Verity Johnson: I’ll vote Labour again when Barb leads

Monday, 15 June 2026

Verity Johnson is an Auckland-based writer and business owner.

OPINION: Do you know what Chippie’s tragedy is? He’s really competent.

By all accounts he’s smart, nice, can run a ministry, read his papers and knows his stuff.

But you and I both know that he’s not The One. However good he is, he’s the interim CEO. The guy that gets appointed whilst you’re recruiting the New Boss.

He’s John the Baptist. Just like Andrew Little and Bill English, who by all accounts were also smart guys who knew their stuff and did most things right.

But - like them - he’s just not Jesus.

(To be fair, I don’t think Luxon is National's Jesus either. But John Key certainly was, and he anointed Luxon with just enough holy oil for him to slip in to power.)

So, ever since Ardern left, we’ve been waiting to see who Labour’s New Boss is.

Someone who gets the party out of their car, where they’ve been sitting playing Candy Crush these past three years, and drags them back into the pub to fight for NZ’s future.

And what they need, above all else, is someone who gets it. Gets what normal Kiwis are going through right now. Because it’s hard; living on 60k a year; spending $800 a week on rent; being unable to afford the doctors; having to buy fuel on your credit card. That’s real life.

And I think the biggest thing that’s currently lacking in Parliament is MPs who actually understand that. Who get it in their bones, not their briefing papers.

And 35% of the voting electorate agree with me that MPs don’t get it. Eighteen per cent of the current voting electorate are the Precarious Left voters, who strongly believe that MPs are out of touch and that their voice can’t effect political change. Another 17% is the Alienated Conservative, their right-wing mirror.

So basically, however many times politicians drop the phrase ‘hard-working Kiwis’, over one third of our voting electorate think they don’t really get it.

That’s an extraordinary amount of cynicism and alienation. But it’s even worse for Labour than for National, because they were - are - supposed to be the party for working people. And both these alienated groups of voters are the face of the new working class; they make less money, are more likely to rent, and (despite being tertiary educated or owning a business) feel locked out.

So what Labour needs right now is someone who can convince blue collar New Zealand that they get it. And Middle New Zealand too while they’re at it, because they’re also feeling hella skint.

But so far, no one’s emerged in Labour. I’ve kept half an eye out. Scanning. Waiting. Half expecting someone to arrive in a puff of vape smoke, boot down the saloon doors, and walk in like Clint Eastwood with a lanyard….

And six months ago, Aunty Barb popped up on my Instagram.

She wasn’t talking about herself. My Gen Z friends were sharing clips of her in Question Time. And, apropos of nothing, my pale, stale, boomer male Dad kept sending me links to her asking, ‘Have you heard of her? She’s the real deal.’

Hmm. Is she? Well. She fits the first part of it. She clearly gets real life. She’s lived it.

She’s the daughter of Sāmoan migrants, her mum died before she was 5, her dad steered the family out of poverty by education and using the family benefit to build a house.

She had the first of eight kids while in law school, and her husband, and her husband’s family came together in all these small, smart decisions to make their way out of poverty.

She went on to become a tax lawyer, then an apolitical advisor, then a political ministerial advisor, then an MP.

And that’s not just an inspiring story. She gets it. She also gets how Beehive decisions impact real people in real ways, from the inside out.

Ok, well, can she fix this economic midlife crisis we’re slumping through?

Well, back in 2024, when she became Labour’s Finance Spokesperson, Grant Robertson gave her the highest praise in the Kiwi vocabulary, “Barb has got a real ability to look through the crap.”

She’s a tax lawyer, ex-IRD, and worked on the former government’s small business and tax relief packages during Covid. In short, she has a reputation for solving problems. Promising.

But does the public know this about her? Not yet. Does she want them to? Not sure.

She always gives the impression of not enjoying the spotlight. She acts like she’d just rather get on and fix things, not necessarily be in charge. It makes me like her even more. (And given how fast she rose up the party list, from 18th in 2023 to third in 2026, someone else agrees with me.)

And you know what? After years of waiting, I think fate may have just reached down and yanked her by the lanyard. I think she may be the next Clint Eastwood in a red pantsuit… And I don’t think I could say that about anyone else right now.

I don’t think she thinks so yet. But I’ll tell you this. When she does, I’ll go back to voting Labour.