Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Politics is all about perception and the perception of his last time on the ninth floor was bad for three reasons.  Crime - they were too soft.  Spending - too much waste. And debt - too much with nothing to show for it. All of this fed into the cost-of-living crisis. Basically, Labour was too loose on the purse strings and the gangs, too harsh on businesses and middle New Zealand.  Yesterday, Hipkins stood up in the Parliament and argued for shorter sentences for some MPs after gun-gesture-gate.  Arguing for a reduced sentence from 21 days to 1 day was ill-advised.  No matter where you sit on the actual debate, politically for Chippy in the eyes of the middle voter, it was a bad move.  Arguing for a 95% discount on sentencing just plays into a narrative they ought to avoid like the plague.  That was strike three.  Strike two came earlier in the day on debt.  He refused to commit to the debt ceiling of 50% of GDP.  It's the sacred threshold Treasury warns we s