Chris Hipkins at the Labour Party congress on Sunday. Photo: RNZ / Katie Scotcher
Power Play - Labour is ramping up its pitch to regain power, telling voters they "deserve to know the choices they have" in election year.
There was little pretence the weekend's party Congress was about policy - it was all about laying out Labour's shingle for the 14 October election campaign and putting up the scare over the possibility of a National and ACT government.
Labour's confirmation it would not shift the superannuation age from 65 also flushed out a policy setting change from National - it had quietly pushed out the date it would start to increase the age to 67 by several years, meaning fewer disgruntled voters and an even longer lead time.
National in the news, too, for backing out of the housing accord it struck with Labour in 2021 - spearheaded by deputy leader Nicola Willis - under which bi-partisan legislation was passed.
More broadly, the "coalition of cuts" versus the "coalition of chaos" sums up the narrative both parties have been developing over months - if not years.
Labour is trying to push the opposition into a fiscal corner; to make National either commit to expensive new government policies, squeezing its financial plans even further - or rule them out and risk looking mean-spirited. The ongoing risk of being unable to detail how it would pay for various initiatives was no doubt behind National's decision to bring forward the presentation of its full financial plan ahead of the election.
Labour's driving question is exactly how National intends to pay for billions of dollars worth of tax cuts (a bill the party confirmed last week had become sizeably bigger than when first announced), without cutting into the bone of critical public services.
A tried and true attack line from National as well - remember the teams of rowers in National Party ads in 2014? They showed one boat flailing away with Labour, the Greens and United Future struggling to row in the same direction, alongside a slick blue team moving in concert (the same "pretty legal" ads that landed the party in hot water for copyright breaches).
The rowers were swapped out in 2017 for blue clad runners (in homage to then leader Bill English's 'walk-runs'), zooming past a limping bunch, tied together in an awkward three-legged type race, decked out in red, green and black and white.
In 2023 it is the "coalition of chaos" - same message, different presentation.
The sharpening of the political messages shows just what a tight race this will be, with Labour and National trying to leverage anything and everything they can out of the campaign, but will they go low in pursuit of power?
Hipkins has already shown a scrappier side than predecessor Jacinda Ardern, known for her "relentless" positivity. He wouldn't commit to being quite that positive in the heat of the campaign; a notch or two lower at "very positive".
Not all positive, though, telling members in his keynote speech "for some this is an age of hope, opportunity and acceptance ... for others it is an age of fear, uncertainty and suspicion".
Hipkins said Labour was not "just for the wealthy few, who are sinking millions of dollars into National and ACT", describing the "coalition of cuts" as driving down wages and salaries, "pretending" climate change was not happening, "meddling" with superannuation and "slashing" spending on public services.
National MP and campaign chair Chris Bishop said it showed a "desperate Labour Party... more interested in political attacks and scaremongering ... than actually governing". They were "running scared", he said, "a government that after six years has a dismal record of achievement".
Labour's Carmel Sepuloni confirmed they would stick to the plan for the superannuation age. Photo: RNZ/ Samuel Rillstone
On Saturday, Labour's Carmel Sepuloni confirmed they would stick to the plan for the superannuation age as settled under Ardern - that is, no change. Sepuloni said women, Māori, Pasifika and the disabled would be the most greatly disadvantaged if the age were to be lifted and insisted, with regular contributions to the super fund, it would be affordable into the future.
That position also plays to younger voters - under National's plan most older people would not be affected because of the long lead time in its plan to start increasing the age from 65 to 67, cushioning many of its Gen X and Boomer voters, but not the Millennials and younger.
However Hipkins is accused of hypocrisy by Bishop, who cites speeches made by Labour MPs in opposition when raising the age was party policy and who were arguing then it was the "responsible" thing to do.
As when Bill English took over from John Key as prime minister in 2016, this was an opportunity for Chris Hipkins to take another look at a policy his predecessor had staked their leadership on. An early move from English was to lay out a long term plan for raising the super age in recognition of the exploding retirement costs coming down the line for New Zealand, moving away from Key's steadfast refusal to make any change.
Hipkins has not taken that opportunity, as confirmed at the weekend, presenting one more policy difference between his party and National.
National's original policy, and still on the party's website on Sunday, was a plan to start increasing the age people could claim their super from 2037; that would mean most people over 50 at the moment, or born before 1972, would not be affected - the older cohort of Gen X and the Boomers.
National's campaign chair Chris Bishop said Labour was "running scared". Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Senior MP Chris Bishop did a media stand-up on Saturday in response to Labour but was talking about a timeframe even further into the future - a phasing from 2044, affecting those born after 1979.
That policy shift would mean fewer people would be disadvantaged by having to wait longer for their super, extending that to many now in their forties, or the younger Gen X.
A spokesperson said the policy was to have 20 years from the time legislation was passed, so the date had been adjusted accordingly, so if National was elected "the retirement age will start rising in 2044 - in 20 years' time".
That had not been communicated to the public as it "mostly hasn't come up, until now", they said.
About 20 weeks to go and the political parties are now fully in election mode.
Politics are about history and cycles and there are some echoes of the past as Hipkins tries to secure his party a third term.
Back in 2005 Helen Clark was fighting for the same prize and only won off the back of the original '20 free hours' early childcare policy and the promise of interest free student loans, eventually nailing down a governing deal with New Zealand First and United Future.
Beaten by the narrowest of margins was a resurgent National Party, led by Don Brash, promising to cut taxes and bring discipline back to government spending.
It is also the second recent election Labour has fought after changing leader in the same year. The last time Jacinda Ardern restored the vote to bring Labour out of the opposition wilderness and into government, with the onus now on Hipkins to keep it there. No pressure.
