Every Monday until the election The Front Bench will take on the biggest talking points of the election campaign. Heather du Plessis-Allan, Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper, PR whizz and former Act Party press secretary Trish Sherson and former Labour Party minister Chris Carter have the insight word and analysis.  

Labour is promising to make Matariki, the Maori New Year, a public holiday from 2022. The party argues it will help the tourism industry recover – but is it worth the price all other businesses have to pay? 

An opinion piece in the Sunday Star Times called for people to stop calling the Prime Minister Cindy. It argued it we didn't call John Key Johnny or Bill English Billy - so calling Jacinda Cindy is condescending and belittling. So is it OK to call the Prime Minister Cindy? And what should we think of people who call her that? 

Winston Peters is now really starting to make a point of differentiating himself from the government, and is trying to ramp things up ahead of the election. We haven't had a poll in a while but at last count NZ First was polling between 2-3 percent. So did yesterday’s Q&A interview convince anybody?  

Meanwhile the National Party have gone through the troubled times of Todd Muller rolling Simon Bridges, then Todd Muller resigning, so Judith Collins has to fight hard to get cut-through right now. National is pumping out policy after policy – but is any of it sticking? 

Big issue of the past week - and it was incredible how long it kept going: the matter of the $12 million James Shaw signed off on to go to the private Green School. The backlash was ferocious. Is it time for James Shaw to stop apologising? And will Green voters punish the party for this? 

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