John MacDonald: Attacks ads - Entertaining? Yes. Influential? No

There is an ad on the radio at the moment featuring a brilliant impersonation of Labour’s Finance spokesperson and current Finance Minister Grant Robertson.

The Taxpayers Union is behind it. They’ve also got a website that goes with it and even have vehicles painted up, as if they are a legitimate business.

Francesca Rudkin: Let's hope for a classier week of campaigning this time

So the first week of campaigning is underway, and I’m already exhausted by the scale of scheduled events, appearances and the very bright pink ACT bus I encountered on Friday. And I’m mostly just watching it unfold from the comfort of my computer.

How good is it to see the politicians on the road, selling their wares and finally giving us their vision for New Zealand through their policy announcements? Until earlier this year, the opposition's job was to tell us what they thought the Government was doing wrong- now they need to be more interesting and present their ideas. We finally get to judge whether they’re any better - even doable -and if we think they’ll improve New Zealand over the next three years.

JC: Claire Trevett Trying to Keep Chippie Crisp

Claire Trevett, if her article in the Weekend Herald is anything to go by, seems to think Labour are still in the game. I hate to give her the bad news re Chippie, but the chips are down and the man and his party are gone-burgers. She says the days of Ardern’s relentless positivity are gone. I don’t recall relentless positivity but I do recall relentless lies. Claire says the PM is not afraid to make going negative a positive. In which case he no doubt thinks the CTU ads are a positive.

Peter Wilson: Week in Politics - Promises, polls and attack ads

The main parties launch their campaigns and Labour's attack ads draw an angry response, National's tax cuts are challenged, the policy deluge continues and is this "the most negative campaign in New Zealand history?"

Labour and National launched their campaigns and there was a marked difference in style.

JC: New Zealand’s Nasties: Labour and the Unions

The Labour Party and its union bosses have chosen, unsurprisingly, to show their nasty side. The unions are aware the politicians they support have turned out to be no more than a bunch of incompetent losers. Their answer is to attack. It’s not to attack in a constructive way, instead, like poisonous snakes, they spit their venom. They play the man, not the ball.

This is perfectly illustrated in Monday morning’s NZ Herald advertisement personally attacking Christopher Luxon. If the unions think this is the way to win an election they get zero out of 10 for intelligence. If I were a paid-up union member who intended to vote National I would be outraged that my money was being used in such a scurrilous way. If I were Chris Hipkins I would be outraged that my campaign had been hijacked in a way that did nothing more than bad-mouth my opponent.

Kerre Woodham: Talk about pot calling the kettle black over free dental care

So Labour and National kicked off their respective campaigns over the weekend to Labour's big wizz-bang attention-getter was the promise of free dental care for under 30s, but not until 2026.

National, having already announced 37 different policies, decided to stick to a pledge card detailing the party's eight main commitments, if and when elected. Both took potshots at one another over the weekend, Hipkins said that National's tax plan was sneaky.