Labour leader Chris Hipkins has ruled out working with New Zealand First after the election but would be happy to form a coalition with the Greens and Te Pāti Māori.
“A vote for Winston Peters, and New Zealand First, is a vote for a National-led government,” he said.
The announcement comes after a leaked Labour poll showed NZ First holding the balance of power with 6% of the party vote. Other polls have put the party at roughly 5%.
Hipkins said on Sunday that Labour’s former coalition partner had become a party more interested in toilets than issues that matter.
“Winston Peters and New Zealand First are a force for instability and chaos, and that’s the last thing the country needs right now”.
A coalition between National, Act, and NZ First would be a “coalition of cuts, chaos and confusion” that would alienate large sections of society.
Hipkins dropped the “relentless positivity” of his predecessor and attacked the opposition parties for not supporting women’s rights, being divisive on race, and targeting trans people.
Political leaders should be focused on the economy, the cost of living, good jobs, good housing, reducing poverty, and addressing climate change.
“Labour’s focus in this election won’t be on imported culture wars, but fighting an economic war against inflation and inequality,” he said.
“So, on that basis I’m ruling out working with New Zealand First and Winston Peters after the election”.
The Green Party has been a part of Labour’s government since 2017, first as a coalition partner and then in a cooperation agreement, and the two parties would work together again.
Te Pāti Māori was part of the 2008–2014 National Government, but it has undergone serious reform since being booted out of Parliament in the 2017 election.
Hipkins said he’d be able to work with the party just like John Key did, although Labour would vigorously contest the Māori electorate seats.
There wasn’t any comment on whether Te Pāti Māori would get a Cabinet seat, but a wealth tax was off the table and wouldn’t be entertained in coalition negotiations.
The Labour leader said he hadn’t even considered possible coalitions with The Opportunities Party, as there wasn’t any suggestion they would be in Parliament.
Speaking at a public event on Sunday, Winston Peters said he had already ruled out working with Labour because of their “racist separatist policies”.
Hipkins said Winston Peters was trying to “stoke fear and division in order to cobble together 5% of the party vote” from “the anti-vaxxers and anti-trans” groups.
Political optics
The intended effect of this announcement was likely to disarm the “coalition of chaos” attack line, that National has used against Labour, and to pressure Luxon to rule out NZ First.
So, what happens if New Zealand First held the balance of power on election night?
“That would be Christopher Luxon’s problem,” Hipkins said.
National has avoided ruling out forming a coalition with New Zealand First, but the Act Party has said it would not sit around the cabinet table with Winston Peters.
This means a three-way coalition would have to have one party sitting on the cross-benches and the other in Cabinet with National.
Christopher Luxon, leader of the National Party, will now come under pressure to make a decision about whether he could work with New Zealand First.
It is plausible that NZ First could hold the balance of power on election night, having already been ruled out by both possible coalitions.
Hung Parliaments are rare in multi-party systems but are still possible.
In that scenario, the party leaders would have to reckon with the political fallout of sending voters back to the polls for a fresh election — or breaking a campaign promise.
93 Comments
Where did that graph come from ? No way Labour are sitting on that level of support currently and its only going to get worse between now and the election. National/ACT are not going to need NZF, the pressure is all on Labour if it wants to backtrack on yet another promise and take power.
Finally this year this government has been exposed as split and fractious lot, an internal faction breaking ranks on a selective racial agenda and cabinet ministers breaking down and flying off the wheel by the week.And they dare to claim that coupled with their ineptitude they can offer a better government, stability in coalition with The Greens back stabbing, oozing in vitriol and TPM, racism you ain’t seen nothing yet, it would seem. A house divided cannot stand. This lot have got the staggers of a sick cow and if they think the Greens & TPM are their salvation.Don’t believe the electorate will swallow that for a moment.
Bottom line is vote for NZ First as they will be the only party to call the Government irrespective of who wins on the BS they will deliver or continue with.
A vote for any of the four significant parties, National, Labour, Greens or TPM is a vote for more of the division and racism that is coming in.
There is zero chance of me ever voting for a party that has decided that my access to medical care is determined by my skin colour. Do you think I have a death wish or something? I don't understand why any white or asian person would vote for them. Its literally suicidal.
I've never been asked for a credit card at A&E before.
Now they are going to be checking skin colour and dictating priority based on that.
Another indefensible decision which is being defended by zealots.
If you are concerned about everyone having access to health services then perhaps you should start with a Govt owned Ambulance service as a first step!
Really starting to wonder about some of the lefties. Logic has left the building.
No, those poor brown people deserve THE SAME TREATMENT AS EVERYONE ELSE. That is the point. Not special treatment. Not worse treatment. The same treatment. Not hospitals deciding that a sicker white person can go without surgery while a less sick Maori person gets surgery. Or diabetes medication. Or bowel cancer screening. Or covid antivirals. Or whatever else white/asian people arent allowed to have.
Again, its like expecting equal treatment these days makes you a "racist" in the eyes of the Loony Left.
you do realize doctors in the hospitals make a decisions daily on whom gets treatment based on $ against likely hood of survival if treated so i would be more worried about funding of our hospital system rather than some hypothetical that you will miss out because of your skin colour which by the way is fifth and last of the algorithm, that stage its to almonst late anyway and your chances are not good
policies that the country is comfortable as a whole.
Their core voter demographic endorsed politics throughout their lives that will have a decreasing base of taxpayers paying for their ballooning costs of extended life expectancy for decades to come.
People are already uncomfortable about that, and we haven't even seen the worst of it.
nzforall(but we don't really mean that)
What's NZF's slogan? We want to take the country back-yes to the time when everyone knew their proper place in society and there was none of this Treaty nonsense.
Since immigration isn't the crowd pleaser it used to be, then I 'll pull in some of the disaffected crazies. Winston doesn't want 'the baubles of office'? That's all he wants.
Their definition of reducing inequality means making everyone poorer, except beneficiaries, who they will pay more to. Under Labour, an unemployed person on JobSeeker with a partner and two kids earns more money than more than HALF of all workers in New Zealand ($63,000 on the benefit vs $61,000 median wage)
Hipkins is a joke, like the Labour Party in general. Peters had already clearly ruled out working with them, and this was quite some time ago, so this announcement sounds pretty pathetic. And in any case, I do not see NZ First getting into parliament anyway, so this is all quite academic.
It is very rich for Labour to claim that other parties are promoting divisive policies, when the Jacinda's and Hipkins' governments have been promoting deeply racist and divisive policies for the last 6 years.
Their commitment to pursue a potential coalition with the Greens and even the Maori Party at least makes it clear what kind of unmitigated disaster such a government would be for NZ.
The next elections cannot come soon enough.
There is a difference between toll roads and congestion charging...I am happy to pay a toll for a new efficent road built and funded by the government,not so happy if it is a private company owning it.
Congestion charging on the other hand is just being charged to sit in the same traffic jam you are now if there is no viable alternative.
When the CRL is completed,they are saying because no one had the foresight to deal with all the level crossings on the western line concurrently while the CRL was being built,it could mean the barrier arms will be down 45 out of every 60 mins during peak times..it will be chaos and we will get charged for the congestion.More lack of forward planning by previous governments,as in deciding not to build a busway on the North Western motorway when the Waterview tunnel and subsequent widening of the motorway was being carried out.
To be fair though,Kiwis don't have an apetite for pollies spending money now...we would rather they wait and complain and find then we can't afford it. The can has had the sh*t kicked out of it.
It isn't one bad project though, it is consistently bad outcomes from pop. Overall more expensive to the taxpayer (which is obvious as they are based on private companies taking a margin) and little opportunity to revisit strategic outcomes if the context changes.
while i agree with both those places national wants to build the east west link amongst the first roads, it will be their tram set, very expensive at 2 billion + for 6km and will turn mangere bridge into a clog point, on this i agree with the greens we cannot just keep adding lanes to roads in the cities and i dont agree with labours plan either i dont mind an above ground tram up dominion road but to go to the airport is nuts and utlra expensive
Hippie says that lab and greens are closely aligned. Where does one begin in taking that apart. Since becoming leader hippie has systematically and cynically moved into the centre. The latest roading and highways move only reinforces that.
Just wait till after oct 14 and hippie and Robertson will resurrect the policies they threw in the trash. Everything they said they will not do, they will do and vice versa
the most interesting thing is how close labour and national are except at election time, just look at most of the laws passed where both those parties voted yay while all the small parties voted no. and even when they vote no you will find the objection can be minor and when they get in they do not repeal the law but make an amendment to it, classic did JK repeal WFF or student interest free loans no he did not
“When The Chips Are Down.” Now who sang that? What is obvious now is that this PM has little more awareness of real world reality than his predecessor. That can be explained by a CV evidencing a career in politics commencing immediately after schooling with no experience of anything else at all in between.
It's like a scene from 'The Office' (if my memory serves me right) where Michael Scott applies for a job at the corporate head office, does a terrible job in the interview, and then is told he isn't getting the job ... only to turn around and say he never wanted the job in the first place.
I hate to say it, but out of Luxon and Chippy, Luxon is now the one I'd hit the pub with if I was forced to choose - and as we all know that is the sole determinant of who would be a good PM.
Nice one Chippy, dropping what is surely the biggest loser move since yours truly asked a girl on a date at school back when I was a spotty teenager, got rejected in front of all her friends, and then tried to claim I was never interested in her in the first place.
Not that different. Often You start to think that Hipkins is not that far out of short pants. Recall the well deserved put down from the Australian Foreign Minister Bishop in 2017, that Ardern had to apologise for. And since the. Plenty more flippancy when hard pressed.
national and act polices are not that close if you read them and in the past ACT was a lapdog because they owed national for epsom to even be in parliament , it will be very interesting after the election to see what wins ACT gets on policy of theirs, i can see a private build prison and maybe getting the retirement age up but slower than they want, i dont see much else that national will give them
I went back and read the speech (initially I thought he had just made a simple statement about ruling out Winston First) - you're right, it was actually a rather grotesque speech when you dig into the implications ... "if you don't vote for us, then you're a nasty racist gun-loving maniac who would have gladly seen all the OAPs and medically vulnerable people die", or words to that effect.
I guess the problem is when you have no real achievements to campaign on - apart from doing an ok job with a couple of national crises - what else can you do but play the fear card and probably try to re-run the Covid election theme from 2020.
Chippy did say last week that the campaigning was yet to start - maybe this was the opening salvo? My hunch is he knows that winning back the middle will be a challenge, so the next best strategy is to put the fear of God into properly left voters (who tend to be worse at turning out on election day) in order to try and maximise turnout.
First thing first Winnie was in govt when 99 percent of these politicians were either getting their arses wiped by their nanny or on their mother (father) breast. So he knows more how first govt works and secondly how voters change. So he will be playing the long game. He may see all this sh.t that this govt has created snow balling and creating a sh.t storm so thinks I will not get in with this govt let them wear it. And NZF will just sit in the cross benches one thing is for certain he is proven more right than any so called other politicians and or media cause he is still there when most have come and gone never to be heard of again. Remeber Jacinda what's her name
I reflexively stopped reading or paying any attention once he trotted out the ol' womens rights, trans, and racism epithets. These are the words that a pathetic narcissistic party rolls out anytime they face real logical or professional scrutiny. It's the offence that begets no defence.
I'm not a racist anti inclusive misogynist just because I think having a finance minister with a BA isn't up to professional standard. I'm not a climate denier because I don't believe the government is an effective allocator of capital. It's not racist to believe any human can have their own individual views on things.
This government simply has to go. Whoever wins, assuming it's not these current idiots, will only be a tourniquet on the wound. The patient still needs saving and that won't be easy.
Colonel..I agree re finance miniters qualifications,but in the interest of balance,I am not sure how Nicola Willis will be any more qualified to do the job:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Willis_(politician)
She graduated with a first-class honours degree in English literature from Victoria University of Wellington in 2003,[7] and earned a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the University of Canterbury in 2017.[8] She was a member of the Victoria University Debating Society, and competed in international tournaments.
Fair point. Perhaps buttressed a little by Mr Luxon having a professional management background but I'm NOT cheerleading National. They are also doing exactly what I'm annoyed about by running a 26 yr old with a BA in my electorate. Now I don't hate the player - go well young man and do you. But I do hate the game.
I don't understand why the talent pool is "pretty shallow".
Almost every other commentator on here appears to know how to do a better job than the elected politicians and given that these same people also claim that politicians are overpaid and the job is super cushy shouldn't we be drowning in talent?
What's stopping all these amazing interest.co.nz commentators standing and getting easily elected on their amazingly good platforms?
Fair enough but the reason for the paucity of let’s say talent is not so much the pool of public availability but the selection, vetting and criteria applied by the political parties. For instance not just the above valid criticism of the finance portfolio contenders. Apart from Kiri Allan when was there a Minister of Justice, or spokesperson with a law degree. The current and previous Prime Ministers have gone from varsity straight into politics as a profession. Portfolios appear to be dished out largely on pecking order than actual experience or qualification. On the other hand Mr O’Connor has done sterling work in Agriculture & Trade, but is of low profile and the vital areas that he attends, look to be a poor relation in this government. Look if you are of mind to be in government you should have some application and qualification to offer the job. It should be a solemn and accountable role not a platform for a profession and if the former gets to be overshadowed by the latter, then I believe the player deserves all the brickbats that can be thrown.
Because most people probably have something in their past that they are afraid will be publicised, even something small, and many years ago. Look at Uffindell - hauled over the coals because he had a barney with a flatmate when he was a teenager. Like, havent we all? If you're a guy, you probably groped someone while drunk 20 years ago, if you are a girl, you probably shoplifted a mascara when you were in high school. Pretty much you need to be a bland, vanilla, puritan these days to be able to stick your head above the parapet.
Because agnositum under this so called democratic system of MMP it is the party that appoints who is in govt not the voter. So if you don't toe the party line and follow their ideology you are out. Where by back in the day when one man one vote was the way a person running for govt said vote for me because this is what I stand for and if they didn't say or do what they campaigned on then they didn't get your vote. See how every party wants your party vote they don't give a sh..te about who you vote for. So if you as an individual want to get into politics for the good of the country and want too change things because you see the way the country is going. It ain't going to happen.
Maybe everyone realises, deep down, that we are all pushing sh#t up-hill, at this point. As the energy free error comes to a close, nobody with any real brains wants to lead, cos it will be real, real hard going forward. So we end up with these no-hopers that don't have anything better to do, or established dog whistlers who don't have any real policy but extend and pretend and call everyone else losers.
Actually at this point, does anyone have any real policy to address real issues?
Bill English also had a BA.
I don't think the degree you have has much relevance to being a politician. Being a politician does not require you to have a specialisation in particular subjects to make decisions. You rely on the advice you are given by specialists and often the most effective policy advice cannot be implemented because of lack of public support. It is a politician's role to take on the specialist's advice weigh it against their electoral mandate and come up with a decision that balances the two.
Point taken. Perhaps I'm being unfair to Mr. Robertson individually and he wasn't the best example in the first point.
Can we dig up the specialists and the electorate who signed off on the mandate to blow out the government budget for nothing tangible? Can we also then do away with the word "leaders" if these people are not required to be subject matter experts of any degree and can just blow in the digital wind? If so I'd like to state my support for far less of them, and reduced taxes starting at the lower marginal rates.
Its gotten so bad that any time you disagree with a Leftist on anything, they automatically roll out the you're a "racist" "bigot" "anti-xxx" blah blah. As a result I am contemplating reclaiming the word "racist" as a badge of honour, much like the blacks reclaimed the N word. If its racist to believe in equal treatment for all, then so be it, I'm a racist. #alllivesmatter
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