What we learned from the first leaders' debate

Well, we learned Chris Hipkins would rather the Warriors win the NRL Premiership than the All Blacks win the Rugby World Cup next year, we learned Christopher Luxon has never pulled a sickie, and we learned both leaders want to learn more te reo Māori.But in terms of the more substantial scraps, commitments, common ground, and policy outcomes from the TVNZ leaders' debate, RNZ has put together this handy recap.Relive all the action in our live blog.A cost of living electionBoth parties have talked about this being a cost of living election, and its place as the first main debate topic confirmed that.Luxon started by talking up National's plan to lift the economy, with an obligatory "no new taxes", while Hipkins said Luxon had stood on the same spot three years ago and promised to fix the cost of living."Are you better off than you were three years ago?"Asked whether the average New Zealander was better off under National, Luxon said it would be worse under Labour."What we have to do is not band-aid solutions, and we actually have to tackle the fundamental economic challenges we have. That means lowering costs for New Zealanders, and it also means growing this economy, and that's how we set it up for people to do well."Hipkins said Labour's policies in aged care and public transport would help, and were fully-funded."Christopher has just said that life is getting easier for New Zealanders. The vast majority of New Zealanders watching this today, they will be at home shouting at the TV, saying, 'Don't you understand?'"Hipkins said Labour would also freeze petrol taxes for a whole term, with Luxon saying it was not funded (a criticism he levelled at Hipkins many times during the debate)."Stop telling things that aren't true. This is why people don't trust you," Hipkins responded.Both leaders agreed New Zealand should be a high-wage economy, with Luxon afterwards ruling out a freeze to the minimum wage (an ACT policy)."We're going to increase minimum wage each and every year in line with inflation, more or less," he said after the debate.The health of our health systemBoth leaders guaranteed more nurses, with Luxon saying 2200 would be hired in the coming year, while Hipkins pointed to Labour's guarantee to give every nursing graduate a job.Luxon said health was "incredibly challenging" but the government had put in record investment, and was hiring more nurses and making progress on its health targets, particularly on wait times in emergency departments.Asked what difference Labour's three free GP visits would make when it's difficult to see a GP now, Hipkins said Labour would provide low-interest loans to new GPs.The two also argued how many nurses were hired, with Luxon insisting 2100 had been hired under this government, while Hipkins said it was 54 in the last two years, with the rest funded by the previous Labour-led government.Hipkins also committed to re-instating the smokefree generation legislation, and while he expressed concern over the number of young New Zealanders getting addicted to vaping, he did not offer a solution.TVNZ/Harley PetersEducation, education, educationEducation was where the two really started to fire up, with Luxon calling Hipkins the "worst education minister New Zealand has ever had", and jeering "oh, great flip flop" when Hipkins expressed his support for the ban on cellphones in schools.After Hipkins confirmed Labour would bring back the old school lunch scheme, Luxon repeated his criticism that it was unfunded, to which Hipkins responded it was in Labour's fiscal plan."You would be able to make the same claim if you actually had a fiscal plan," he said.Hipkins also committed to again scrapping charter schools, as Labour had done when taking office last time."But they're working. They're getting great results for those kids," Luxon responded.What appeared to be a new commitment, that Labour would scrap the required hour of reading, writing, and maths, was later clarified."Give schools the discretion," was Hipkins' response during the debate."We still want kids to be learning reading, writing, and maths, but I want to give the teachers the flexibility to do that in a way that engages kids," was his response afterwards.TVNZ/Harley PetersTaxes and billionairesBoth leaders agreed New Zealand's tax system was not fair, with Luxon putting an emphasis on less tax, while Hipkins said the system put too much emphasis on salary and wage earners.They were asked to commit to not increasing any existing taxes next term, with both saying yes."He's putting up fuel tax by 25 cents a litre, so that's simply not true," Hipkins said, referencing the planned deferral, and then incremental increases, to fuel excise duty, which Labour would scrap.After Luxon guaranteed GST would not go up, Hipkins said John Key had promised the same and then raised it."You're not debating John Key, you're debating Chris Luxon," the National leader responded.Luxon later said he misheard the original question, telling media afterwards he thought he was being asked about no new taxes."We're not lifting GST, we're not lifting income tax. Any increase in fees and levies we'll do very efficiently, but that was the point where I got a bit overexcited."Where the two were able to find common ground is that neither were able to give a straight answer on whether it was morally acceptable for any one person to be a billionaire.TVNZ/Harley PetersAn opportunity for OpportunityWith Luxon being reminded of polling that showed National needing to pick up its support, he was again pressed on his decision to rule out the Opportunity Party.Asked if he was unable to form a government without Opportunity come 8 November, and if he would pick up the phone, he again confirmed National had ruled Opportunity out."I have been crystal clear with who we could or couldn't work with. I've laid that out from the very beginning of the year. I've been clear about Opportunity."He was quizzed by media afterwards, but batted questions away.Hipkins targeted National's existing coalition partners, lumping in ACT's policy to freeze the minimum wage as National's, and attacking Luxon for not taking stronger action against Winston Peters and Shane Jones."You did nothing about it. You did not stand up for migrant communities when Winston Peters and Shane Jones said absolutely racist things about them."Luxon insisted he had called out "comments from Winston Peters and other political leaders that are racist", and said it was incumbent on all political leaders to watch their rhetoric."If any minister in a government I led expressed the sort of racist sentiment that he's put up with, I would sack them immediately," Hipkins responded.TVNZ/Harley PetersHow did they rate their performance?The undecided voters in TVNZ's audience gave Hipkins the win, on 49 percent versus Luxon's 24 percent (a further 27 percent remain undecided).Both Luxon and Hipkins emerged from their first leaders' debate of 2026 pleased with their respective performances."It's the first time we've done it in a wee while, so I was pretty happy with it overall," said Hipkins."That was fun," Luxon said.When it was put to him the audience had sided with Hipkins, Luxon was unbothered."There'll be a number of other people with a number of other views. Frankly, I don't care."