What does Labour have outside of its past?
Friday, 17 April 2026
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OPINION: Jacinda Ardern was in the capital for the first time in a long time on Wednesday night.
The former Prime Minister is in New Zealand promoting her books (a memoir and children’s book, soon to be joined by a young adult version of the memoir.) It all felt a bit like 2022. There were anti-vaccine protesters outside the venue, holding signs that ranged from questioning (“Will you take the boosters?”) to disturbing (one compared her unfavourably with the Christchurch terrorist).
The sold-out crowd was a mirror image. They were seemingly fine with the show starting an hour and 15 minutes late due to slow security screening and offered Ardern three separate standing ovations, one before she had said a word. When she suggested that her reign was not a “golden age” someone yelled from the crowd “it was!”.
Obviously this is a self-selecting crowd in the most left-wing city in the country. But it is also very hard to imagine a crowd - in Wellington or anywhere else - giving even half as much love to Chris Hipkins. (Or, to be fair, Christopher Luxon.) Part of that is just the raw charisma and celebrity of Ardern. But part of it too is that the Labour movement is obsessed with its past. At conferences they sell tea towels with former leaders. Portraits of Michael Joseph Savage are almost mandatory for any MP. Big policy legacies - Working for Families, KiwiSaver, Nuclear Free - are reeled out at every conference. It has spent much of this term in a battle to simply retain the policies it managed to pass last term - and failed at almost every test, not able to build up enough popular will to make it impossible for the Government to abolish Fair Pay Agreements or reform pay equity.
It’s hard, in other words, to see present-day Labour focused on the future, even if they have a “Future Fund”. Indeed it can be hard to see Labour at all. Hipkins held multiple stand-ups around the country this week, but failed to make much news at any of them. This is something of a deliberate strategy - the party has a tiny handful of policies announced last year and is ruthless about not announcing any more, lest they be accused of spending too much by the Government. This “small target” campaign has helped them avoid a lot of this negative attention. But with the fuel crisis dominating the headlines it has started to stop the party getting much attention at all.
And as others have pointed out, having nothing new or interesting to talk about means their MPs get into weird scrapes in media appearances. Note, for example, the attack ads National has rolled out this week against Revenue spokeswoman Deborah Russell, who was unable to concretely say that the Capital Gains Tax goes as far as she would like.
Discipline in Opposition is a useful trait and has done a lot to make Labour a competitive force this election. But the party’s reticence has now gone so far that they seem almost disinterested in this country’s problems or new solutions to fix them. The heart of governing in whatever the new era we are heading into is - an era of more frequent supply shocks, of AI changing the workplace, of social fragmentation - will probably require experimentation, not just returns to the old.
Experimentation does not have to mean huge expensive policies. Zohran Mamdani in New York - who Labour has mimicked when it comes to branding- is looking to set up a small pilot programme of city-owned grocery stores. On the other side of politics ACT in Government is experimenting with new education models via charter schools and with changes to healthcare policy like allowing pharmacists to dispense more medicine. Labour is never going to back charter schools, but there is no reason its policy team can’t make interesting suggestions like the pharmacist change. Labour can’t carry these experiments out without being in office - but their MPs can do a lot of the thinking needed, and at least get something new to talk about. Instead it feels like the only big ideas for changing the country right now are coming from NZ First, ACT, and the Greens. Maybe enough voters simply want to return to the Ardern era and will vote accordingly. Maybe not.
Fuel crisis bulletin
As the fuel crisis continues this newsletter will feature a small selection of The Post’s best coverage of the issue.
We’ve been getting into the weeds of how many fuel tankers are due to arrive in New Zealand - see the schedule in our story here. Now you might note that we don’t know much about anything more than three weeks away, yet the Government keeps saying we have orders out until June. That line has come under some pressure this week - but Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says it's all because fuel companies are telling the Government about future shipments in confidence, so they have to stay secret.
The Post has also launched a new series about how businesses are dealing with skyrocketing fuel prices called Under the Pump, from cafes rethinking their business model to food companies anticipating a staggering rise in packaging costs. And it isn’t just business doing it tough - this story is about how one school is dealing with the crisis already here, and the larger one they worry is around the corner.
Quote of the week
'I lost my religion on Courtenay Place”- Jacinda Ardern channels REM as she recalls seeing a movie about how the Mormons treated gay people some decades ago, a turning point for her departure from the church.
Number of the week
64 - the % of Kiwis who believe it is likely that petrol costs $5 a litre before the crisis is over.
Comings and goings
Labour and National made a range of seat selections in the last week.
Labour picked candidates in five electorates. The most notable is probably Chris Flatt in Taupō — the secretary of the Dairy Workers Union. Also selected were Tracey-Lee Repia in Kaipara ki Mahurangi, Sam Collins in North Shore, Rory Paterson in West Coast-Tasman, and Hannah Pia Baral in Upper Harbour.
National also had a flurry: former MP Agnes Loheni in Waitākere, Ghouse Majeed in Manurewa, Sunil Kumar in Glendene, and Rosemary Bourke in Māngere. Outside Auckland, former Federated Farmers president Katie Milne was picked for West Coast-Tasman, and Alexandra Davids for Christchurch East.
But more attention fell on NZ First’s new Tukituki candidate - former All Black captain Taine Randell.
The week ahead
Parliament is back after a two-week break. Expect the fuel crisis to once more dominate the narrative, only falling away if we see something a lot more concrete out of this ceasefire. National will be looking to take the fight firmly to Labour on tax, as it began doing this week.
Until next time!