When will National stop insulting our intelligence?

There’s no money going into your back pocket, just slogans.

was sitting at my desk the other day when a National Party tweet slid across my feed. This time, they were promising that New Zealand’s exports will double by 2034. The reward for us mere mortals, they claim, will be “more jobs, higher incomes, and more money in your back pocket.”

It took me about half a second to roll my eyes. That line again. The same line they trot out over and over, like a tired sales pitch that nobody buys anymore. “More money in your back pocket.” National have been flogging that slogan for years. It is as stale as week-old bread.

Out of sheer curiosity, I started scrolling through X to see just how many times they had used the phrase. After the twenty odd examples I realised it was pointless to keep counting. They have built an entire political brand around the illusion of filling our back pockets, while in reality those pockets are emptier than ever.

There is no money magically appearing in anyone’s back pocket. If there is, it is money we have sweated and slogged for ourselves. It’s money earned through long hours, hard work, and in many cases juggling multiple jobs just to keep up with the relentless rise in the cost of living. National cannot claim credit for that. Their empty promises have not eased the grocery bill, slashed the power bill, or paid the rent.

It is almost comical that they keep coming back to the same slogan as if repetition alone will make it true. Do they really think New Zealanders are so gullible that hearing “back pocket” for the 156th time will finally convince us they are serious? It is political gaslighting on a grand scale.

Meanwhile, out here in the real world, the price of everything is going up. Families are struggling. Foodbanks are busier than ever. Mortgage rates have bitten deep into household budgets. People are counting down the days until payday, not planning what to do with the mythical extra cash National claims is just around the corner.

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National’s obsession with parroting empty lines is more than lazy politics, it is contemptuous. It shows a party so out of touch with the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people that their entire communications strategy has been reduced to reheating slogans that sound good in a focus group but collapse under the weight of reality.

So here’s my advice to National’s marketing team - please, respectfully, shut the f#ck up about “more money in our back pockets.” You have said it so often it has become meaningless. Repeating it again does not make it true. The cost of living crisis won’t be solved by catchphrases. Wages won’t rise just because you’ve repeated a line enough times. New Zealanders are not stupid enough to keep falling for a promise you have no intention of keeping.

If you really want to talk about pockets, let’s talk about whose pockets are actually being lined under National. Because, it’s not ours.