John MacDonald: The real winners in last night's TV debate

I’ll tell you who I think came out the winner from last night’s TVNZ leaders' debate.

It was the first of four TVNZ debates and the only one involving just National’s Christopher Luxon and Labour’s Chris Hipkins.

So it was the big chance, for each to them, to convince those of us watching why they should be leading the country after November’s election.

But all I saw was the leaders of two dinosaur parties proving once again that the minor parties are where it’s at this election.

At this election and maybe for good. Remembering that combined support for Labour and National right now is at an all-time low.

These two were carrying on as if we were back in the days of first-past-the-post. When the red corner and the blue corner were pretty much our only options.

Christopher Luxon sticking to his guns over the Opportunity Party. Saying he’d made it clear from the start of the year that he’s not interested in working with them.

And probably no surprises there. Because, when Jack Tame asked him when he had last changed his mind on something, he couldn’t remember. Or didn’t want to say. He just went on about the Government sticking to its programme of work.

To give Hipkins credit, he said his support for a capital gains tax was an example of him changing his mind. Because, previously, he wasn’t a fan. Which I think was the closest he got to looking and sounding like someone living in the MMP era.

Where, if he wants to be Prime Minister, he’s going to have to change his mind on a few things. As is Christopher Luxon.

I suspect Luxon didn’t want to admit to changing his mind because he thought it might come across as a sign of weakness, or something.

But what good is a mind if you can’t change it?

Back to the debate.

While Luxon and Hipkins were banging on, there was a group of about 100 swing voters watching and rating the performance of each leader.

By the end of it, 49 percent of them said Chris Hipkins had won them over and 24 percent said Luxon had.

While 27 percent weren’t swayed either way and remained undecided.

So, on that basis. Chris Hipkins was the obvious winner. With just on half of the undecideds saying they were more likely to vote for him after what they saw last night.

And, when you consider what all the political commentators are saying, I think it’s fair to say that most of them think Hipkins was stronger than Christopher Luxon too.

But I don’t think either of them won.

I think the winner or winners last night were the minor parties. Because neither Chris Hipkins or Christopher Luxon convinced me that the major parties were worth voting for.

Which raises the question: Are these debates involving the leaders of the two so-called major parties still worth it? Do they provide any value to us voters?

On the basis of what I saw last night, I don’t think they do anymore.

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