Aotearoa is mere days away from the general election, and Labour's Ginny Andersen and National's Erica Stanford have clashed over policy transparency in a fiery AM interview.
It's been an election trail of alleged race-baiting and sledging from political parties across the floor and, with eight days to go until voting day, it's getting hot in the political kitchen.
Andresen was asked if she's proud of how Labour has conducted itself. She said she is but finds "the level of misinformation"... "really concerning" when parties are announcing their policies.
The senior Labour MP was quick to point to the National Party's tax package. On Thursday, National admitted its much-feted tax cut of $250 a fortnight will only reach 3000 families.
National said the party knew that 3000 figure all along, it denied misleading the public.
Andersen swung at National, telling AM the party "owe it to Kiwis to tell the truth".
"Promising that all middle-income families are going to get a tax cut when in relation to that only 99 percent don't get it. I mean, that's just misinformation for the general public and it doesn't help us have an open and free democratic debate around these issues."
But Stanford didn't accept that. The National MP told AM her party has been "very clear" in all of its communications it was "up to" $250.
"We've said, look, go to the calculator and see what you're entitled to. And the calculator was... Hang on a minute Ginny, 250,000 people have done that."
Standford doubled down in her defence, saying it's "all very well for Ginny over there to clutch her pearls" and demand information, while Labour steamed through with its GST policy despite "their own tax working group" saying the full 15 percent off fruit and vegetables would not be passed on to consumers.
"So, stop the pearl clutching Ginny."
Though Andersen was quick to fire back and said Kiwis waited "weeks and weeks" for National's flagship policy to be announced.
"You had [National leader] Christopher Luxon going on national TV saying that kids and parents, and middle-income families would all get this. He didn't say 'up to' that amount," Andersen said. "He said those people would get it.
"So, now you're backing away from it - that's fine."
Stanford was adamant though, saying "every single communication" and "every single policy announcement" states it's 'up to.'
But Andersen didn't let up and urged Stanford to rewatch the leader's debate.
"Christopher Luxon was not honest and transparent on television."
Thursday was a day of clearing things up for National. The party had to update its online tax calculator which did not define childcare costs.
Following questions by Newshub, National updated the calculator to make it crystal clear that its family boost policy, a tax rebate for early childhood education (ECE), was only exclusive to ECE.
Stanford said from the get-go her party "were very clear" the policy was only for people who have childcare and were "extremely clear it is ECE".
"Oh, so now it's accurate? It wasn't before, but now it's accurate? OK."
Watch the full debate above.
