He says Tauranga is an example of what happens when you don’t build infrastructure to support a growing population.
The Treaty of Waitangi, traffic congestion, tax, holding supermarkets to account and workers leaving for Australia were hot topics Labour leader Chris Hipkins addressed when he spoke to the Bay of Plenty Times during a whirlwind campaign visit to Tauranga on Monday.
Hipkins disagreed with calls from the Act Party for a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi. He said it was signed 183 years ago and what Māori were accepting through the Treaty settlement processes “is generally a fraction of what was taken from them in the first place”.
“New Zealand has always been a diverse country but the reality is a lot of historic injustices were done and we’ve got a responsibility to make sure we are making up for that.”
He acknowledged there were disputes between iwi around the country, such as Tauranga iwi Ngāi Te Rangi and iwi in Hauraki, and said while it took time and a lot of conversations, he had “faith in the process”.
Hipkins said Labour was open to congestion charging — which has been proposed for Tauranga — to get emissions down and fund road improvements in areas that were particularly bad.
“The challenge is … Tauranga has just grown far faster than the infrastructure to support the growth that we’ve seen here.”
Hipkins said he wanted to compliment Tauranga City Council commission chairwoman Anne Tolley — a former National MP — on her approach to the big programme of work that required local government and central government to work together.
“There is going to be a period where there’ll be plenty of road cones because you know, you don’t remedy a rundown infrastructure overnight, and it does require intensive work.”
Better public transport and ride-sharing or carpooling were other options to address congestion “and I encourage everybody to continue to do that”.
He said the Government made no apologies for spending millions on capital infrastructure.
Hipkins slammed the National Party’s tax cut policy and claimed it would have to cut into existing public services to pay for it if elected.
“There are billions and billions of dollars worth of holes in it and they don’t know how they’re going to pay for it.”
On supermarkets and food prices, he said to “watch this space as we know that there hasn’t been enough competition in the grocery sector and that is something we are very, very focused on”.
Regarding skilled Kiwis catching a plane to Australia to work, he said he did not begrudge people spending time overseas but New Zealand was a fantastic place to live and wages were rising.
“They should come back because it’s the best place in the world to raise your family.”
Earlier in the day, Hipkins visited two housing developments and a specialist dental surgery.
In the morning he heard from Mangatawa Pāpāmoa Blocks Inc whānau living in community housing that used solar power to generate energy.
Chris Hipkins at Mangatawa Pāpāmoa Blocks, a community housing initiative that uses renewable energy to generate electricity. Photo / Alex Cairns
“My power bill has gone from $800 to $25 and now I can spend more money on groceries,” Rhapsody Cooper told Hipkins, MPs Jan Tinetti and Megan Woods and Labour candidate for Bay of Plenty, Pare Taikato.
“It’s awesome. We are a family of eight living in a four-bedroom home that has 16 solar panels. Now I can run my dryer all day.”
Those sentiments were echoed by Hayley Toa who said she no longer had the stress of paying big power bills.
“It’s a win-win because you are not only saving money but cutting emissions.”
Woods said it was all about people being able to afford their power bills.
If re-elected, Labour was promising $4000 grants for people to install solar power in their homes.
The party was expecting the policy to double solar power uptake in the country, adding another 60,000 installations over four years at a cost of $218 million.
The next stop was Doncaster Drive in Pāpāmoa to look at new public homes.
Priscilla Wielders said moving into a Kāinga Ora home in March had “changed my life”. Her husband was disabled and in a wheelchair and their new home was designed to be fully accessible.
She was one of the first residents to move into the 41-home development and told the Labour contingent, “I love my house”.
Priscilla Wielders and Teata Waaka on their new street of Kāinga Ora houses. Photo / Alex Cairns
Neighbour Teata Waaka said she shifted in with her partner, four kids, a dog and a cat.
“It’s been quite lovely. My house is nice and bright and sunny.”
Hipkins described the development as “yet another great step in the progress of delivery of crucial public housing for this region”.
“This brings to 488, the number of public homes we’ve delivered in fast-growing Tauranga, including the transfer of 197 elder housing unit homes from Tauranga City Council. There are also approximately 300 more already in the pipeline.”
At the Tauranga Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery he heard from Dr John Bridgman about a study he was involved with that showed an increase in extremely serious infection that needed same-day care. It was especially prevalent for those who could not afford treatment and younger people who no longer qualified for free dental care.
He was a supporter of any funding to address this and said even $1000 could do a lot of dental work for one person.
If re-elected, Labour has committed to offering free annual check-ups, cleans, X-rays, basic fillings and extractions for nearly 800,000 under 30-year-olds, starting in mid-2025.
The rollout would be staged and offered initially to 18- to 23-year-olds from July 2025 and then expanded up to all under 30s from July 2026. It said the plan had been costed at $390 million over four years from 2024.
Carmen Hall is a news director for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, covering business and general news. She has been a Voyager Media Awards winner and a journalist for 25 years.
