Labour focuses on the future and National on opening day of party congress
Saturday, 27 June 2026
ANALYSIS: Three themes seem to have been on the mind of volunteers and candidates at the first day of Labour’s congress - the weather, the future and the National Party.
Despite ice cold winds shutting down Wellington Airport on Friday, hundreds of the party faithful made their way down or up the country and into the warm air-conditioned rooms of the capital’s convention centre, Tākina.
That warmth was reflected in the closing remarks of party president Jill Day’s speech, but also the competition the party sees ahead of it at this year’s election.
“Let us campaign with courage, let us campaign with kindness, let us campaign with hope and let us campaign to win … we must win.”
It was clear the coalition was top of mind for Labour deputy leader Carmel Sepuloni when she came up next to the podium, with her taking a swipe at National.
“If Wellington’s weather has taught me anything over the last 24 hours it's this, the only thing that can be broken faster than National’s election promises is my umbrella.”
Sepuloni went on to do a roll call of support for teachers, nurses and care support workers, parents and “hard-working every day Kiwis” - each group getting cheers and claps.
She said it showed the collective vision of people in the room for a better future and was “a reminder to Christopher Luxon and National about who does the heavy lifting in this country”.
Sepuloni cast some “shade” on Luxon, calling him “probably the most out-of-touch prime minister” she had seen in her lifetime and labelling the coalition’s changes to pay equity legislation egregious.
“I’ve got four words for National … and they are, ‘not on our watch’.”
Labour is yet to completely lay out how it would pay to bring back the laws scrapped in last year’s Budget.
The talk of cuts was top of mind for the final major speech of the day, finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds repeating the Government could not cut its way to growth.
Edmonds said as minister of finance she would have two jobs - offering hope and the reality of making the numbers add up.
“That’s what we hear from National all day long, it doesn’t add up they say and do you know what? They are right, their numbers don’t add up.”
She described the unfair living conditions New Zealanders were living in at the moment, coming back to the catch-cry of cuts.
“National has one answer, cut. That’s their plan, that’s their whole plan but you cannot cut your way to growth, it's never worked and it never will.”
None of the speeches on Saturday had a strong focus on the policies the party had announced in recent weeks.
The talks were more scene-setters for the conditions New Zealanders were facing at the moment. They were discussions about the people who were doing it tough and saying Labour would offer them a different path.
The Post spoke to a Labour member who had been coming to party conferences since 1966. The speeches had common themes to those in the past “only the names had been changed”, he said.
“A lot of new faces, just as well.”
Day spoke to The Post after her speech, saying it was important campaigners knew why they were working so hard on windy wet days.
“It keeps you going, remembering that you’ve got a purpose for doing what you are doing.”
Wellington’s weather had been a metaphor for the party’s determination, she said.
“People are telling me stories of how they’ve got here. One person came from Auckland - but they flew to Napier and then have driven from Napier down here. We’ve got other people who are making their way here today by car.
“That determination is because people are really fired up.”
What will happen next at the congress is yet to be seen, but with some kind of announcement expected tomorrow all eyes will be on Labour leader Chris Hipkins.