On the Tiles: What to expect from Labour’s 2022 party conference

This weekend sees the Labour Party, including Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, gather in Manukau in Auckland for the party’s annual conference.

The faithful will be hoping that the event generates a few good headlines after a rough few months for the Government, including public pushback against Three Waters and the emissions payment scheme, and the Gaurav Sharma scandal that saw the former MP attack his own party in a steady stream of leaks and press releases.

Labour will need to put on a strong performance, as current polling shows a tight race between the left bloc of Labour and the Greens against National and Act, with both sides of the house polling on similar numbers - with Te Pāti Māori as potential queen or king maker.

The party will also be picking a new party president, with Claire Szabo standing down and former Wellington deputy mayor Jill Day set to replace her.

On this week's episode of On the Tiles, New Zealand Herald deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan is joined by former Labour Party MP, minister and president Ruth Dyson to discuss what actually goes on at these conferences, and the mood of the party a year out from the election.

Dyson said she does not expect any big changes on policy to emerge during the conference, and that the party will stick to its manifesto.

"Our policy platforms as it is now are built on really strong foundations and I think people are overall happy with them. So I think there'll be, like Three Waters, areas of implementation where people will say we've got different ways of doing this, but the policy platform that we base our manifesto on is not controversial."

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