National, Labour agree to disagree over two policies they agree on

Labour's Barbara Edmonds has for the first time revealed the party intends to support the government's legislation for rates capping through initial stages.The party says it has long supported the idea in principle but that councils also need other tools to raise revenue, such as bed taxes or accommodation levies.After receiving a copy of the legislation on Tuesday, the opposition party has agreed to support it through its first reading in Parliament so those discussions and concerns can be ironed out at select committee.National and Labour are also continuing to squabble over the process and time taken on a social media ban for under-16s, despite having agreed to join forces on that legislation too.National's Nicola Willis and Labour's Barbara Edmonds began on Morning Report's weekly Wednesday political panel by agreeing over favourite Dolly Parton songs - after the country music legend died overnight - and ended by sharing how their families have been handling the worst flu season in a decade.But basically all the political discussion in between was spent disagreeing over policies their parties agree on.Rates caps and bed taxesWillis said double-digit rates rises in some council areas were out of control."Putting in a framework that caps those rates increases makes them predictable, requires financial discipline from councils. That is a positive thing for all New Zealand ratepayers, and I'm sure that councils are up to the challenge," she said.Local Government Minister Simon Watts on Tuesday had confirmed the rates cap legislation announced in December would not be passed before the election, and would not limit council fees for services.Edmonds said Labour has agreed to support the rates cap policy - which would require councils to keep increases under 4 percent and above 2 percent - at least as far as Select Committee.Nicola Willis.RNZ / Baz Macdonald"That way, councils can show us what would they need to cut, what are the practical implications if they need to keep rates within the range, and what are the mechanisms that they're looking for to support them, to support the infrastructure that they need, and to ensure that the public services ... are still affordable."The party subsequently confirmed it had arrived at that position on Tuesday after receiving a copy of the legislation."We are open to the idea of a rates cap in principle, but councils need to be funded appropriately, and the government has stripped them of funding while loading them with costs for critical infrastructure," a spokesperson for Labour said."By putting the bill through to select committee we will hear from the public and local government, and learn more about the legislation and its impacts, and make changes so that the bill works better."Rates did need to be affordable but the big increases in recent years were partly a result of deferred maintenance - a failure to spend on upkeep - over previous decades, she said."They do need to tighten their belts but they've been tightening their belts for a long time - the key thing is what services ... would they need to cut back on? Will swimming pools be more expensive? Will libraries will there be extra charges in the libraries? Will parking charges come up?"The government had agreed as part of its regional deal with Auckland - and another deal with Queenstown Lakes - to explore accommodation levies or bed taxes, but National's commitment to "no new taxes" as part of its election campaign has put those commitments on ice.Councils have been outraged, arguing the bed taxes were a way of having tourists pay the costs of tourism while keeping rates under control.The move has also drawn the ire of NZ First leader Winston Peters, who accused Prime Minister Christopher Luxon - who campaigned at the last election on the regional deals - of going back on his word.Edmonds said Labour was open to bed taxes."If councils want to drive this, then we're open to having that conversation," she said.Willis said the reason National had scrapped its commitments over bed taxes was that two thirds of bed nights were New Zealanders travelling domestically "and we don't want to be going to the election promising to tax New Zealanders more on their holiday now".Edmonds said the problem was people could not afford to even go on holiday."Ultimately, the cost for tourism infrastructure falls on the ratepayer, that falls on the New Zealanders who are having difficulty in choosing what they can pay for at the moment ... councils are calling out to help their ratepayers to bring down their rates and to pay for the infrastructure."Social media banEdmonds said the party "absolutely agree" that social media could be harmful to children and wanted to get the first reading done before the election."The government now, the ball is in their court. They've introduced it, let's have first reading and while we're campaigning let's open it up for submissions to give it to give New Zealanders plenty of time to provide us their views on it," she said."This is the perfect time for young people, for their parents, to be able to submit ... give them the full six months so that ... when we form government in November we can pick up from the submission process and get that work under way."Willis said National welcomed Labour's support but "we only have 11 sitting days left to go. We've got our replacement to the Resource Management Act going through the House. A number of pieces of priority legislation, and we're running out of House time".Barbara Edmonds.RNZ / Baz Macdonald"It's unlikely it will get a first reading [this term of Parliament]. What's important is that it makes it into law, and the fact that Labour have signalled they will support it is positive for New Zealand," she said.They clashed over what had held the process up.Willis: "I wish you'd had this sense of urgency weeks ago when the Minister of Education Erica Stanford was engaging with your spokespeople, during which they dragged their feet ad infinitum and now suddenly you're in a hurry."Edmonds: "The bill was introduced on Monday. We had caucus the next day, and we decided to support it."Willis: "You'd already seen it weeks ago."Edmonds: "The minister restricted who was actually able to have access to the bill. So therefore, if you want a genuine bipartisan agreement on this, there could have been a lot of work that could have been done earlier. We sent through a list of questions last Friday. The minister announced that the bill was introduced the bill on Monday. We made a caucus decision the very next day because on that Monday night the minister responded to our questions."Duelling statements keep the fight goingBoth parties' campaign chairs put out media statements after the panel attacking one another over the policies.Labour's Kieran McAnulty said National had "failed three times this week to keep a promise, and it's only Wednesday", pointing to just 54 nurses hired and patients are being left in soiled beds; backtracking on "promises to mayors and regional deals", and backtracking on the social media ban.National was "the one holding it up" after spending months talking about how important the social media legislation was, he said."If protecting kids was really the priority they said it was, they would have made it happen ... that's becoming a pattern with Christopher Luxon's government - lots of promises, lots of headlines, but when it comes to actually getting things done, they fail."We said we'd support it to Select Committee but the bill has been left sitting on the shelf ... that tells Kiwis everything they need to know about National's promises. You can't trust National to do what they say they will do."National's Simeon Brown called out Labour for inconsistent messaging over the rates cap legislation, saying the refusal to commit to the bill further than the select committee was "paving the way to ditch it after the election".He pointed to Labour MP Ginny Andersen - on the same morning Edmonds confirmed the party's position on the policy - telling Newstalk ZB the position was still being worked out and Labour's Local Government spokesperson Tangi Utikere saying in December that Labour "don't support this rates cap" because the party "won't expect local government to continue to work and take on additional responsibilities without the funding".Brown said: "Given Labour's previous opposition to a rates cap, supporting it to first reading is utterly meaningless without a commitment to actually passing it.""Kiwis already know that Labour cannot be trusted ... just months ago, Labour's Local Government spokesperson was categorical that Labour would not support a rates cap and would vote against it. What's changed, apart from the fact that an election is approaching?"Brown said Labour's leader Chris Hipkins should "stop playing political games and give Kiwis a straight answer - will a Labour government pass a rates cap into law, yes or no?"