So the National Party conference was held over the past weekend in Christchurch.
Things went well until late on Sunday night when planes started being cancelled and MPs and party members went mumbling off into the wet cold winters’ night in search of a bed.
The conference was organised and dull which is just what a party wants. An action filled conference is not the sign of a settled party. But they seem settled on Luxon and Willis and so the game continues with a policy thrown out to keep the party in public discussion.
Maybe I've just been in the game too long, but I could have guessed it would be some sort of benefit policy that says something along the line of kids don't want to work, benefits are a lifestyle and the Ministry of Social Development are useless.
Which is exactly what they said.
I've heard these plans so many times in so many guises. I wonder where this army of competent community advisors are going to come from in a time of skilled staff shortages, and I wonder about the cost of bureaucracy to monitor the spending of taxpayers dollars by NGOs and third party providers.
But that's the National way. In an election year, tax cuts and benefit bashing are their bedrock.
But here's a thing. Is National really promising tax cuts?
ACT finally called their potential coalition partner out this weekend pointing out that National is not planning tax cuts at all but just shifting the brackets.
Their release says tax bracket indexation is just Labour's tax policy adjusted for inflation.
Therefore it’s not a tax cut. It’s tax tinkering that effectively freezes Labour tax policy in time.
Which, of course, it is. Always has been.
Brackets haven't moved under three administrations now, both National and Labour. That's nearly a decade of increased tax revenue year on year. That's nearly a decade of people being placed into higher tax brackets than they can afford.
It really is a rort.
It's not the rich getting richer that bothers me.
It's the policies from both parties that see the poor getting poorer that makes our country impoverished.