Claire Trevett: Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ first pitch to voters dishes out bread and butter to replace transformation

“I think Luxon’s in for a ginger crunch,” Labour MP Kieran McAnulty said as he arrived at Parliament today to sign off on Chris Hipkins as the new leader.

The ginger doing the crunching was a reference to new Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who is now a mere pen stroke away from also being PM.

Whether Hipkins will indeed crunch National leader Christopher Luxon at the upcoming election – and how he will go about it - will be the big fascination of the year.

His first full press conference did not give Luxon any reason to rest easy on that score.

Hipkins honed right in on the issues he needed to hone in to. He set out his priorities: the cost of living, or “pandemic of inflation” at the very top of them.

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He conceded Labour had gone too far and too fast in some areas, and he would scale back on those things that were not what people needed in the here and now.

It was matter of fact, clear and simple. The audience he was speaking to was middle New Zealand, wondering if Labour was still an option for them.

It was the chalk to the cheese of Ardern’s style and language. We have gone from transformational to bread and butter.

He set out a back-to-basics approach: he intended to focus on what Labour governments should focus on. The cost of living, jobs, crime, education, health.

His job is trying to convince voters that Labour is focused on the various troubles plaguing them now – from potholes to hip ops to the price of bread - rather than some big highfaluting vision for the future, or expensive and cumbersome reforms that might look like luxury items in the current climate. It was precisely what he needed to do.

He pointed out that Labour was elected with a big mandate in 2020 – but also that New Zealand had changed a lot since then. The problems were different. And Labour had to flex to that.

The talk is one thing, the delivery is another. Hipkins has no real option but to deliver.

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The story of Hipkins’ rise to the Prime Ministership is a bit like a light-watching comedy movie. There he was trucking along with his life and suddenly he wakes up one day to discover he is Prime Minister.

Hipkins – like Ardern before him – has fallen into the job almost by accident rather than sought and gained it.

He almost certainly never expected to be Prime Minister. He was, to use Prince Harry parlance, the spare. Grant Robertson was the heir. But the heir abdicated.

So Hipkins has not had years or even weeks to think about what he would do if he was the Prime Minister.

He has had three days.

By Sunday, it was probably still sinking in. He looked pretty chuffed with himself when Ardern and he walked into the caucus room together to cheers and applause – and so he should.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and new Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins arrive in the caucus room at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

People who have always intended to become a leader have also invested time thinking about what they might say and do once they got there.

Hipkins has not had that: he was not touted as a potential leader until recently, when he became an obvious option to take over if Labour lost the 2023 election.

So Hipkins has to come up with it now. It may actually help that he has not spent his life pondering his wishlist. It means he can focus on what is happening now, rather than some fictitious ideal of New Zealand that he has long imagined in his head.

It will be fascinating to watch him settle into that desk on the ninth floor.

Will he be brave? Will he indeed make big captain’s calls or just tinker?

Ardern moved quick to put her own stamp on the party: she immediately identified climate change and the environment as her particular areas, as well as child poverty.

Her clarion call that “climate change is the nuclear-free moment for our generation” set the tone for her entire premiership.

But she was saying that from Opposition at the end of nine years of a National government when she hoped to create a mood for change.

Hipkins is coming in at a very different time: his job is not to get into government. It is to stay in government. Back then, the economy and country were stable. Now not so much.

They are also very different people. Hipkins is more prosaic. He comes from what he describes as “relatively humble” beginnings and those who know him say his values are grounded on that.

He will need to distinguish his Labour from Ardern’s Labour to a degree: hard decisions lie ahead on how far he can and should go in shelving things – both people and policies – that are proving to be electoral liabilities.

The question is how brutal he will be in doing that – and how far he will go. He will also have to work out quickly where Labour needs to do more and where it needs to slow down. Immigration and changes that are hurting business will be under his consideration.

And he needs to make sure the health reforms don’t founder – and that the health sector does not have a 2023 winter like the 2022 winter.

Before all of that Hipkins will have a little moment to celebrate: a trip to Ratana on Tuesday which will be Ardern’s last outing as PM. Then will come her resignation and his swearing-in and first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

After that will come the ginger crunch test.