Opposition Leader Chris Luxon is engaged in a farcical attempt to lower expectations in the first leaders' debate of the New Zealand election campaign.
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The 90-minute debate, broadcast by TVNZ, is the first of four debates Mr Luxon will have with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in the run-up to the October 14 election.
New Zealand has a proud tradition of leaders' debates, and Kiwis flock to watch them.
More than a million people tuned into debates on both TVNZ and Three in 2017, when opposition leader Jacinda Ardern took on incumbent Bill English.
Numbers were slightly down in Labour's landslide win of 2020, when Ms Ardern debated National leader Judith Collins with the result all but decided.
This year, it's Labour that needs a heart-starter after slumping in the polls in recent months.
Mr Luxon's National hold an average nine-point lead over Labour in recent polls.
From his position of election favouritism, Mr Luxon has downplayed both the importance of the debates and his likely performance in them.
"Chris Hipkins is a 20-year career politician, he's a champion debater and probably the best debater in our parliament and probably in New Zealand," he said last week.
"I haven't even done a debate before and I lose a lot to my wife."
In Auckland on Monday, Mr Luxon called Mr Hipkins a "champion university debater", which a falsehood given he did not debate at university.
In fact, it is Mr Luxon who is a champion: awarded the prize for senior debating at Christchurch Boys High School, before going on to fashion his career as an executive.
"I did some debates in high school, three or four I think, back in 1988. But I wouldn't say that counts," he insisted.
"No disrespect, this country doesn't need a great debater. What they need is a great manager and a great leader to be able to get this country turned around."
Mr Luxon's comments are a transparent attempt to claim underdog status in order to exceed expectations on the debate stage.
Mr Hipkins was having none of it.
"Christopher Luxon and I go into the debate on roughly even terms. He's actually been in his job longer than I've been in mine," the prime minister of eight months said of the opposition leader of two years.
Speaking in Tauranga on Monday, Mr Hipkins said he "hadn't spent a huge amount of time" preparing for the debate but would focus his mind on it over the next 24 hours.
The NZ Herald reports Mr Luxon has hired a debate coach and was using stand-ins for Mr Hipkins during training.
Mr Luxon has two of the finest debaters in his partyroom to choose from.
Both campaign chair Chris Bishop and deputy leader Nicola Willis are both former winners of NZ's university championships and have been ranked in the top 100 university debaters in the world.
The debate will be moderated by TVNZ political editor Jessica Mutch-McKay and begins at 7pm (1700 AEST).
Australian Associated Press
