Chris Hipkins attacks Government over jobs in first election‑year speech

Wednesday, 21 January 2026

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Labour leader Chris Hipkins says the Government must focus on “job creation” in his first speech of election year.

Hipkins was speaking to his party’s MPs - and the news media - at a caucus retreat in West Auckland on Wednesday morning.

He was speaking ahead of the prime minister’s expected announcement of the election date at National’s own caucus retreat later on Wednesday.

Luxon made his first speech of the year on Monday, telling Kiwis that the Government was doing all it could to get the economy growing as the rules-based international order it had relied on for decades was “rupturing”.

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He highlighted the India FTA and improving business confidence as proof New Zealand had turned a corner after tariffs “cut down’ economic recovery in 2025.

Hipkins said the Government wanted to convince New Zealand that the current state of the country was “as good as it gets” and that Government needed to get out of the way.

“Better is possible. Nicola Willis, Christopher Luxon, David Seymour, Winston Peters, all want to tell you that this is as good as it gets, and that if they just stand back, that somehow things will fix themselves - they won't,” Hipkins said.

He sought to highlight Labour’s “future fund” - which would use $200 million and unspecified amount of dividends from state-owned companies to make investments in New Zealand.

“The current Government think that job creation is not their job. It is their job. That they're not willing to talk about job creation is the reason that we are seeing increased numbers of unemployed New Zealanders,” Hipkins said.

The unemployment rate was 5.3% in September, the highest it’s been since December 2016.

Luxon did speak about creating more capital for investment in New Zealand on Monday - through increasing KiwiSaver contributions to 6%.

He said that would help with retirement savings and would also “establish a spine of national capital, sheltered from the winds of financial and political change offshore, and available to invest in the businesses and infrastructure here at home that we will need to become richer as a society”.

Willis said in Christchurch that her stewardship of the economy ensured lower interest rates and increased business confidence - which would flow through to employment.

“When businesses are confident, that’s when they hire people, that's when they create new jobs. We've worked very hard to fix the basics so those conditions are in place, and we want to see businesses hiring more people, creating more jobs.”

She noted that forecasts had unemployment tracking down.

Hipkins said he expected Luxon to go for a late election when he announced the date later today.

“He’s that desperate, he's going to drag it out, but we will fight energetically from start to finish, whenever the election day may be,” Hipkins said.

He also welcomed a soon-to-be-new MP to his caucus on Wednesday - Georgie Dansey, who will enter Parliament from the list when Adrian Rurawhe resigns from Parliament.

Dansey told media she had “very big shoes to fill”.

Rurawhe announced his resignation on Wednesday morning, saying he had decided over the summer break he wanted to spend more time with his family and church.