Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has challenged Labour to front up with any policy at all as he comes under pressure over National's struggling childcare support scheme.
It comes after Labour revealed just 153 families had received the maximum FamilyBoost rebate, well short of the 21,000 families the government said would be eligible for the full amount when it was unveiled last year.
Speaking on his way into a Tuesday morning caucus meeting, Luxon rejected Labour's characterisation of the policy as a failure.
"I'm not taking any lectures from frickin' Chris Hipkins or the Labour Party," he told reporters. "They have no idea what to do. They put us in this mess.
Photo: RNZ
"You can stand on the other side and criticise as much as you like, but I don't see any policy from Labour."
Luxon said 60,000 families had received some support from the FamilyBoost policy and another 20,000 would soon be eligible due to recent tweaks to the eligibility settings.
"Isn't that great?" he said. "We have put a programme in place which Labour didn't support, didn't vote, don't back, because they don't back low-and-middle-income working New Zealanders."
The former Labour government extended cheaper childcare to parents of two-year-olds, giving them access to 20 hours a week of free ECE. On taking office, the coalition reversed that policy and instead rolled out its more targeted FamilyBoost scheme - a weekly rebate on childcare costs.
The coalition launched a review of the policy in April given the unexpectedly low uptake and then expanded the initiative in early July. It said Inland Revenue had initially overestimated the number of eligible families despite best efforts.
Hipkins labels National's policies 'absolute disaster zone'
Responding to Luxon's comments, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said National's refusal to admit the FamilyBoost scheme was "an absolute flop" showed it was completely out-of-touch.
"They're getting really desperate. On a daily basis, they're attacking me and attacking the Labour Party rather than talking about their own track record."
Hipkins defended Labour's lack of public policy and said that would all be laid out in full before next year's election.
"We're not even close to an election campaign at the moment," he said. "But unlike him, when we go into the election campaign next year, I will make sure that the policies that we have, add up."
Labour wanted to see the government's next Budget before it outlined significant policies which would cost money, Hipkins said, and suggested a lot of policy work was underway in the background.
"The National Party desperately wants to talk about the Labour Party's policy at the moment, because their own policies are turning into an absolute disaster zone."
National also came under criticism when it was in opposition for a paucity of policy heading into the 2023 election year, but it had released elements of its tax plan and several discussion documents indicating a direction of travel.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis: "I view butter as a beautiful, beautiful thing."
The two party leaders also sparred on Tuesday morning over the price of butter which has soared to about $8.60 for a 500g block.
In recent weeks, Hipkins has repeatedly drawn attention to the issue, posting on social media last week: "The price of butter is up nearly 50 percent since this time last year. That's it. That's my X post."
Asked what Labour would do about it if in power, Hipkins said the onus was on the coalition: "we're not the government... all we've had from them is tough talk."
Luxon said dairy prices were largely dictated by global commodity prices and New Zealand dairy farmers were reaping the benefits "tremendously".
He said Finance Minister Nicola Willis would be meeting with diary giant Fonterra on Tuesday evening in the context of supermarket competition.
If Willis raised the issue of butter prices "good on her", Luxon said.
Willis, who previously worked for Fonterra, told reporters she would raise the topic in her conversation as she was concerned butter was becoming out-of-reach for many New Zealanders.
"I view butter as a beautiful, beautiful thing. I eat too much of it," she said. "When you see it on my piece of toast, it looks like some cheese."
Willis said Fonterra was transparent about how it determined milk prices but it was less clear to her how that then translated to butter.
"What we're talking about here is at the margin - 10 or 20 cents - but 10 or 20 cents really matters when you're a Kiwi family at the supermarket checkout."
She also accused Labour of "crocodile tears" given its lack of proposed solutions.
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