Aspiration, opportunity for all in NZ

‘‘The approach that I will take is that every three years when people vote, they will know what they’re voting for, for the next three years.’’

New Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has promised no new taxes between now and the general election, and says he will lead a Government focused on opportunity and aspiration, while also being himself.

‘‘I will just be me. I’m in this to win this. And I think Labour can win the next election. And there’ll be some strong governing between now and the next nine months so that we earn New Zealanders trust so that they do feel confident voting for us,’’ he said.

The new prime minister would not be drawn on any new plans for taxes that the party might take to the October 14 election, but did promise transparency.

‘‘People will well and truly know before the election what our tax policy for the next three years will be,’’ Hipkins said in a sit down interview with Stuff two days after being sworn into office.

The National and ACT parties have campaigned against what they have called various Labour taxes – such as the extended bright line tax, the ending of interest deductions for mortgages on investment properties and the levy to fund the Government’s proposed social insurance scheme, making tax a likely election issue.

‘‘The approach that I will take is that every three years when people vote, they will know what they’re voting for, for the next three years,’’ Hipkins said.

The Labour Party caucus has been on a high since Hipkins’ elevation to the top job, sensing an opportunity to take the fight back to National and ACT, but so far there has been no movement on new policies or throwing out more unpopular ones, though Hipkins has signalled he will do so in the coming weeks.

The new Labour leader would not confirm any of his policy shake-up, except to say that some of the areas had been identified in the media. It is widely expected that the RNZ-TVNZ merger could be on the chopping block along with the Auckland light rail plan and that the Government’s Three Waters plans could be pared back.

Hipkins has sought to strike a different tone to talk to middle New Zealand since taking the leadership and said that aspiration and opportunity for all New Zealanders is ‘‘at the centre of what we’re thinking about as a government’’.

‘‘When I go out and about and I talk to Kiwis ... they’re willing to put in the hard yards, they’re willing to do the work. They’re not expecting anything on a plate for free. They know that they’ve got to go out and earn it. What they want to know is that the Government’s behind them and that we’re not going to throw unnecessary impediments in their way.’’

One of the likely avenues for criticism that Hipkins will face from the Opposition is over his performance as minister of Covid-19 response and the Government’s broader Covid-19 strategy of extended lockdowns and border closures. Hipkins was also in charge of testing and contact tracing.

‘‘We made decisions based on what we knew at the time. If you were doing them all again, knowing what the end point would be, would you make some things, some decisions slightly differently? Quite possibly. But the reality is you don’t get that luxury – you have to make decisions in the moment.’’

The new prime minister also said that he would have ‘‘loved to have been more upfront’’ with New Zealanders about the path out of Covid-19 when he was minister for Covid-19, ‘‘because actually I think that would have taken a lot of the heat out of it.’’

The new prime minister has yet to rejig his Cabinet, but he was planning to do so early next week.

‘‘We should acknowledge that 2022 was a really difficult year for New Zealand. I sat there on election night in 2020 when everyone was celebrating this huge win for Labour and, you know, as much as I wanted to be able to enjoy that I could see what was going to happen next.

‘‘It was never going to be an easy road there.’’

Echoing Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who has talked about building back better, Hipkins was bullish about New Zealand’s future prospects. ‘‘We can get through this turbulent period and we can come out the other side of it even better than we went into it.’’

It is a refrain voters have heard before. The other is that it consults with business, although several business figures told Stuff on condition of anonymity that most engagement under the Ardern Government felt pro-forma at best.

Hipkins reiterated that he planned lead a Government that works

alongside business to try to get the economy moving. He wouldn’t deny that under Ardern the Government’s contact with business was perfunctory, but was keen to point out his own engagement – and to call on the public sector officials to work better with their private sector counterparts.

‘‘I think sometimes there is a disconnect between the business community and the public service and one of the jobs of ministers, I think, is to help to overcome that disconnect, because often the objectives are exactly the same,’’ he said. ‘‘I will be keeping my ear to the ground and keeping in regular contact with the business community across the country. And that’s all of the business community, not just the big business end of town.’’

In his downtime, Hipkins said that he enjoys gardening, cycling, walking and watching a bit of one-day cricket, but that he has had limited time away from politics over the past couple of years.

‘‘I think everyone needs to get away from work from time to time. You might find me out on my bike. I enjoy just getting out in the fresh air, maybe going for a long walk.

‘‘I love gardening, and I really enjoy just being able to do things that you can actually see at the end of the day, so a bit of DIY.

‘‘I love watching a good one day cricket match. I find that incredibly relaxing. Haven’t had time to do that for quite some time now.’’

Why is new Prime Minister Chris Hipkins so defensive about the country employing more public servants? ( Has the public service swelled?, Jan 26).

A major reason for voting in a Labour government is to restore health, education, welfare and other vital services, which are invariably run down under the lessspending-is-better regimes of National governments.

So, for example, we have biosecurity staffing and budget cut to the bone under National, but end up with such billion-dollar nightmares as PSA in the kiwifruit industry, varroa mite in the honey industry or M bovis in the dairy/ cattle industry.

Deregulation, cost-cutting and reducing government costs are in National/ACT’s DNA but it comes at huge cost to Aotearoa, resulting in such costly national disasters as Pike River or the leaky homes saga.

All governments are under cost pressures and none wants to create unnecessary jobs or bureaucracy. Polls are telling us that the majority of Kiwis support a return to a government with cost-cutting at its core.

Given the state Labour found our health service in after nine years of National, and its struggle to maintain services despite budget boosts of multiple billions, I bid Aotearoa best wishes with a return to public service anorexia and its attendant costs.

Simon Louisson, Seatoun