Union head tells Labour party faithful ‘the rich’ have eaten up our ‘pavlova paradise’

Saturday, 29 November 2025

Labour Leader Chris Hipkins talks to Stuff's Political Editor Tova O'Brien about working with Winston, the capital gains tax and whether he can up his lacklustre campaign game.

Flanked by over 30 union delegates on the stage behind her as she spoke, Council of Trade Unions head Sandra Grey has told the Labour conference that New Zealand’s “pavlova paradise” has been “eaten up by the rich”.

Talking to hundreds of Labour Party faithful gathered at Auckland’s ASB Waterfront Theatre on Saturday morning, Grey said it was time for “different economic choices”.

She said Labour needed to “give workers a reason to vote for” them, and to “deliver” fundamental and systemic change.

Pointing specifically to the 1980s and ‘90s, she contested the economic reforms of those decades as she spoke to the crowd who were ramping up party campaign efforts for the general election next year.

Grey challenged the Labour party to take control of the energy sector, saying, “on the table from us is the buying back of the energy system”.

CTU head Sandra Grey with union delegates on stage.

Also speaking on the second day of the party conference was Barbara Edmonds, introduced as “our next finance minister'.

In her speech, she went to task on Christopher Luxon’s Government, saying they had “no plan for New Zealand”.

“Christopher Luxon’s vision is of a smaller, narrower New Zealand. My vision is of a New Zealand that believes in itself and backs itself,” she said.

Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds addresses the Labour Party conference.

Edmonds listed jobs, health, and homes as the “foundation of a good economy” and said Labour would “restore hope” and “drive New Zealand forward” through investment, lifting wages, and creating wealth in “every corner of the country”.

Edmonds highlighted two already announced Labour policies, in the form of the New Zealand Future Fund and a “simple” capital gains tax.

She said they would grow the economy, adding also that New Zealand's assets would be “protected” under a Labour Government.

The attacks on the Government’s economic programme came a week after National kicked off its own election campaign with a party promise to pull KiwiSaver contribution rates up to Australia levels - a combined 12% contribution rate for employers and employees.

Luxon set out his case for the KiwiSaver changes at a party event for National.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announces the KiwiSaver contributions scheme to the National Party, on 23 November, 2025.

“In Government, we are already lifting the default rate of KiwiSaver contributions for employers and employees from 3% to 4% by April 1, 2028.

“If we’re serious about building the future, and I am, it’s time to aim higher.”

“By getting contributions up to 12% we can give Kiwis much better options in their retirement. We can have what Australia’s got,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis said at the National event.

Luxon said under the changes they would continue to increase the default KiwiSaver contribution rates by 0.5% a year from April 1, 2029, to achieve a 6% contribution rate from employees and employers until April 2032.

Cushla Tangaere-Manuel at the Labour Party conference in Auckland.

Labour plans to win all seven Māori seats

Labour’s sole MP with a Māori seat, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, reiterated that the party intended to take back all seven of the seats in 2026.

Currently, six of the seven seats are held by Te Pāti Māori, however, the MP for Ikaroa-Rāwhiti made a play to Māori voters, saying that “amid all the political chaos we [Labour] stand solid”.

“It’s a great time to be Labour,” she said. “Jobs, health, and homes, is not just a slogan, it is a promise to Aotearoa.”

Martin ‘doesn’t take last election personally’

There was also an appearance on day two Saturday by former NZ First MP and deputy leader Tracey Martin, who spoke about the growing superannuitant population.

Martin, who was a minister during the Jacinda Ardern Government, said more and more over-65s were “couch surfing” because they had nowhere to live.

She also offered some advice to Labour MPs who want to enter government in 2026, saying: if they don’t know something, ask someone who does.

“I have been in caucuses where we were the least-qualified,” Martin said. “There are things I hope you realise you don’t know.”

Addressing why Labour lost the last election, Martin said ministers “took on too many things”.

“I wouldn’t take the last election personally,” she said. “We can’t do everything.”

The conference was set to finish on Sunday with leader Chris Hipkins giving the keynote speech.