How Labour plans to win back Auckland - and the next election

Wednesday, 27 November 2024

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he is making regular trips to Auckland to help win back support for the party in the city.

Hipkins admits it will be hard to win at the next election without winning Auckland.

The former prime minister says there are lessons to be learnt from the recent US election.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins knows his party has a fight on its hands to win back support in Auckland, and he says being more visible in New Zealand’s biggest city will help with that.

Labour suffered significant losses in Auckland during last year’s election, winning just six electorates - half the number from 2020. What were assumed as safe seats, like New Lynn and Mt Roskill, fell into the hands of National.

Meanwhile, National’s party vote support in Mangere and Manurewa nearly doubled, rising from 9.1% and 13% to 19.2% and 29.4%.”

Hipkins is now making regular visits to Auckland. He says he understands there was a perception that Labour was too Wellington-focussed and he has to change that.

“We’ve got to be visible here in Auckland,” Hipkins said.

“We’ve got to be on the ground here in Auckland. I know during the Covid period there was a real perception that we were not visible in Auckland, we were not active in Auckland, we were too Wellington based, and I have heard that.

“I typically probably spend at least a couple of days a fortnight in Auckland now, meeting businesses, meeting community groups, just getting out and about, on the ground and talking to people.

“I think that’s how we’re going to win back our support, it’s going to be with good, solid, hard work on the ground.”

In the most recent Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll, released on November 14, it had Labour at a 17-month high of 31.5%, up 1.2%. But National rose by 3.9% to 40%, which would still be enough for them to govern after the next election, with the support of NZ First and ACT.

Hipkins acknowledges that the key to victory in 2026 is winning back Aucklanders. Twenty five of the 72 electorates are in Auckland, while 1.8 million of New Zealand’s population of 5.2 million live in the city.

“For anyone to win an election in New Zealand now, they've got to do really well in Auckland,” Hipkins said.

“You look at just the population breakdown of the country, if you're not doing well in Auckland, it's going to be really difficult to form government.

“So we'll be on the ground here, working hard. Shanan Halbert is doing a fantastic job as our Auckland issues spokesperson. I re-established the Minister for Auckland portfolio in government, because I do think we need to be a better partner with Auckland.

“We need to be a better partner at the local government level. We need to coordinate better what we're doing in Auckland across government, and you need to have a real champion for that sitting around the Cabinet table.”

What occurred at last year’s election was similar to what happened at the recent US election, with the left-of-centre party doing poorly as its traditional supporter base moved to the right.

Hipkins says Labour can learn from what happened to the Democrats and how Donald Trump energised working-class voters.

“There’s absolutely big lessons to learn from what’s happened, not just in the US, but actually in other countries, where we’ve seen the rise of populism and support for populism amongst working people,” he said.

“The real siren call here, the real alarm bell ringing that we should all hear is that there’s a lot of working people who feel that the modern economy doesn’t work for them, that they’re working harder and harder.

“They’re not getting ahead, life’s getting harder for them, even though they are working ever harder. I think that’s where you see populists like Donald Trump actually provide an appealing message.

“I don’t think ultimately that’s going to succeed, I don’t think he’s going to make life for working people that much better.

“But we as political parties here in New Zealand - and the challenge applies equally to National as much as to Labour - is we’ve got to make this economy work for working people. At the moment, it isn’t.”