What ‘Affordability’ should mean to Labour
Hipkins setting low expectations for ‘real’ change
Labour Leader downplays talk of big policy shifts or of much better lives in 3 years, saying he prefers to be ‘real’ & not just “window dressing for the sake of looking like we’re doing something.”
- The Lead – Labour Leader Chris Hipkins gave his State of the Nation speechto Auckland Chamber of Commerce yesterday, hosing down expectations of major policy change under a Labour Government or promises that life will improve much in the three years after the upcoming election.
- The Sidebar – Hipkins said he wanted to be ‘real’ when making promises, preferring to focus on doing fewer things in Government, but better, adding: “doing are the things that will actually make a difference, and are not just window dressing for the sake of looking like we’re doing something.”
- The Reaction – Labour’s Parliamentary opponents described the speech as ‘boring, lightweight and underwhelming.’
- In My View – Just like PM Christopher Luxon, Hipkins is taking a ‘low target’ strategy to the election, hoping to avoid the endemic rejection of change present in western democracies right now. It’s not coincidental that both Hipkins and Luxon have record low net approval ratings nine months out from the election. They are competing to see which leader voters prefer as the most boring and least ambitious PM in recent memory.
Bernard Hickey, The Kaka
The smart play is to wait until the budget.
The smart play is to purposely under promise.
The smart play is to come back after the Budget, tell voters that they have considered the issue of affordability and are telling us what they will do and how it will impact us weekly and monthly.
What ‘Affordability’ should mean to Labour
- Free Public Transport
- Free Dental
- 12months Maternity Leave
- Nationalise Early Childhood Education and remove fees for working mums and dads
- State backed third Supermarket
- Nationalise Electricity Industry with direct investment into renewable.
- Solar Panels on every public building including schools, libraries, RSA, Marae, hospitals, State Houses.
If Chippy comes back and announces changes that will ensure material well being changes to people, he will win the election.
If he comes back with Labour’s usual policy incrementalism they will lose the election to Winston.
Agree with Corey National are lazy they will steal Labour’s policies. But its no good saying your going to do this and do that when we don’t have the money to do it. National are being pressured to backtrack on some of their policies, housing intensification, fishing to name the recent ones. They have also shown how mean they are with their move on policy. So people need to vote so we can move the CoC on they are destroying Wellington and our beautiful country is being damaged, environmentally, economically and socially.
Underpromising and overdelivering got Helen Clark three terms, she wasn’t charismatic, you didn’t want to have a beer with her (ok I do but Im a political tragic) she didn’t campaign on hope or change or “let’s do this” (in 2019 she said “let’s do what? What are we hoping for? Change what?” And criticized optimistic vague campaign slogans for being lite on policy and getting everyone’s expectations up) all we knew about Helen Clark whether you liked her or disliked her was that she was brilliantly intelligent, ruthless, did what she campaigned on and didn’t scare the horses.
If Hipkins is smart, he won’t release a manifesto until the last two weeks of the election (in UK, Aussie and Canada they don’t release the manifesto till a few days before the election) so the nats and media can’t steal/ fear monger from it.
He’ll need to offer something substantial to appeal to the center left (cgt already stole a bunch of the greens vote share in the polls so more along these lines) some cost of living and major consumer reforms for the center, but nothing that scares the horses too much
Let the Greens run on hope and change and left wing populism to the left of Labour, while labour goes after the center left to center right, last election they solely went after the center to center right, forgetting they need the center left because without the center left, labour drops below 30% and as soon as labour drops below 30% the center and center right writes them off and they stop seeing them as viable and the center-center right votes National or NZf (and the center left votes green or stays home)
They need to own everything from the center left to the center right, the greens need to totally own the center left to left, but labour will never attract the center or center right without shoring up its center left flank which hipkins failed spectacularly to do in 2023, here’s hoping he doesn’t make the mistake twice for all our sakes.
Please, we can’t allow this failed CoC back into power. Surely no-one with any business acumen should even consider it! They have proven, beyond a doubt, that they are insincere, corrupt, lying cheats. There is barely a decent MP in their midst and as for the PM and FM they are both simply abysmal and so out of touch. The race for privatisation is a disgrace and will sell NZ off to the highest bidders. Is that truly what you RW voters want or do you not comprehend the seriousness of the whole question? And the Left – please have policies/vision for voters to get their teeth into. FGS all voters wake up before it’s too late.