Chris Hipkins Vows Labour Will Win Back Auckland in Election Year

The Government requires Labour’s support for its trade deal with India, after coalition partner NZ First said it would vote against it. Hipkins said the party had “tried hard not to play politics around trade agreements in the past”. “There’s certainly some things we’ve asked for a more detailed briefing on ... I think we do want to, as much as we can, try and keep this ... a bipartisan issue.” But he said he wanted to make sure the party knew what it was signing up for first. Instead of policy announcements or reshuffles, Hipkins said the retreat’s agenda would be focused on election-year campaign plans. He said his MPs are feeling bullish and upbeat after ending 2025 on a high with some positive polling and the unveiling of several campaign policies. If elected, the party is promising all New Zealanders three free GP visits, funded by a capital gains tax. “We made some pretty big policy announcements at the end of last year, and that really is kicking off our process of setting out how we’ll do things differently to the current Government. “And you’ll see a lot more policies from Labour this year. It’s election year.” Labour’s campaign strategy will of course include a focus on Auckland, where several of the party seats flipped to blue in 2023. “We want to win back to the country’s biggest city,” Hipkins said. “We’re having our first meeting for the year in West Auckland. That’s a clear signal to Auckland that we do recognise that we needed to win back support in Auckland and we’ve been working hard on that over the last two years.” Although support in Auckland was “continuing to increase”, Hipkins said “we’ve still got more work to do”. The selection process for who will contest the Auckland electorates for Labour is underway. “We’ve certainly got more up our sleeves that you’ll hear about more in the coming months but ... there will be a dedicated strategy around Auckland.”