Politicians have fled Parliament. Here's what they say to expect on the campaign trail

The 54th Parliament has adjourned and politicians have been let loose on the campaign trail.Before they fled the building, RNZ caught up with the parties for this week's Focus on Politics, asking what the public could expect from them over the next six weeks.NationalThe National Party has spent the build-up to the campaign running a relentless social media strategy, particularly focused on tax.Three years ago, soon-to-be Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rode in on a promise to get New Zealand back on track, but the opposition argues people aren't better off at all and, on current polling, some of National's high fliers may not make it back.Campaign chair Simeon Brown says the coalition has "delivered a lot", but his focus is on getting National's party vote as high as he can."There is no simple solution to the challenges facing New Zealand," he said. "We need to have substantive policy."Freebies don't cut it and the New Zealand voter gets that.National campaign chair Simeon Brown insists his government has achieved a lot.RNZ / Samuel Rillstone"We'll be out there talking about our policies, talking about what we're going to do. We'll have more policies to announce throughout the campaign, but at the same time, there is a clear choice for voters at this year's election."We will be spending time making sure that, in voters' minds, it's very clear what the alternative government is, the risk that that does present to the future of our economy, to the future of jobs and opportunity in New Zealand, and why a party vote for National is the only way to make sure we keep this country going in the right direction."National and Labour have both accused each other of lying, particularly over tax.Brown is not resiling from his "nine new taxes" claim, despite Labour's protestations."If they do make government, they won't have an absolute majority," he says. "They will have to make concessions to these other parties and, between them, the only thing that joins those four parties together is a desire to increase taxes on New Zealanders."National's social media in the build-up to the campaign has been relentless, although it has received criticism from other parties for its use of "AI slop".Brown also pointed to the 20 public 'town hall' meetings Luxon held earlier this year."It's always changing, in terms of how we want to reach voters, and we have to make sure that we engage in the way that voters want to be engaged."LabourLabour campaign chair Kieran McAnulty is reluctant to go into specifics of the party's campaign strategy, "because then they will know what our game plan is and I don't want them to know that".Labour believes it has a real shot at making this a one-term government.Three years ago, it was dumped out of power, as Covid and an economic hangover saw voters sour on the party and its late-entrant leader Chris Hipkins.It has spent time soul-searching and rebuilding, and hopes to finally convince voters it's time for a capital gains tax.McAnulty says the Government's story is "not that flash" and so it's trying to scaremonger.Campaign chair Kieran McAnulty insists Labour would rather concentrate on its own policy.VNP / Phil Smith"Can the Government, hand on heart, say that they've been talking about the things that matter most to Kiwis?" he said. "Absolutely not."They've been pointing at each other and arguing with each other, and laying blame and trying to sow division."Every chance we get, we're talking about the cost of living. That is the thing that matters to most New Zealanders right now and has been consistently over the last three years."He says Labour's preference is to talk about its own policies, rather than responding to National."I'd rather not be talking about them and I wish they would stop telling lies, so we don't have to."While Hipkins copped flak from some circles, including the prime minister, for saying he was "just getting warmed up" at his first public meeting in September, McAnulty denies Labour has left its run too late."We know exactly what we're doing. We're timing it as we want to time it and we think that - say, for argument's sake, in two weeks' time - there'll be more people taking notice that wouldn't have known anything that was happening beforehand."Now's the time to strike and we're ready to go."The ground game is more important than ever, he says."It's not just social media where people are getting faced with misinformation and lies. It all turns into noise at the end of the day and, frankly, no wonder people are turning off politics in a general sense. Knocking on someone's door and looking them in the eye, and having a rational conversation cuts through all that."ACTThe ACT Party is hoping for another term in government and more influence.This term, David Seymour got his Regulatory Standards Act over the line and despite, the Treaty Principles Bill being voted down, he thinks the debate the bill started was worth it.This time round, he wants more opportunities to prevent his coalition partners from "doing all sorts of crazy things", touting ACT's "policy prescriptions" of smaller government and less red tape."We sit here, about six weeks from the election, and the ACT Party's sentiment is very positive," he said.David Seymour wants to stop his coalition partners from "doing all sorts of crazy things".RNZ / Baz Macdonald"I think more and more people are recognising that, look, we've been consistent, we've been effective, you may not agree with us on everything, but you know what you're getting, and we care deeply about the future of this country, based on an intimate knowledge of what's made it strong to date."That is a simple idea - that any person, no matter who you are, can make a difference in their own life, protected with rights under the rule of law, so that you can save, invest and build a future in this country."Seymour says the campaign is descending into "hysteria", as parties put forward policies that potentially intervene in private enterprise, such as supermarkets."Are we going to have a high growth, smaller, more efficient government-style economy, less regulation and equality before the law under our liberal democratic traditions? Or are we going to descend into a kind of madness, where we find a different person to blame every year?"Supermarkets, petrol stations, landlords, farmers, always some bad person that we're all going to beat on. There's no future in that."GreensThe Green Party started the term in tumult - an arrest, a death, a change of co-leader, a cancer diagnosis and becoming the first party to waka-jump an MP out of Parliament.The leadership challenged the membership to have some difficult conversations with each other and with those around them, as the party seeks to return to Government - and for the first time get seats at the Cabinet table.Co-leader Marama Davidson says everyone is ready for what's ahead.Greens leader Marama Davidson thinks a challenging year has taught her party resilience.RNZ / Baz Macdonald"We're all focused on achieving our best election result yet, but it's less about moving through all of those massive challenges, which you wouldn't believe if it was a movie storyline," she said. "They actually helped us to build our building blocks of strength, actually."Certainly for me personally, I'm in a position where I can say, 'Oh, you know what? Whatever comes my way, we just hold ourselves steady through it and we get to the other side', so that has actually given us a bit of strength, if you like, or resilience."Resilience is probably more apt. Yeah, we go through tough times, but we've overcome so many, so now we are genuinely united and committed to focusing on the election."Davidson says the campaign already feels "dirtier" than previous campaigns, saying while the Green Party has been the subject of disinformation, the plan is to just keep going."We're in control of our policy game, we're in control of our campaign strategy," she says. "That's all we can focus on."We've had so many people new to door-knocking and phone-calling this time around, which tells me that we have grown our support to people who we haven't had before and that's really positive."New Zealand FirstNew Zealand First has essentially been in campaign mode all year, as the party plots an unprecedented second consecutive term in Government.Winston Peters has made a big deal of the public meetings he's packed around the country, practically every weekend.He's never changed his campaigning style and he's not about to now."The only thing that will change is the public meetings will intensify and they'll be happening sort of every day, all around the country."We've tried to cover off the country since very early this year, but New Zealand is a small country until you start a campaign seeking to go to the many communities, and then that means you've got scores and scores and scores of meetings to do."NZ First leader Winston Peters thinks the next government will become obvious on election night.RNZ/Calvin SamuelAmong its policies so far are promises to buy back BNZ, break up the gentailers, break up the supermarkets, establish a $100 billion future fund and give every newborn citizen a grant.As for how they'll pay for all that, Peters says the party will announce a "total re-arrangement of New Zealand's forward funding"."The rest are spending all their time arguing either about expenditure or they're arguing about taxation, but none of them are setting up to double the size of the economy. We're going to make some substantial changes."Last time, it took 44 days for a Government to be formed after the election. While confident a result can be decided on election night, Peters says he isn't looking past election day and never has."So many people go into politics and the first thing they worry about, 'What's my next job? Where do I go Monday?' Excuse me, this is about winning on Saturday."Every candidate's been told, 'Please do not think past the election day and put every effort into election day,' because like a steeplechase - if you don't get over the first hurdle, forget about the No.2, 3, No.4, No.5 hurdle. You've just failed the whole race."He again expresses confidence a result will "look so obvious" on the night."That's what we're campaigning for. Stand back and watch."Te Pāti MāoriTe Pāti Māori has also had a topsy-turvy term, dealing with the death of Takutai Tarsh Kemp, suspensions from the House, a fallout that ended up in court and led to two MPs going it alone, and most recently, co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer pulling back from the campaign, when her mother became unwell.It's been open about its campaign strategy, asking supporters for their candidate-vote only and hoping for an overhang.Earlier in the week, co-leader Rawiri Waititi told reporters he had many priorities across his rohe."What I do like during a campaign is those priorities are determined by the rohe themselves, so we get invited to many kaupapa, many housing projects, many of the food grant places where many of our people are lining up," he said. "We're talking about working-class people, who are now lining up for food assistance and things like that.Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi can't wait to return to the campaign trail.RNZ / Baz Macdonald"I'm looking forward to being able to dedicate at least this part of the mahi 100 percent into the rohe, because what you have to do as a MP is try and balance your time in the rohe with the time in the House."I'm really looking forward to be able to get back, because I enjoy that part of the job more, being with the people and seeing them face-to-face."