{"id":10251,"date":"2026-02-23T17:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=10251"},"modified":"2026-02-23T17:01:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T04:01:52","slug":"labour-sets-out-election-year-vision-as-national-accuses-party-of-no-new-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=10251","title":{"rendered":"Labour Sets Out Election-Year Vision as National Accuses Party of \u201cNo New Ideas\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has used his State of the Nation speech to argue New Zealand is at a crossroads, warning that rising living costs, stagnant productivity and accelerating climate impacts are eroding opportunity and driving thousands of New Zealanders overseas.<\/h6>\n\n\n\n

Speaking to the Auckland Business Chamber, Hipkins said New Zealanders are \u201cworking harder than ever and falling further behind,\u201d pointing to higher grocery, power and insurance costs. He criticised the Government for \u201ctinkering around the edges\u201d while 2,000 people leave the country each week, saying nearly 240,000 have departed in the past two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hipkins framed the election-year choice around three priorities: jobs, health and homes<\/strong>. Labour is promising three free GP visits per year for every New Zealander<\/strong>, expanded investment in renewable energy, and a rejection of the Government\u2019s proposed gas import terminal, which he said would \u201cadd costs to every power bill in this country for decades to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also confirmed Labour will pursue a targeted capital gains tax on investment and commercial properties<\/strong>, arguing too much capital is tied up in speculation rather than productive industries. The revenue would support a new \u201cNew Zealand Future Fund\u201d aimed at backing infrastructure and innovative local businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hipkins acknowledged Labour \u201ctried to do too much, too fast\u201d in government, but said the current administration has delivered \u201chigher costs, job losses and a shrinking economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

National\u2019s Finance Spokesperson Nicola Willis dismissed the speech as empty rhetoric, accusing Labour of offering \u201cnot a single new idea for New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo years on from promising a series of policy documents, Hipkins has given another State of the Nation speech with not a single new idea,\u201d Willis said. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty sad that the largest party in Opposition has no new ideas for how it will help New Zealanders get ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Willis said Labour\u2019s capital gains tax proposal shows the party is \u201cset to repeat the same formula of \u2018spend more, tax more, borrow more\u2019 that wrecked our economy,\u201d arguing National has spent two years \u201cundoing the damage Labour did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She warned a Labour\u2013Greens\u2013Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori government would be \u201can economic wrecking ball\u201d and said Hipkins must answer \u201cbasic questions\u201d to prove Labour won\u2019t jeopardise the recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has used his State of the Nation speech to argue New Zealand is at a crossroads, warning that rising living costs, stagnant productivity and accelerating climate impacts are eroding opportunity and driving thousands of New Zealanders overseas. Speaking to the Auckland Business Chamber, Hipkins said New Zealanders are \u201cworking harder than<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[226,113,257],"coauthors":[361],"class_list":{"0":"post-10251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-chris-hipkins","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-politics"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Hipkins-1.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10251"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10291,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10251\/revisions\/10291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10251"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}