxon). Correct, but not Labour's only policy in this area.
HALF TRUE
• National tax cuts would make inflation worse (Hipkins) – that depends on government spending.
• Gumboot Friday has delivered 100,000 counselling sessions (Luxon) – just 28,000 of them were funded.
• Ram-raids happen twice a day (Luxon) – it’s not an official crime so it’s hard to quantify.
MOSTLY UNTRUE
• Foreign home buyers tax would bring in $750 million (Luxon) - in reality, it is estimated to be about $210 million.
FALSE
• No fruit and veg GST savings will be passed on to customers (Luxon) - Grocery Commissioner will monitor pricing to prevent this. Evidence from Australia suggests this can work.
• Labour didn’t implement the Circuit Breaker initiative (Luxon) - Has been rolled out and is being extended.
• National supports school lunches for all (Luxon) - They support the current policy (targeted lunches) pending a review of costs. Luxon later clarified National's position was indeed aligned with Labour's on free school lunches - to keep it targeted.
• National invented “By Māori, for Māori” (Luxon) - Used in matauranga Māori by Māori thinkers and leaders such as Mason Durie decades before
• Every single health outcome has gone backwards under Labour (Luxon) - Most health outcomes (eg general mortality, cancer deaths, maternal health) have remained the same or improved.
This article was updated on September 21 to add more detail.
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