Kate Hawkesby: Slogans tell us about a party's focus

Labour released its party slogan over the weekend and it says ' In it for you', which as some cynical person observed sounds like something you'd say on Tinder to secure a date.

What it says to me, is that the two main parties slogans this election year very much reflect their parties approaches. One is a slogan which is ambiguous:  what's it even mean, 'in it for you'? Sounds kind, has the feel good factor I guess, sounds like it got work shopped in a focus group on a white board and people went 'oh yeah, sounds nice.' But what's it actually mean? And that's the problem.

It's just more words, platitudes, word salads, things that sound potentially kind or good, or about us, but we're not sure. The great irony of course being that this party, since its 2020 mandate, has been in it for them. One hundred percent for them, not us. In fact their raison d'etre has been to tell us how we should all be living, what we should be doing, whether we should drive cars or take public transport, when we're allowed a RAT test and how many, how we should read road signs, how we should manage our appliances over winter, dictating to us what the media landscape and our workplaces should look like. They've been largely obsessed with pushing their own agenda and that of their Maori caucus, they haven't really been 'in it for us', at all.

So do we even believe them?

And when Hipkins says he's 'in it for you'... who’s he talking to? The disillusioned Labour voter who saw them swing so wildly to the left this term that they don't recognise the party anymore? Or the middle swing voter who voted for Jacinda last time, not the party, but the woman, and now Chippy's trying to get a slice of that support back by sounding like he too can be their cheerleader.

Problem is, those voters have been burnt. Is it all a bit late to sound like you're in it for us, when 6 years of this government, and especially the last 3, tells us you're actually not.

Then there's National's.. 'Get NZ back on track'. It's a goal, an ambition, a focus, a target. It's clear what it means; it speaks to the 65 plus percent of us who on current polling say the country's going in the wrong direction. It's clear, and it's a promise they're making, which we will be holding them to as a country because we know how badly we all want the country back on track.

The National party gets to sound ambitious because it's in opposition, yes, but what it does bring to the table and always has, is targets. Accountability. Looking to measure progress, looking to achieve goals, hit targets, weigh things up, balance the data and aim for better. Given the race to the bottom we've had the past few years, that's quite appealing.

Not that we vote on slogans, the same way we shouldn't vote on leaders personalities, but the slogans do tell us about a party's focus. One, wants to get the country back on track, the other wants to be there for us, or be 'in it' for us. And when you weigh both of those things up, I think it's clear which party has a vision for change and progress, and which wants to just sound like a mate, but achieve nothing.

Kate Hawkesby is a political broadcaster on Newstalk ZB - her articles can be seen HERE.