Labour leader Chris Hipkins says National's proposal for a cyclone and flood recovery ombudsman is not justified.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon announced the policy earlier on Monday while visiting cyclone-affected areas in Hawke's Bay.
Speaking at Parliament, Hipkins said: "I'm absolutely committed to supporting the families and businesses that have been affected by the cyclone. We've been working really constructively with local government in the affected areas to try and make that process operate as seamlessly and quickly as it can. I think everyone would like to see faster progress. I'm not sure that setting up a new ombudsman is really justified given that the current ombudsman can actually investigate concerns around those processes now".
Hipkins said he understood that people affected by such natural disasters can become frustrated with the length of time it took to resolve issues.
"We certainly saw that after the Canterbury earthquakes, after the Kaikōura earthquakes, it's really tough time for families. We want to work as quickly as we can to get them the sort of resolution that they deserve."
"The categorisation decisions are of course made by local authorities. If people are concerned about the processes that those local authorities have been following, then they do have avenues that they can pursue, including they can go through the existing ombudsman.
"I think overall, responding to natural disasters like this does take time and I acknowledge that for those that are waiting for the certainty they deserve, that can be really frustrating.
"The current ombudsman already has jurisdiction to look over these processes now, so I'm not sure what an additional bureaucracy would add to that."
On the topic of the Council of Trade Unions' (CTU) election campaign, which the National Party had taken offence to, Hipkins said it was "raising some legitimate concerns around the effects of the National Party's policies".
"The CTU have run election campaign advertisements in every election campaign that I have been involved in, as have a range of other groups, and I was certainly aware they would be doing that in this election. I did not see the advertisement until, I think it came out last week - somewhat early, but I had not seen the advertisement up until then.
"I think the CTU are raising some legitimate concerns around the effects of the National Party's policies."
But Hipkins said the National Party was not the only one that had attack ads directed at them.
"The National Party and their surrogates, including the Tax Payer's Union, Groundswell, Hobson's Pledge and so on, have been running attack ads against me and the Labour government since the day I took on the job. I haven't called a press conference or issued a media statement every time they have done that."
Chris Hipkins holds up an example of an attack ad targeting Labour. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
After displaying examples of attack ads against Labour - his face photoshopped onto a band-aid packet, another about Grant Robertson vacuuming, another of Hipkins and former Labour leader Jacinda Ardern, as well as one of himself and David Parker on what "appear to be some Russian horses" - Hipkins took aim at National.
"If Christopher Luxon and the National Party are going to do that every time someone critiques or criticises what they are doing, I think they probably need to rethink whether or not they're cut out to be in government.
"I think it's incredibly thin-skinned but let's be clear what this is. They're desperately trying to distract attention away from the fact that they've been caught out with their numbers and their policies just not stacking up. They're trying to create a diversion here."
"The National Party, as I said, have been attacking me personally and the Labour Party, relatively, quite personally since I took on this job. I think they're being a bit thin-skinned, to be honest."
Hipkins denied the Labour Party was running a negative campaign - as had been said by the National Party.
"We are out there campaigning positively on the things that we're putting before the electorate, but we are also checking the promises the National Party are making because they simply don't stack up. And if they want to be the government, they're going to be subject to this sort of scrutiny day in and day out. We have been for the last six years."
When questioned by media if he agreed with National saying Labour had turned nasty since he took over, Hipkins said: "I think that's absolutely nonsense and frankly it's a bit rich coming from the National Party given their level of attack advertising almost every day of the year this year since I took on this job.
"I don't think critiquing the potential effects of the National Party's policy is something they should shy away from. That is democracy in action."
His media briefing came after a visit to Castle Pharmacy in the Wellington suburb of Newtown.
Hipkins' government scrapped the $5 co-payments for prescription medications from July of this year.
The Labour leader launched his party's election campaign on Saturday with a promise to extend free dental care to all those under 30.
