Photo: RNZ
The Labour Party faithful are gathering in Wellington this weekend for the party's annual congress.
It will be Chris Hipkins' first since taking over as Labour leader from Jacinda Ardern. While he will be preaching to the converted, Hipkins will use his time at the podium on Sunday to explain who he is, and his vision for election year and beyond.
The weekend will have a heavy focus on what is "at stake" should National and ACT form a government after October's election. Labour plans to take aim at the opposition parties' intentions to increase the superannuation age to 67.
Labour claims doing so would mean someone earning the average wage of $78,527 would miss out on $51,764.34 in payments by the time they turned 67.
National has committed to raising the superannuation age to 67, saying it would be done gradually and with 15-20 years' notice.
ACT's alternative budget, released earlier this month, includes a plan to increase the super age to 67 at a rate of two months a year from 2023-34 (it would, however, delink the KiwiSaver withdrawal age, meaning participants could still withdraw their funds at 65 regardless of changes to the super age).
Once it reaches 67 (in 2035-36), it would then be indexed to life expectancy, which ACT said would ensure "that each generation was entitled to the same proportion of their life on the pension as previous generations".
Labour said this would mean a now 30-year-old would retire in 2062 at the age of 69, and miss out on a total of $103,528.68 in superannuation payments.
It also said ACT's plan to remove KiwiSaver subsidies at $65,000 would mean the same 30-year-old would lose a further $46,481, accounting for compound interest.
This line of attack was set to come from Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni, who will speak on Saturday and announce a policy in her social development portfolio.
Other speakers on Saturday will include Labour Party president Jill Day, Labour's deputy leader Kelvin Davis and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
RNZ understands Hipkins will make an education-focused policy announcement during his speech. Neither policy was expected to be large, given the congress was happening so soon after the Budget.
Labour ministers and MPs have spent much of the last week-and-a-half on the road, selling various Budget announcements to the public.
But the congress comes as a new poll suggests the public was cooling on the left bloc. The latest 1News Kantar Public poll shows National and ACT could form a government, with 62 seats.
Labour lost one percentage point in the poll, giving it 46 seats. Even with nine seats from the Greens and three from Te Pāti Māori, it would not be enough to get over the line.
Hipkins still has the edge over Christopher Luxon in the preferred prime minister stakes. Despite losing two points, his 25 percent was still ahead of Luxon's 18 percent.
Labour's conferences (called congresses in election years) usually take place towards the end of the year, but given its an election year, it has been brought forward.
