“Chippy, I owe you a lot, I trust you, I fully back you, and I know come November 8th, we’re going to not only be a little bit tired after a very good party, but we’re going to be starting negotiations,” she said to applause from the room.
Hipkins, who said he had just come from his daughter’s birthday party, spoke for 15 minutes, touching on the cost of living, issues plaguing the health system and talking up his previous Government’s record on state housing.
Edmonds then opened the floor to questions, passing the microphone around the room.
“Norths needs another AV system, they’ve only got one microphone, so we’ll work on that one,” she said.
The first question related to the public sector job cuts, from a woman wearing Edmonds’ campaign merchandise, who said she was involved in a meeting about a proposal to cut 100 roles at Archives New Zealand.
Hipkins said Labour would not push ahead with proposed cuts, saying the party would set out the details of its public service plan, and what it would do differently, after the Government opens its books for the pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update on September 29.
Caroline Mareko, a candidate in Porirua City Council’s upcoming byelection, asked Hipkins about the Government’s “stupid announcements” in education, to which he said he would take politics out of the curriculum by introducing an independent curriculum centre.
He noted the presence in the room of former Labour ministers Marian Hobbs and Trevor Mallard, who oversaw previous education reforms.
Many at Porirua’s Northern United Football Rugby Club wore Barbara Edmonds merch for her public meeting with leader Chris Hipkins today. Photo / Ethan Manera
Another question came from a young supporter decked out in red, asking what Hipkins’ position was on recognising Palestine, and condemning what they considered the Government’s “disgraceful” lack of action on the issue.
“There is an unfolding genocide happening in Palestine at the moment,” Hipkins said.
“New Zealand is a signatory to the convention against genocide, and under that convention, we are obliged to call out an emerging genocide when it’s taking place and it is taking place and our Government isn’t upholding its responsibility under that convention to say so,” he said.
“We need to recognise Palestine as a state and we will do that under a Labour Government, we need to send a very clear message to Israel that what they’re doing is wrong and so sanctions are one way that we can do that.”
Asked later about the threat of climate change, Hipkins took aim at what he sees as a “nonsense” concept that environmental and economic ideals are at odds.
“Good environmental policy is good economic policy,” he said, “the idea that it’s a balance, you know, that you can somehow balance those two things against each other is nonsense.”
Hipkins faced another question from an attendee who argued New Zealand has “one of the easiest tax regimes in the world” for the wealthy, and questioned why he wasn’t campaigning on raising taxes on the rich.
Hipkins deferred to Edmonds, who said “what you and I believe is the fairness of the tax system will also be very different from what someone else says”.
She pointed to the party’s capital gains tax policy, which she said she designed alongside fellow MP Deborah Russell with the objective of keeping it simple to “make it stick”.
About 85 members of the public turned out on a grey Saturday in Porirua to hear from the man vying to return to the Beehive’s ninth floor. Photo / Ethan Manera
The last question came from a man in the audience concerned about international affairs, asking “can you tell me why we have a CIA office in Wellington and do they put pressure on the Government?”
Hipkins clarified that the US does have an FBI office in its Embassy, as of July last year, but does not have a foreign intelligence office in the form of the CIA.
He defended the FBI’s increased presence, saying “this might sound unusual coming from a lefty politician like me, but it’s actually quite helpful to us”.
“A lot of the information that we rely on for our own security as a country actually comes from the information that we share with other like-minded countries like the US, Australia, Canada, the UK.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins fronted a public meeting at the Northern United Football Rugby Club in Porirua today.
After the meeting, Hipkins mingled with supporters, taking selfies and being presented with a traditional Rotuman head garland by a member of the public.
Speaking to media later, Hipkins said he has “plenty of public meetings” coming up across the country.
He held his first public meeting of the campaign proper last week, with a crowd of about 150 people plus one cat in nearby Naenae.
National leader Christopher Luxon has also been holding public meetings around the country as part of his “Build the Future” tour, which wrapped up last week.
New Zealand First’s Winston Peters and Shane Jones have been touring the country for months. Act’s Paul Henry has also been touring extensively.
Asked about the modest crowd size at today’s event, Hipkins said he was “envisaging the ones in Auckland will be a lot bigger than the ones here in Wellington”.
Asked about the news that investigative journalist Nicky Hager will release a new book next week, just weeks before the election, Hipkins said he was excited to see what it would reveal.
“I don’t know what this book is on, but I’ll look forward to seeing what he’s come up with.
“I’ll be fascinated to see what he’s researched this time, I mean, you can’t fault his thoroughness in terms of his research.”
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.