So another ham-fisted announcement from the Labour Party.

In fact, it wasn’t even an announcement. Because of a leak, it was forced this morning to confirm its plan to include a capital gains tax in its policies for next year’s election.

Which looks to me like a very watered-down, scaredy-cat version of a capital gains tax that won’t impress many.

Because, if they were serious, they’d apply it to everything. None of these exclusions. Which I’ll get to.

Another fly in the ointment - aside from all the exclusions and the leak - is what the money from the tax would be used on. Three free doctor’s visits a year for all of us.

Which I think would create more problems than it would be worth.

So, if Labour forms the next government, it will introduce a capital gains tax that, if it’s to be believed, would only apply to what seems like a very short list of things.

There’d be no capital gains on the sale of the family home and there’d be no capital gains on the sale of farms. But there would be a capital gains tax on the sale of rental properties and commercial properties.

So the farmers would be happy and the landlords - residential and commercial - would be brassed-off.

There would also be no capital gains tax on KiwiSaver, shares, business assets, inheritances, and personal items. Which, Labour says, would mean 90 percent of us not paying any tax on any property we own and all of us getting three free doctor’s visits a year.

That’s because the revenue from this new tax would be funnelled straight into the health system

But has Labour really thought it through? Because, as soon as you start telling people they can go to the doctor for free three times a year, what chance do you think they’ll actually be able to get an appointment with everyone doing the same?

What’s more, Labour says “one in six New Zealanders cannot afford to visit their doctor when they are sick.” So why aren’t they targetting those people?

Why would you give free doctor’s visits to the five-out-of-six who can afford to go to the doctor?

That’s why this tax proposal is Labour’s second-worst policy idea in the last few years, coming a very close second to the non-sensical, last-minute GST-off-fruit-and-vegetables idea it cooked up before the last election.

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Today on Politics Friday, National MP and former doctor Vanessa Weenink, and Labour's Tracey Lee McLellan join John MacDonald to delve into the biggest topics of the week.

They discuss the Government response to yesterday's wind storm, the mega-strike, the end of home economics and outdoor education in schools, political involvement in the Netball NZ debacle, and Labour's future funding policy.

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What happened to the emergency mobile alert system ahead of and during yesterday’s wind storm?

One explanation for the absence of text alerts from one government MP is that, with the power out in places, the cell towers weren’t working.

But the power wasn’t out in Christchurch city and there were still no alerts on my phone. What’s more, the power only went out once the wind hit - well after the Emergency Management Minister pre-emptively declared a state of emergency on Wednesday afternoon.

So, there are questions to be answered.

I also think that, from the outset, the state of emergency shouldn’t have been limited to Canterbury.

If you look around the South Island, there are areas that have been hit just as hard - if not worse - than some areas in Canterbury.

The Emergency Management Minister declared an emergency in Southland this morning. But it should have happened sooner.

Then there are the people who question the need for such a response.

I’m not sure if it was just the state of emergency that made things so quiet in town yesterday or whether it was the state of the emergency plus the mega-strike.

Odds on, it was the state of emergency. Which one Christchurch business owner isn’t happy about. They think it was overkill including Christchurch because the city wasn’t as badly-affected as other parts of the region and their takings were down 50 percent because of it.

It was like a tale of two Canterburys yesterday. We had trees coming down and that fire at Hanmer Springs. Whereas, in Christchurch, I think a lot of us were wondering when it was going to hit.

The wind picked up at times. But, overall, Christchurch got off pretty lightly.

Nevertheless, I disagree that the city shouldn’t have been included in the state of emergency.

Because who knew the wind was going to behave the way it did? With that wall of wind that was heading towards the city yesterday morning splitting into two and skirting around the city.

That’s why I’ll always support the “better safe than sorry” approach.

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