Labour Party members gathered at their annual conference this weekend, where leader Chris Hipkins and other senior figures laid out the twin themes of “change” and “challenge,” acknowledging the party’s loss in the 2023 election and charting a path forward to “win back” public trust.
Hipkins addressed the membership with a sobering message, candidly admitting that Labour had lost touch with voter priorities. “Let’s be clear – Kiwis did vote for change last year,” Hipkins said. “We lost, and now we need to change. New Zealanders didn’t think we were focused on the things that were important to them.”
A key highlight was a “challenge” session, in which non-Labour voices were invited to provoke discussion on the party’s evolution.
Labour Finance Spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds signalled openness to such ideas, including expanding partnerships to include iwi. Dubbed “PPI” (public-private-iwi partnerships), Edmonds argued that Labour must balance progressive ambitions with broad electoral appeal. “You can’t just have the left; you need to have the middle,” she said.
The party faces steep fiscal challenges. Treasury projects that by 2060, healthcare and superannuation spending will consume 17% of GDP, necessitating new revenue sources, eligibility reforms, and spending cuts.
The conference also tackled contentious social issues, with Māori caucus co-chair Willie Jackson delivering a speech claiming Labour’s “centrist approach” to co-governance and Treaty principles. Jackson argued that middle New Zealand had evolved, embracing cultural diversity and Māori language education, but acknowledged lingering complexities in public sentiment around Treaty issues.
“We’re not on some extreme waka here,” Jackson reassured members. “We’re not going to become puppets of the Māori Party.”
The conference concluded with internal votes on key issues, including taxation and leadership decision-making, which will indicate the membership’s alignment with the leadership’s vision. Hipkins faces the dual challenge of convincing Labour’s base of the need for change while preparing to rebuild trust with the electorate.
However, calls for Hipkins to resign have intensified following the release of Phase 1 of the Covid Inquiry report, which highlighted significant failings in the government’s pandemic response under Labour’s watch. Critics argue that the findings, coupled with the party’s deeply divisive social and co-governance policies, have eroded public trust in the party to unprecedented levels. Detractors within and outside the party claim Hipkins’ leadership is emblematic of a government that alienated the middle ground, focusing on contentious reforms that fractured communities and overshadowed core issues like housing, health, and the economy. The trust deficit has left Labour struggling to reconnect with a disillusioned electorate.
I’M WITH MICHAEL LAWS ON THIS ONE…
Michael Laws in response to the release of Royal Commission of Inquiry into NZ Covid Response Part 1.
“Chris Hipkins, leader of the opposition…you need to resign…you need to go ”
“Bloomfield needs to hand back his knighthood”
“Ardern… pic.twitter.com/3Jlqk1hRbe
— NZ and the MRNA (@HopeRising19) November 29, 2024
To help Labour Party delegates at this year’s party conference find their way to the venue, your humble Taxpayers’ Union were on hand to help. 💁♂️https://t.co/mhaG7NMVNo pic.twitter.com/PpwNKyoyFE
— New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union (@TaxpayersUnion) November 30, 2024
I’m OK with Hipkins staying because if he does, Labour will lose.
Under the let’s all hold hands and make believe policy, I’ll give Hipkins a knighthood if you give me one when I am tossed out.
Knighthood for poor performing, inhumane politicians rule.
I hope your repulsive totalitarian US stooge party dies in a ditch……
Good people like Michael Joseph Savage and Norman Kirk, would be utterly disgusted by what Labour has become…..
The covid 1 whitewash may have ended there were it not for ACT, NZ First , I look forward to the COVID 2 inquiry with the 13,000 submissions. Why did ardern, chippie and co implement the traffic light system when it was widely known that the jab did not stop transmission or infection. It would appear that they merely carried on with the playbook implemented right around the western world, by whom is the question. Why did the gong winner sir ash insist on people getting the jab?, even after they already had covid, knowing that natural immunity was far superior to the jab.
Well chippie, you were coming for the unvaccinated, looks like justice might be coming for you now, oh, have you figured out what a women is yet?
Labour needs to be ABOLISHED, AND THEN CRIMINALLY CHARGED FOR THE VACCINE HOLOCAUST, VIOLATIONS OF THE NUREMBURG CODE, NZ HUMAN RIGHTS, AND NZ PATIENT RIGHTS.
& REMEMBER- NATIONAL THE GREENS AND MAORI WENT ALONG WITH JABCINDA’S ZIONIST-BASED GLOBAL AGENDA AS NOTED BY THE 2025 DEAGEL FORECAST!!!
Commies never change their thinking, only their marketing.
Good luck trying to win back “the middle” when we all had a glimpse in 2020-2021 of just what sort of world your ideology leads to.
The only support they actually care about is whoever runs the show from behind the curtain.
Uniparty
Who is decrying and calling labour out for their covid response?
Now we have got long covid back on the radar
Which isn’t covid which does not exist as such
But is prolonged and ongoing vaccine damage