Chris Hipkins talks Labour in Opposition, tax, race and staying on as leader - The Front Page

Labour's Chris Hipkins delivers his first major speech as opposition Leader at the AUT Manukau South Campus over the weekend. Photo / Alex Burton

After six years in government and forced back in Opposition, Labour is going back to the drawing board - and tax is back on the table.

Party leader Chris Hipkins delivered his first major speech in Opposition, focused on the country’s inequitable tax system and promised a tax plan “well before the next election”.

He told The Front Page while the party’s DNA and values still exist there’s a need for real change, and that what worked in the 1930s “isn’t going to work in the 2030s”.

Hipkins said there are a lot of New Zealanders who are working hard and not seeing the benefits.

“When we talk about child poverty, we’re not actually just talking about the kids who are living in benefit-dependent households. In fact, a lot of the kids in New Zealand who are living below the poverty line have parents who go to work every day.

“We should be a first-world country.”

Hipkins understands not everyone loves the idea of paying for tax, but people need to see that in perspective.

“The reality is, what do we pay taxes for? We don’t pay taxes so that the government can hoard it in a big pile somewhere. We actually pay taxes so that the government can use that funding to deliver the public services that we rely on.”

Prior to his speech, Hipkins admitted that Labour went into government with some undeliverable ideas. He told The Front Page that you can still offer hope and a better future, but you need to be realistic with what you promise.

“There were a few headline policies from our manifesto in 2017 that really became sort of like an albatross around our necks because they proved very difficult to deliver,” he said, citing KiwiBuild and Auckland Light Rail as two examples.

“Auckland Light Rail is still the right approach for Auckland, but the idea that we could build it in three or six years was a bit fanciful.”

While Hipkins may have lost last year’s election, he intends to run again in 2026, pointing out that many Prime Ministers have come back from election defeats to lead again, including Keith Holyoake, who took over two months before the 1957 election, lost, and then returned in 1960 and became our longest serving Prime Minister.

“One of the things you do get as leader of the opposition is more time to get out and about and to listen to people. You get more time to read and to think about new ideas for the future.

“So that’s what I’m really focused on at the moment; really making sure that, when the next election rolls around, whether that’s in 2026 or before that, depending on how badly this government managed to hold themselves together, we need to have something new to offer New Zealanders.”

Listen to the full episode to hear more from Chris Hipkins on:

• Why Labour didn’t change the tax system while in Government
• Working with the Greens
• Labour’s legacy on crime
• Holocaust comparisons to his Government
• Preparing for 2026 already

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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