Barbara Edmonds tells Labour it ‘can’t say yes to everything’
Saturday, 29 November 2025
Labour’s finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds used her speech to Labour’s 2025 conference to pledge fiscal responsibility, telling assembled delegates that the party “can’t say yes to everything”.
Edmonds was speaking not long after the new head of the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) challenged Labour to renationalise the country’s energy companies.
The party is gathered in Auckland’s ASB Waterfront Theatre this weekend for what it says is its largest annual conference in over a decade.
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Edmonds said as a mother of eight she knew how to make every dollar and cent count and she would look to do this with public funds if elected.
“When I was growing up, every cent mattered. While we raised our young family on one income, every cent mattered. When I was a tax lawyer working with small businesses, every cent mattered. That's the approach I will take as Minister of Finance,” Edmonds said.
“Getting the economy growing and balancing the books means we can't say yes to everything, and I make no apology for that. Responsibility must always come first.”
“We won't fix everything overnight, but as finance minister, I will deliver the stability we need to build the future our country deserves. I will be ambitious and hopeful about New Zealand's future, while realistic about the work ahead.”
Edmonds did not directly rebuke former Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who rocketed up spending in the pandemic, but did criticise the last Labour government for overpromising and underdelivering.
“We've heard the lessons of last term: too much, too fast and not enough finished. People heard the promises and often supported the intent, but didn't always see the change in their lives. The next Labour government will be different,” Edmonds said.
Edmonds made no new promises outside of Labour’s future fund and capital gains tax. She said National had “lost credibility” with “reckless cuts”.
She was speaking not long after an speech by the new President of the Council of Trade Unions Sandra Grey, who had directly asked Labour to fully renationalise the energy companies - a policy that would cost around $20 billion.
The CTU is not affiliated to the Labour Party, although the a number of its constituent unions are. Gray has been in the job for four weeks after taking over from long-serving former president Richard Wagstaff.
“On the table from us is the buying back of the energy system, so we as a nation can invest in the infrastructure, so old people don't have to live in damp cold houses, so that industries don't have to flee because they can't afford the energy bill, because when they flee, we lose jobs,” Grey said.
Labour has not finalised an energy policy but energy spokeswoman Megan Woods has said it will have to be focused on getting power prices down.
Labour opposed the partial privatisation of the energy companies in the 2010s but made no moves to buy back the shares when it entered power in 2017.