Labour Party members debate ruling out the rule-out

Labour members at the party’s Auckland and Northland regional conference this weekend discussed the amount of power they should have over the party’s policy process as it headed towards an election, with discussion centring around the leadership’s ability to make what are colloquially known as “captain’s calls”.

Discussion appears to have been sparked by dissatisfaction with recent calls from the leadership over taxation, with Jacinda Ardern ruling-out a capital gains tax for as long as she was leader. Her successor, Chris Hipkins said that any government would not implement a wealth or capital gains tax, “end of story”.

Only that was not the end of the story, and Hipkins took back his rule-out after the election. Labour is currently working on its tax policy for the next election.

Labour members are currently discussing the party’s policy and constitution at a series of six regional conferences. The results of these discussions will be put up as remits at the party’s national conference later in the year. If those remits are carried at the conference, they become part of the party’s “policy platform” or amend the party’s constitution - depending on whether the remit relates to policy or the party constitution.

The Herald understands a series of remits were discussed about the latitude the party hierarchy should have over policy, particularly making rapid “captain’s calls” during an election campaign. An idea could be to kick those decisions back to a committee to ensure policy decisions made by the leader, the Parliamentary Party, and the Council, the key organs of party policy during a campaign.

The problem is that it is not clear that the Labour constitution currently allows what members are upset about, and that what appear to be “captain’s calls” have actually gone through the agreed policy process. It means members cannot remove the right to a captain’s call from the constitution because that right doesn’t exist there in the first place.

Labour General Secretary Rob Salmond said that the “rules governing Labour’s manifesto process are in our party’s Constitution”.

“None of those rules allow anyone to decide what should or should not be in the manifesto unilaterally,” he said.

Salmond did not respond to whether the membership was discussing changing these rules.

The party has gone through some big constitutional changes before. Last time the party was in opposition, it amended rules for leadership contests, again giving members a much greater say.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.