Chris Hipkins being sworn in as the new Prime Minister: What's "bread and butter" really going to look like? Photo / Mark Mitchell
OPINION:
Chris Hipkins has declared he will be a “bread and butter” Prime Minister. I get it. It’s a brilliant phrase.
It conveys that he’s on your side, that he’s sorting through the dross and distractions of politics to deliver what we all know is important right now. The cost of living and our ability to buy food and pay the bills, to get the kids to school in a decent pair of shoes. Fears about safety, business confidence, a sense of hope for the future.
“Bread and butter” is brilliant in exactly the way Wayne Brown’s “Fix Auckland” slogan was brilliant. It was reassuring and optimistic and it meant whatever anyone hearing it wanted it to mean.
But as Brown has found during all the rain these last few days, slogans are one thing, delivery is another. Our mayor faced his first crisis by demonstrating not only that he didn’t have a clue what to do, but that he quite possibly didn’t realise he was supposed to do anything.
The very slogan that once made him appealing has now turned him into a laughing stock.
Will it be the same for Hipkins? Yesterday’s opinion polls made it clear Labour is right back in the game this election. But to stay there, the PM will need to back his slogan with smart policy commitments and real-world delivery. This year.
If Chippy has “bread and butter” failures, he’ll become a Chippy Butty and he’ll get eaten alive.
Sorry.
What should he do? He could start with tax reform.
Jacinda Ardern made a thing of ruling it out. No capital gains tax. No wealth tax. What better way to signal a refresh and make a difference that matters, than to rule it back in?
Hipkins could announce that New Zealand will have a more progressive tax system, with relief for middle and low-income earners, paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy.
Crucially, he should say that all income will be treated equitably. That it will no longer be possible to avoid paying tax on some types of earnings, like capital gains, because that inherently favours those who are already wealthy.
New Zealand has one of the flattest tax systems in the OECD, which means that in most comparable countries, the wealthy pay more. But despite that, at the annual schmooze-fest of the rich and powerful this month, in Davos, Switzerland, 212 of the world’s superrich proposed that a wealth tax is a “moral, social and economic imperative”.
There are many options Hipkins could choose, including changes to income tax, new taxes on assets and the Green Party’s wealth tax proposal from 2020.
He doesn’t need to announce the details now. Nor does he need big working groups. The work’s already been done. He just needs to say all will be revealed in the Budget in May. And then make sure it is.
It’s hard to think of a single argument against this, especially as it will divide the Government from the National-Act Opposition. Hipkins can invite us to choose: do we vote for ordinary people, or do we vote for the privileged and wealthy?
National always likes to say it’s there for the “hard-working mums and dads”, but with tax reform that favours those who need it most, Labour could stop that nonsense in its tracks. Progressive tax reform is the most bread-and-butter thing there is.
It also goes to the heart of one of the most crippling myths in New Zealand politics: that “middle New Zealand” is full of floating voters who will be frightened by policies that do not seem middling enough for them.
It’s true that floating voters are critical. Think of them as people who voted for John Key and then for Ardern. But why does anyone think they don’t want reform? As polling done for Wayne Brown revealed last year, New Zealanders are sick of platitudes and plans. They just want things done.
That suggests floating voters aren’t looking for “don’t rock the boat” centrism, but will vote for parties that say with clarity what they will do and can be believed. It’s an important way to read the decline in support for Ardern: that it was less about her “divisiveness” and more about perceived failures in delivery.
With most policies, it’s hard for any politicians to be believed. We all know even the best-laid plans get undone. Sometimes it’s by an obfuscating public service, other times by complex planning procedures, enormous funding pressures or simply by circumstances: a pandemic or flood come along and upset everything.
Tax reform can avoid almost all of that. The Government passes the legislation and then, bingo, it happens. I can hear the economists and vested interests screaming now.
I know, tax is complicated. We need good legislation, with loopholes plugged and unintended consequences avoided. But there’s no reason that can’t be done. And when it is, there are no delays because of consenting or funding or construction time: a stroke of the pen and it happens.
All the politicians have to fear is fear itself. Their own, mostly.
The other way to look at “bread and butter” is to think about delivery. What can be done quickly?
How about free dental care? How about better wages and working conditions for nurses and others on the frontline?
Hipkins has to look at housing. Although construction is at record levels – a significant and often overlooked achievement – we still need a lot more affordable homes. This is the key both to ending the emergency housing crisis and to setting families up with hope for the future.
Why is prefab housing still not easy to roll out? That needs fixing, right now.
Auckland desperately needs more mass transit, which should mean all new tunnelling projects, which are long, slow and expensive, are ruled out. Instead, just quickly repurpose the roads for e-buses and, as soon as it can be done, add surface light rail.
Hipkins could also supercharge the currently quiet efforts to make supermarkets more competitive. Imagine having a PM who stands clearly on the side of shoppers, not the monopolies making windfall profits. There’s nothing more bread and butter than that.
Another thing. The rain has reminded us, yet again, that climate action is not a “nice to have”, and not just because we have to reduce emissions. Building community resilience to extreme weather is bread and butter too.
Best example of that? Newer parks in Auckland flooded as they were intended to over the weekend. They became big soak pits, preventing stormwater drains from spilling into houses. We have to think about such things in our planning all the time now.
I’ll look at all these issues and more, in detail, as election year unfolds.
Bayly apologised for his behaviour last month.