Chris Hipkins to Winston Peters: You're off the island, if we ever get there

Monday, 28 August 2023

Chris Hipkins has been out and about in Wellington as the campaign continues.

OPINION: Chris Hipkins spent Sunday attempting to make a political virtue of the cold hard reality: New Zealand First could be back in Parliament in October and wouldn’t be going with Labour.

So he came out swinging, ruling out NZ First with great vigour and claiming that any National/ACT/NZ First government will be unstable, and mad for just about everybody: minorities of all descriptions and the poor. He also claimed that NZ First was now just attempting to hoover up the votes of various sorts of extremist.

Peters, who was due to give a speech in New Plymouth an hour after, scoffed at Hipkins’ claim

Labour Party announcement in the Labour caucus room. Left to right; Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Labour Party president Jill Day.

“He’s announcing something that everybody already knows, which is that New Zealand First has already ruled out going into any form of government with Labour – because of their racist separatist policies.

“The fact is the moment we knew Labour had lied to me and hidden their race-based reports and policies from their coalition partner, we ruled out ever working with them.”

So, It's now a war of words of what constitutes racism and who is the most racist.

A key part of the Hipkins play here was to try to corner Luxon into also ruling out NZ First. If he does so, that might cause him problems after the election and if it doesn't, he will look indecisive and like he has something to hide compared to Labour and Hipkins.

Winston Peters was given a Vote the Mullet T-shirt by former New Plymouth mayoral aspirant Murray “Muzz” McDowell at the end of the media standup.

The National leader steadfastly refused to be drawn on what might happen after the election, saying, as he has for months, that he wants as many people as possible to vote for National.

Plus, National won’t cop any lectures from Labour about how going with NZ First is propping up extremists or creating social division.

Winston Peters made Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern prime minister in 2005 and 2017. He’s been sowing division – or telling it like it is, he says – election after election. Just because he’s now courting the anti-vax vote and seeking to capitalise on the trans issue, rather than claiming that hundreds of thousands of third world immigrants are coming in, doesn't make him any better or worse than previously.

There are also serious risks for Hipkins getting involved in the trans political debate. It's a small voter group, miles away from bread and butter and an issue of bewilderment for many voters. Hipkins said that NZ First seems more interested in toilets than other issues, but he himself still made it an issue on which to disqualify NZ First for the politics of division.

National won’t cop any lectures from Labour about how going with NZ First is propping up extremists or creating social division.

For Hipkins, it was a determined outing. And clearly a sign of things to come. He lashed National/ACT and NZ First for being against women's rights, the right to choose, minority rights and much besides, representing views of a small number of MPs as party policy. Clearly Labour is going to go after Luxon and National on these issues.

'Chris Hipkins is really desperate and it's sad to see,” Luxon said on Sunday.

It will be a personal campaign. Hipkins trained at the feet of Trevor Mallard and despite the “boy from the Hutt” schtick, he will smash National with as much impunity as he thinks is politically prudent. The chippy little scrapper will try to tear down the opposition in much the same way and with much the same negativity that Labour feels National and ACT have brought to the debate over the past 18 months.

However, when peeled back, the NZ First announcement is like a lot of Labour announcements this term. A restatement of an existing reality, designed to turn perceptions to Labour’s advantage.

This isn’t a ballsy call and Hipkins has very little to lose. But it could prove strategically canny, and he does have something to gain. There may be some potential NZ First voters who want a Labour government: that’s not going to happen now.

Hipkins has also tried to now lump responsibility for Winston Peters and anything he says on Christopher Luxon and National.

While politically clever, given Peter’s voter demographic and the fact he is such a known quantity, it’s unclear that will work. Voters might not be that engaged, but they aren't stupid. They can, however be spooked or scared, and that’s what Hipkins and Labour are counting on.

Meanwhile, for a lot of Labour’s core supporters, the fact Hipkins is finally denouncing and going after the great evil of a National/ACT and possible NZ First coalition will be grist to the mill of supporters and volunteers alike.

But it pays to remember, while Hipkins might be voting Peters off Labour Island, he has to get Labour the island first.