Labour’s leader wants us to have a look at how MMP works, so smaller parties don’t “call the shots”.
Chris Hipkins told The Front Page podcast that certain issues have been thrust upon New Zealanders that weren’t voted for.
“I’ve said that what we will do before the election, as I did last time, is say look, these are the areas that we’ve got in common with other parties, these are the areas where we think we can work with them, and these are the things we categorically would take off the table. That will make it clear what the future governing arrangements might look like.
“But, I differ a bit from the current Government in the sense that while I respect the important constituencies the smaller parties represent, and I also respect that we compete with them for votes too, I don’t think under MMP the smaller parties should call all of the shots.
“I still think the bigger parties have a mandate to reflect the view of a much larger section of the electorate, and so I do think under MMP you need to keep proportionality in mind.
“Yes, there should be some concessions and some trade-offs to the other parties to form a government. But that doesn’t mean that you should be doing things that you specifically told the electorate before the election that you weren’t going to do.
“The Treaty Principles Bill is a good example. The Regulatory Standards Bill. Some of these things that no one knew they were voting for at the last election, and now they’re being inflicted on them. I don’t think that’s the spirit of MMP or democracy,” he said.
Talk of introducing a Capital Gains Tax has been the bugbear of successive governments.
In the 2010s, Sir John Key ruled out a CGT while the then-Labour leader Phil Goff made it the centrepiece of his party’s tax policy. Fast-forward to Dame Jacinda Ardern ruling out ever implementing one while she was Prime Minister. Enter, Hipkins, who carried the message through the 2023 election. Luxon’s then the one to “rule it out” while he’s in rule.
When it comes to Election 2026, Hipkins said Labour will have a “different tax policy” to the one they had at the last election.
He stopped short of confirming whether that means the reintroduction of a CGT, but did say he’ll announce it by the end of the year.
“Because I think it is important, that is a big policy area. People want to know where they stand.
“In New Zealand, I think we’ve placed far too much emphasis on buying and selling houses amongst ourselves, pushing up the price so that potentially a whole generation of homeowners is being shut out of the housing market,” he said.
The Labour Party is yet to release any policy announcements for next year’s election, but Hipkins said that’s for good reason.
He wants to make sure they’ll be able to deliver on promises made.
“I think one of the valid criticisms of us last time we were in opposition was that we had some really good ideas, but we hadn’t worked through the details of exactly how would we do that. Then, when we got into government, we found that some of the things that we’d said we were going to do, very well intentioned, we didn’t have a clear plan for how we would do it.
“I think the same thing has happened to this Government. They’ve made promises with no plan on how they’re actually going to do it, and I don’t want to be in that position,” he said.
In May, Act Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister, David Seymour, referred to Hipkins as “poo Midas”. It was after NZ First leader Winston Peters “permanently” ruled out working with Hipkins in any future government coalition.
“This guy’s got the opposite of the Midas touch. I think they call him a ‘poo Midas’,” Seymour said.
Hipkins said he’s all for a bit of humour in politics, a “little bit of a sledge” now and then, where it’s funny. But the latest jabs from those at the top don’t have him laughing.
“They’re not very funny, and they’re also not very good at it. So, I think they should just stick to actually doing what people ask them to do, you know, New Zealanders wanted them to fix the cost of living crisis,” he said.
Listen to the full episode to hear more from Chris Hipkins about the possibility of free dental and whether we should “tax the rich”.
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.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.