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The Spinoff
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Labour plots its next move – but still no sign of any policy
With the government not exactly coasting, spirits were high as Labour MPs converged on Christchurch for their caucus away day. In one sense, Labour has been in campaign mode for the 2026 election ever since the party lost in 2023. Labour's 2024 conference made a big pitch to Auckland, and New Zealand's biggest city clearly remains a focus. But the focus switched south for a caucus away day in Christchurch today, Friday August 8, which was preceded by MPs making visits to Dunedin, Queenstown and Nelson too. 'Our three key priorities are jobs, health and homes,' said party leader Chris Hipkins as the gathering kicked off at a hotel conference centre. After some comments about the National-led government's failure to act on any of these priorities, Hipkins referenced the policy that Labour has, by and large, not announced since they left government. 'We give [New Zealanders] not just a reason not to vote for the current government but a really compelling reason to vote for us,' he said. 'We're gathered today to get ourselves in winning shape for the next election. We start that by winning the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection,' Hipkins continued. Peeni Henare, who is campaigning to regain the seat he lost by 42 votes in 2023, looked up from his seat. Thus concluded the public part of the gathering, and the handful of journalists left the room. No major policy announcements, just a quiet conviction that, as Hipkins said, 'the next election could see New Zealand's first one-term National government'. While MPs were reluctant to comment on any specifics of policy discussed, the mood was optimistic; laughter and clapping could be heard coming from the conference room where they were holed up. This could have something to do with the governing coalition not exactly riding high in the polls or in public sentiment currently. At a morning tea break, most MPs made a beeline for their phones, which had been left outside to keep the meeting secure. Hipkins, meanwhile, was handed a Diet Coke can by a Labour staffer. At a midday stand-up, Hipkins weathered questions about whether Labour was committed to bipartisan policy-making, following reporting that the party's education spokesperson Willow-Jean Prime hadn't engaged with requests from education minister Erica Stanford to discuss NCEA reform. 'Willow-Jean Prime indicated that she wanted to meet with the stakeholder groups before meeting with the minister. I don't think that's unreasonable. I did indicate to her, though, I think it would have been better if she'd gone back to the minister and told her that that was what she was doing,' Hipkins said, simply laughing in response to David Seymour suggesting that Prime should be sacked. Hipkins also refused to make a commitment about when Labour's 2026 tax policy would be announced and whether a capital gains tax would be part of that policy. This was perhaps unsurprising, but a comment made in a speech to Queenstown Business Chamber the day prior hinted at the possibility: 'We have an overemphasis on the housing market,' said Hipkins. 'We can't get rich as a country just by buying and selling houses from one another, we need to invest in the productive economy, and our over emphasis on the housing market as our primary source of investment has meant that we haven't been.' On other law, though, Labour has indicated that it wants to cooperate with the government. 'We want to work with the select committee to make the big RMA reform as stable as it can be,' said Rachel Brooking, Dunedin MP and Labour's environment spokesperson. 'If it goes where Act want that will be impossible, but if you go where some of the expert advisers [want], that's possible. We want to work in good faith and stop the flip-flopping – we won't be precious about it.' Overall, though, Brooking said that the National-led government's track record on the environment, especially issues like freshwater pollution, was disappointing. 'Everything is very short-sighted, it's about getting rid of red tape rather than 'what are the health impacts of not being able to swim in a river? Or have clean drinking water?' There are costs associated with that.' Duncan Webb, Christchurch Central MP and Labour's spokesperson for the Natural Hazards Commission, said that National's economic plans didn't make sense. 'We believe in productivity. For this government, productivity means driving down wages, but we want higher wages and better-value products coming out of New Zealand services.' Positioning mining and resource extraction wasn't a solution, either. 'We cannot have a carbon-based economy in the future.' While Labour might not have any definitive policies they're taking to the next election just yet, the party is not shy about stating what they would do differently to the current government. The Spinoff asked Megan Woods, a senior MP, what she made of the wave of submissions against the Regulatory Standards Bill, the Fast-track Approvals Bill and the Treaty principles bill, with volumes exceeding that of most previous legislation. 'If the government is going to try and pass unpopular laws, then people are going to want to have their say,' she said. When facing that volume of submissions, she said it was essential for select committees to have more time to hear from people, but that consultation had to be broader. 'If some of that happens before you drop a bill on people, there's actually conversations which can happen,' she said. While Labour lost many marginal seats in the South Island at the last election, it's clear the party is trying to position itself as a party for the bigger island. 'The South Island has been feeling neglected under this government for some time,' said Hipkins at his stand-up. He didn't have any South Island-specific policies to share, although Labour MPs had been attending events in Queenstown, Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin prior to the caucus retreat. 'Christchurch has always been important for the Labour Party,' said Webb. The party is affiliated with local election ticket The People's Choice. 'I think they have a really robust selection process – there should be some tussles in Christchurch Central [the council ward] with five candidates.' Woods, who is the MP for Wigram in south-west Christchurch, said she'd been getting involved with The People's Choice. 'I've been out there putting up billboards and door knocking and enrolling voters to support those candidates.' What all MPs were keen to emphasise was that the biggest problems in New Zealand, south or north, were best tackled by Labour. What exactly are those problems? No surprises there. 'The cost of living issue is a critical piece,' said Woods, and Webb, and Hipkins. A June poll saw Labour move ahead of National in terms of who New Zealanders consider best placed to tackle the cost of living for the first time since 2021. Clearly the party wants to keep beating the butter drum, all the way to the 2026 election.
RNZ News
4 days ago
- Business
- RNZ News
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says NZ is not in 'economic shape'
Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii Labour leader Chris Hipkins has told the Queenstown Business Chamber the economy is not recovering, and more spending is needed to get the settings right. Hipkins and several of his MPs are in the city ahead of a caucus retreat in Christchurch this week, aiming to speak to South Island communities. In Thursday's speech to the Queenstown Business Chamber, he said the government's strategy for growth was not tackling the underlying economic problems. "While there are pockets of positivity around economic growth, overall the country is not in the economic shape that we need it to be. "Despite a lot of talk about economic growth, actually the most recent indicators are pretty concerning for us - they're suggesting that New Zealand's economy isn't recovering and if anything we may be going in the other direction." He said government policies were contributing to rising costs and leading to a "two-speed economy" where those worse off were ending up much worse off. "Rates, which councils primarily influence but central government actually has a role in... things like car registrations, public transport costs, even things like insurance levies which government is contributing to through EQC levies, electricity prices which government contributes to through transmission charges - all of these things are now made one of the major contributors to inflation in New Zealand." It was more than just mining which had seen Australia leapfrog New Zealand economically in the past 40 years, he said, pointing to higher rates of savings, infrastructure investment including schools, hospitals and energy generation. "Let's be really frank - and I know that this is huge in Queenstown - we have an over emphasis on the housing market... We can't get rich as a country just by buying and selling houses from one another, we need to invest in the productive economy, and our over emphasis on the housing market as our primary source of investment has meant that we haven't been." The comment hints at a capital gains tax policy Labour has long been rumoured to be working on, having promised a tax policy of some sort by the end of the year. The party has had an on-again-off-again history with the policy which taxes a portion of profits gained from selling assets that grow in value, but it appears to have some support from voters - depending on the settings. One argument for the tax is that it would decrease the incentive for people to put their wealth into housing, making other forms of more productive investment more attractive. "Simply reinflating house prices and growing the population through further inbound migration might mask some of the problems that we see, but it's not going to deal with the underlying ones and some of those underlying ones will get worse if that's our strategy for economic recovery," Hipkins said. "The sort of innovation that we're seeing in New Zealand is really exciting, some of the best in the world, but our challenge is to scale that - it's to continue to grow that. All of those businesses talk about the shallowness of our capital markets when it comes to innovative companies and startups." He also criticised the government's decisions on curbing spending for schools, hospitals and transport. "Reviewing transport projects against a new government policy statement meant a lot of just the basic day to day ongoing upgrade of our transport infrastructure stopped for about a year and a half. It's starting again now, and that's really encouraging, but we don't want to repeat that cycle." Answering questions afterwards, Hipkins said New Zealand's self-imposed debt limits made it one of the most fiscally conservative countries in the world, making an argument for more direct government investment. "It's based on a narrative that says that government spending should be constrained to 30 percent of GDP ... that puts us as such an international outlier around the world and it makes us one of the most fiscally conservative governments in the world. "Government spending as a percentage of GDP in a small economy like New Zealand needs to be able to fluctuate, so in a period of economic crisis or in a significant shock like a pandemic you need to be able to increase government spending to get through it - the question is, what you spend that money on?" He said the current strategy was an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff approach. "Government spending needs to be focused on areas of investment rather than kind of subsidising day-to-day activity and I think that that's where this government have got the analysis wrong... by saying they want to spend less, they're spending more in the areas of subsidy, because the more people you end up with on a job seeker benefit, the more money you're spending on day to day consumption." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
