Willis and Edmonds clash over the cost of living at Politik summit
National's Nicola Willis and Labour's Barbara Edmonds faced off over their competing plans to help struggling New Zealanders at the Politik election summit on 26 August. Politik editor Richard Harman moderated the session, asking each to lay out their economic vision ahead of the 2026 election campaign.
Both conceded the economy was not where they wanted it to be. They agreed the shared challenge was creating the conditions for what they called "mum and dad" to get ahead. Where they diverged sharply was on how to get there.
Edmonds, Labour's finance spokesperson and MP for Mana, pointed to cost of living pressures in her own electorate. People there could no longer afford the "slap up meal" of mince on toast, she said, because prices had risen too far. She described the difficulty of telling someone who has only $8 and is sweating on taking their car in for a warrant of fitness to wait for economic trickle-down — the idea that benefits flow down from the top of the economy to ordinary households. National's approach of controlling inflation, she said, "did not cut it."
Willis called it irresponsible of Edmonds to focus on the price of mince unless Labour had a policy to address it. National's approach, she said, was to control inflation — keeping price rises low so that household incomes hold their value. Willis has previously warned of potential "acute cost of living pressures" while ruling out a cut to the fuel excise tax, and has said National will rebuild the economy because that is how it lifts wages, grows jobs and helps Kiwis get ahead.
Edmonds pointed to Labour's targeted cost-of-living measures: capping public transport fares and offering three free GP visits. She also referenced the former Labour government's pay equity scheme, which was aimed at the lowest-paid women in female-dominated workforces, including childcare workers, retirement-home caregivers, Plunket nurses and midwives. Pay equity means paying people in female-dominated jobs the same as people in comparable male-dominated jobs. The National-led government had tightened the scheme, making it harder for people in female-dominated workforces to apply to be paid on par with men doing similar jobs. Edmonds said it was terrible that people could no longer apply for a pay equity claim to help lift their wages.
Willis disputed that, saying women could still apply for pay equity, and questioned where the $11 billion to pay for the scheme would come from. She argued it was not the government's job to fund pay settlements for private sector businesses. Labour's position, Willis said, would tax a Porirua taxpayer who cannot afford mince on toast so that Ryman Healthcare could get a pay equity subsidy.
Edmonds responded that Ryman Healthcare workers should not be on the minimum wage if the market was working.
The two also clashed over Labour's campaign policy to slim down the government's Investment Boost, which lets businesses deduct 20 percent of the cost of a new asset over depreciation — meaning businesses can reduce their taxable income faster when they buy new equipment. Labour would target the scheme to small businesses only. Willis noted Edmonds had previously supported Investment Boost and suggested the Labour finance spokesperson had lost an argument with leader Chris Hipkins over the policy. Edmonds denied any such debate with Hipkins about repurposing it. "Yes, it's a good policy, but my policy is better," she said.
Willis described what she called a "frustrating debate" and "phony war" with Labour, accusing the opposition of attacking the government without offering its own fixes. That phony war ended, Willis said, on the previous Sunday when Labour announced a fiscal strategy to increase spending to 33 percent of GDP (the share of everything the country produces that the government spends). She calculated that would see every New Zealander pay $100 more in taxes each week. Willis has previously accused Labour of misleading New Zealanders over its revenue-gathering measures, including its claims about a capital gains tax.
Edmonds's framing of the cost of living drew on personal experience she has spoken about before. Her mother died at 35, leaving her father a widower at 40 with four children. He left his job and went on the Domestic Purposes Benefit, an experience Edmonds has referenced to argue for a stronger social safety net.
The exchange crystallised the central dividing lines of the 2026 campaign. Cost of living is the number one issue expected to dominate the election, which will ultimately turn on speaking to the large majority of New Zealanders. Willis has challenged Labour to explain the gap between its spending plans and how it would pay for them, a line of attack she has pressed since at least June. Edmonds, for her part, has argued that National's fiscal discipline comes at a direct cost to households who cannot wait for macroeconomic conditions to improve.
The broader context here is a campaign where both parties are converging on the same problem — household pressure — while diverging on whether the answer is fiscal restraint and inflation control or targeted interventions on the cost of essentials. Willis's framing of Labour's fiscal strategy as a $100-per-week tax increase on every New Zealander is a calculated line that ties opposition spending commitments directly to household budgets. Edmonds's invocation of mince on toast, warrant-of-fitness anxiety and pay equity is aimed at the same audience from the opposite direction, arguing that the government's approach leaves working people to absorb the cost of living shock in real time.
For the gallery, the Politik session was a useful early marker. Both finance spokespeople are positioning themselves as champions of the squeezed middle. The question the campaign will settle is which framing the public buys.
