1-on-1 in 10: Chris Hipkins on Cost of Living, Climate Cuts & NZ First’s Culture War
With the 2026 election looming, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins sits down with The Bradbury Group for a raw, unscripted 1-on-1 in 10 — tackling the cost-of-living crisis, climate backsliding, and the culture war politics reshaping Aotearoa. Filmed live from Waitangi, this interview cuts through spin to expose what’s really at stake for working New Zealanders.
Live from Waitangi, The Bradbury Group welcomes Labour Leader Chris Hipkins for a blistering 1-on-1 in 10. In a wide-ranging and urgent election-year conversation, Hipkins takes aim at the government’s failed economic promises, rising anti-migrant sentiment, climate denial, and the dangerous direction of coalition politics.
What Chris Hipkins Says Is Driving New Zealand’s Political Crisis
This week’s one-on-one covers: – Broken promises and the myth of National’s economic competence – Why 140,000 Kiwis have fled NZ in two years – A brutal takedown of “user-pays” ideology in a debt-strained economy – Migrant exploitation, job loss fears, and why universal unionism could be the solution – The truth behind climate resilience cuts and how marae were actually funded – Hipkins’ view on New Zealand First’s anti-rainbow, anti-migrant, and climate denial politics – Why Barbara Edmonds is one to watch – His message to rangatahi and the whānau ahead of Election 2026
Haven’t watched it, won’t watch it. There’s a reason why we have got a really crap Govt at the moment – the opposition to it is even crappier! As long as he’s there, its crap city for most of us. But none of this is news, which makes me wonder if this is all meant to be, aka – fixed!
Meh – massive vote loser migration. It does erode wages and conditions – so what’s the plan to prevent that happening Chippie? Nothing? If that’s the case migration is just another rod for workers backs.
Grow a spine, tell Treasury to fuck off and make a real economic plan, and cap migration at some decent level like 1%.
You don’t want xenophobia make constructive policy to prevent it – don’t just blame workers for not sharing Treasury’s fuckwitted fantasy of 15 million population.
” One of Hipkins’ sharpest interviews to date — and a defining chapter in the battle for NZ’s political soul ”
With respect he still said nothing about where a Labour government following neo liberal policies would take us.
They are still trapped by their worship of free market policies and managing our decline to ensure their entitlements and that of the managerial class continues just as it did under his leadership two years ago.
He will criticize the current government , were all doing that but no real alternative to what we have now which is essentially the same economic system just done more badly than usual.
” What is unprecedented, however, is that I can’t recall the main party leading a government falling below 30% in a reputable poll after only around 15 months in office.
What we now in effect have is an unpopular government running neck-and-neck with an unpopular former government. In other words, an unpredictable, unusual and unappealing election next year.
While Labour is no doubt pleased to be in this unexpected position, caution is required. Labour’s popularity has marginally improved; National’s has significantly declined. If Labour wants to lead the next government it is going to learn a few lessons.
” But scratch beneath the surface of all the Annie Crummer disco dancing and Berlin-rave atmospherics, and what do you find? A party that has thoroughly internalised the lessons of its 2023 defeat, not by resolving to be bolder, but by resolving to be blander. A party that has decided the path back to power runs directly through the fiscal settings of its opponents. A party that, when you strip away the laser beams and smoke machines, is offering New Zealand something that looks remarkably like National-lite.
The real story of this conference wasn’t Hipkins, despite his set-piece speech on Sunday. It was finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. Her Saturday address set the tone for everything that followed. And it was a tone of almost aggressive moderation. Balanced budgets. Fiscal responsibility. Treating taxpayer money like her own. “We can’t say yes to everything”, she told delegates, in what became a refrain of the weekend.
” Thomas Coughlan at the Herald reports Hipkins promising “a very different Labour party” with “a different slate of candidates” and “some new faces but there will also be new ideas.”
Hipkins insisted: “We understand why New Zealanders didn’t vote for us at the last election, we understand they were looking for something different from us. We have refreshed ourselves. We’ve re-energised ourselves. We’ve changed and we are offering a very different Labour party at this election to what we were offering last time.”
But how different is it really? Journalist Graham Adams argues it’s essentially a repeat of 2023’s failed strategy. When Hipkins replaced Ardern in January 2023, he adopted a “smaller target” strategy, ditching contentious policies like the RNZ-TVNZ merger and hate speech laws to focus on “bread-and-butter issues.” Adams argues that Hipkins never rejected co-governance, “arguably the most polarising of all the policies stealthily adopted by Labour,” and tried to pretend he was making significant changes to Three Waters. He led Labour to a crushing defeat.
“Now he’s trying a variation on the same tactic,” Adams writes. “He is again trying to persuade voters that a government he leads would be focused most keenly on ‘jobs, health, homes’ — which is simply a repeat of 2023’s ‘bread-and-butter’ issues.” Adams notes that Hipkins never mentioned climate change in his December speech to the party conference, nor did he mention Te Tiriti or co-governance. Yet senior Labour MP Peeni Henare has promised to “reinstate the Maori Health Authority and resurrect the compulsory schools Aotearoa Histories curriculum” introduced during Hipkins’ tenure as Education Minister. Adams suspects “the Treaty ‘partnership’ and attendant co-governance policies will be enthusiastically revived in some form if Labour leads the next government”.
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-labour-party-in-2026-genuine.html
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/guest-blog-ian-powell-important-lessons-from-uk-politics-for-new-zealand-labour-party/
https://nzagainstthecurrent.blogspot.com/2025/12/labours-centrist-weekend-conference.html
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