So, the winner in week... what is it, five or six?
The winner in week five of the election campaign was the polls. Not the pollsters. The polls.
They were far from winners. The spread, the margin of error in some, is now so absurd they're writing articles about it.
Ironically, I listened to an interview on Radio NZ as they tried to explain it. Small clue: they couldn't. They couldn't explain why their polls didn't bear any real resemblance to any of the other polls.
There was a debate a number of years ago that polls should be banned a few weeks out from a vote. Given the variance in methodology these days, I reckon that's probably not a bad idea.
But the polls I mean are the polling booths.
I have voted. I voted on day one. And, as it turns out, a lot of people did. And that is a good sign.
In part, it's a sign that a lot of us knew what we were voting for and had done for a while. In essence, the campaign makes zero difference.
And the irony of course, is that once you can vote, and you do, the campaign is chasing ever-diminishing returns.
And that is sort of what it feels like. This is a small-policy election. With the exception of the Greens, of course. But it's a rats-and-mice election.
Labour have contained themselves, so they don't look radical. ACT are the personification of contained. NZ First do a bit of Māorification stuff and talk about trains.
But given the state of the books, no one in their right mind has gone out with a cheque book and gone to town, for very obvious reasons.
Except the Greens, of course, who will see none of their big-ticket policies ever see the light of day.
Oh, and we aren't buying the BNZ.
The most controversial policy, if feedback is anything to go by, has been Labour's rent-to-buy scheme. The state gives you money in your state house, then takes taxpayers' money and puts it aside and one day calls it a deposit so you can buy it.
Meanwhile, someone in the same circumstances doesn't get a house, or a deposit, or anything.
Cool policy.
You didn't like it.
So, good week for most. No one blew it. The gang fiasco faded.
And I'm still picking Opportunity not to make it.
One week to go.
Thank the good Lord.
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