Labour leader Chris Hipkins on campaign review, Michael Wood, Labour’s tax policy, and why Te Pāti Māori needs to turn it down

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has been reflecting on policy. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour is likely to take a leaf out of National’s book and release policy far earlier for the next election, leader Chris Hipkins said.

Hipkins sat down with the Herald and its politics podcast On the Tiles for an interview to mark more than half a year as the Leader of the Opposition.

He has settled in to his new office and redecorated. The previous officeholder, Christopher Luxon, was a minimalist and had the bookshelves removed. Hipkins has had them put back and stocked.

Hipkins talked candidly about Labour’s post-election campaign review, conducted by Maryan Street, a minister in the Clark Government and former Labour Party president.

“No campaign review is ever going to give you an answer on why did you win or why did you lose… the overall conclusion is pretty clear, we lost because not enough people voted for us.

“Why they didn’t vote for us, that’s something that’s a bit more complicated,” Hipkins said.

He said the review looked at making candidate selections “good and robust” and ensuring they were timed well.

One of the bigger lessons was that the party probably needed to release policy earlier. Hipkins said the changing nature of campaigns had altered the traditional timetable for releasing policy.

“We released a lot of policy in the last six weeks of the campaign but nobody really heard it,” Hipkins said.

“The way people consume that information has changed in recent times. The campaign itself now has a different feel now,” he said.

National, by contrast, released the main part of its tax policy, the indexing of tax brackets to inflation, more than a year prior to polling day. At the time, the party was unclear about whether they would take that specific policy to the election, or something different. Eventually, they decided to keep it.

“I think we have to recognise that now the political cycle has changed. Policy takes longer to filter through.

“The days of the big campaign surprise in terms of new policy, are not what they used to be,” he said.

The review, unsurprisingly, noted the problems in Auckland. Crime and the cost of living were the big issues of the election and those issues were especially acute in Auckland.

Hipkins reflected on some of the catastrophes and crises that dogged Labour in that second term.

On the unusual, and later reversed, attempt to entrench part of the Three Waters legislation, which was criticised for breaching the being “constitutionally objectionable”, Hipkins said he believed Labour’s MPs in the House that night really did know what they were voting for.

Chris Hipkins boards a helicopter for a flight from Napier to Wairoa on February 22 last year after the devastation of cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / RNZ

However, he did not think that there was “any deliberate intention to slip one through”.

The proposal tried to entrench that provision so that it could only be repealed with the support of 60% of MPs or a successful referendum. That specific proposal never went to Labour’s caucus.

Hipkins believed the bigger problem for Labour was the fact it lost three ministers in quick succession. One of those former ministers, Michael Wood, is now on Labour’s policy council and is being talked about as a future candidate for the party again.

Hipkins did not know whether Wood planned to return but said that he would “need to rebuild his relationship with the party, the electorate and the country, ultimately, if he wants to be an MP again”.

“Anyone who has left in those circumstances needs to make sure they rebuild those relationships,” he said.

Labour squabbled with likely coalition partner Te Pāti Māori over the way it conducted its campaign in the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate which Labour narrowly lost.

Hipkins thinks the parties could still co-operate if necessary to form a future government.

“Te Pāti Māori will ultimately have to determine whether they want to be a part of Government or a campaigning force,” Hipkins said.

Te Pāti Māori MPs are among the many MPs being called out for raising the political temperature. This week, co-leader Rawiri Waititi discussed the idea of “blood quantum” in the House, which Act co-leader David Seymour found racist and objectionable.

NZ First leader Winston Peters used the word “retard” in the House.

Hipkins said he though Māori were being used as a “wedge” in New Zealand politics in a way that would not “be good for New Zealand long term”.

He said Act, NZ First, and Te Pāti Māori had all been “stolking” divisive political forces and raising the political temperature.

“They should all stop,” he said.

Listen to the full episode of the On the Tiles podcast for more from Chris Hipkins about the past, present and future of the Labour Party.

On the Tiles is available on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes are available on Fridays.

This podcast is hosted by Thomas Coughlan, the deputy political editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the Press Gallery since 2018.