The weather conditions clearly had an impact on turnout; there wasn’t much foot traffic among what would ordinarily be busy stalls selling items they deem essential to exploring New Zealand’s more rugged areas.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins speaks with a member of the public. Photo / Adam Pearse
The Labour leader appeared in good spirits as he went from stall to stall, accompanied by a typically energetic Andersen. It’s a place they should feel at home; Hipkins is the local Remutaka MP, while Andersen formerly held the neighbouring Hutt South electorate.
He engages well with a woman selling a variety of hats, ranging from cowboy to Swanddri-colour-themed bucket hats. Disappointingly, Hipkins refuses to sample two quite fetching red hats on a shelf behind him, one featuring a rather extravagant feather.
“I don’t think you’ve got my best interests at heart,” he says, upon the Herald’s encouragement.
Hipkins also declines an offer from one man showing off his portable sauna, despite the man pitching him the headline: “Chris Hipkins gets sweating for his election campaign.”
Walking through rows of immaculately restored and maintained Land Rovers, Hipkins chats with Andersen, marvelling at the models. He doesn’t seem compelled to engage with their owners or onlookers, being happy to peek through a window and carry on.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins and MP Ginny Andersen peer into one of the vehicles on show. Photo / Adam Pearse
It’s quite a contrast to similar walkabouts with National leader Christopher Luxon, who seems incapable of leaving an event without shaking 100 people’s hands and asking how their day is going.
It’s a key difference between the two party leaders; one Labour is seeking to manage and one National is aiming to exploit.
It’s worth noting campaign walkabouts don’t win elections. In the end, policies and vision for the country matter most. There will also be plenty of people who won’t appreciate a politician like Luxon interrupting their day and demanding their time.
However, it’s striking how insistent Luxon, who also benefits from the celebrity of being Prime Minister, albeit a not very popular one, is about introducing himself while Hipkins, like many Kiwi blokes, seems content observing until he’s approached or comes across an event official or stallholder.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins and MP Ginny Andersen hold a media stand-up. Photo / Adam Pearse
That isn’t to say Hipkins doesn’t try. Unfortunately, his offer to high-five one young boy was not taken up, shyness getting the better of the youngster, who nestles into Dad’s leg. Hipkins recovers with an amicable chat with Dad.
It’s at the Safeguard tent that Hipkins’ interest is piqued, as he is tempted by the range of mesh cargo nets for sale, designed to secure loads on ute trays or trailers.
After more than 15 minutes talking to the stallholder, Hipkins pulls the trigger and purchases the 2.6m by 2m net, worth $374. The stallholder appears to offer the net to Hipkins for free, but as an experienced politician would, Hipkins insists on paying full price.
It’s only then that Hipkins realises his mistake; he doesn’t have his wallet and the stallholder doesn’t offer payWave.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins purchases a cargo mesh net for his trailer. Photo / Adam Pearse
Hipkins’ only option is to turn to Andersen, who draws out her card and pays for the net herself. She receives some trinkets from the stallholder for her trouble.
Afterwards, Hipkins is introduced to Allison, a real estate agent wary of having her photo taken, who describes herself as the only realtor supporting him in this election.
She asks if Hipkins is exhausted but he says he’s upbeat: “It’s been really fun, we’re having a great time.”
The spending spree doesn’t end with the net. Hipkins returns to a stall selling solar panel charging devices he’d spied earlier. After chatting with stallholder Callum, who gives the Labour leader a strong sell, Hipkins purchases a bundle worth $138, taking his overall spending to $512.
Fortunately, Callum has payWave and Hipkins can purchase this one himself. Callum confesses Hipkins already had his vote before the purchase.
Hipkins is now aware he may have exceeded his daily spending allowance, saying to one of his staff: “I didn’t come here to spend money but you bring me to a gadget place.”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins shows off his pour. Photo / Adam Pearse
In a classic walkabout activity, Hipkins is directed to a pop-up bar where he can pull a pint. The bar manager doesn’t want to be on camera so leaves Hipkins to pour a Panhead Supercharger for his campaign manager Beth Houston, before calling on Andersen to again pull out her card to buy a beer so Hipkins can have another go. Both are respectable pours, albeit with the advantage of smaller plastic cups that pose less risk of excessive head than glass.
Speaking to media at the end of his walkabout about his purchases, Hipkins says he’s been looking for something to cover his trailer while dumping greenwaste so he’ll no longer be “ripping up the cheap plastic ones you get from Mitre 10”.
“That’s a decent-quality one, I’ve been looking for one for a while.”
The solar bundle is for family camping outings, although he acknowledges his spending might land him in hot water with partner Toni.
“I didn’t actually come here to spend any money today, I might be in trouble when I get home, so don’t tell anyone.”
Asked what he gets out of campaign walkabouts, Hipkins claims some people “run away when they see all the cameras coming” but says he enjoys chatting with people.
Questioned about how his style compares to Luxon’s, Hipkins implies Luxon’s engagements weren’t genuine.
“I like to engage genuinely with people, I’m not here to sell them. I’m not a sales spokesperson.”
He laughs when the Herald suggests he’s been doing more buying than selling.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins poses for a picture. Photo / Adam Pearse
But asked about National’s consistent attack campaign on potential taxes of a Labour-led coalition, Hipkins rounds on the media for promoting National’s “repeated lies”.
“I’m somewhat frustrated that the media keep repeating their lies without the clear clarification, that’s not true, the Labour Party has one new tax proposal.”
National has claimed a Labour-led coalition featuring the Green Party, Te Pāti Māori and Opportunity could introduce as many as nine new taxes. Hipkins has insisted Labour would introduce only a capital gains tax and ruled out adopting others from possible coalition partners.
Asked which media outlets had lied, Hipkins suggests all had: “Well, you all report [National campaign chairman] Simeon Brown’s outrageous claims repeatedly; they are lies.”
Brown comes under further attack from Hipkins, who said he was promoting “hysteria” over a suggestion from Labour’s foreign affairs spokeswoman about increasing New Zealand’s foreign aid spend to 0.7% of gross national income, which Brown alleged would cost billions over the coming years.
“[Brown] clearly didn’t read what Vanushi Walters and I both said, which is that over time, as fiscal conditions allow, we want to increase New Zealand’s overseas aid.”
Hipkins also repeats his criticism of parties considering engineering an overhang in Parliament, which refers to parties winning more electorate seats than their party vote share entitles them to, thus increasing the size of Parliament and their likelihood of forming a government.
It had been a question surrounding the National Party amid poor party polling, which former leader and PM Sir John Key said any National supporters considering voting strategically for a National candidate and then Act or NZ First for their party vote – to generate an overhang on the right – was not helping the party.
Te Pāti Māori was also running a campaign for just electorate votes with the intention of generating an overhang.
“If it was a deliberate rorting of the electoral system as opposed to an unintended consequence of an election campaign, I think that would actually draw into question the legitimacy of the government that was being formed,” Hipkins says.
Asked if he would accept power if the left bloc won the election as a result of an overhang, Hipkins replies: “A deliberate overhang strategy is absolutely not part of our campaign plan.”
Hipkins is set to have his first leaders’ debate with Luxon on Tuesday, hosted by TVNZ. While he wouldn’t reveal who had been playing Luxon in his debate preparation, Hipkins did have a message for Luxon: “Perhaps he could try answering some questions for once.”
Hipkins says he wasn’t impressed by Thursday’s minor party leaders’ debate, hosted by Stuff/ the Press, commenting that he “didn’t think there was anything particularly new there”. For the record, in the debate NZ First leader Winston Peters suggested sunscreen should be subsidised and said he wanted to increase the Government’s Working for Families payment for low-to-middle income families, intended to help with high fuel prices, from $50 to $120.
Asked what he thought of the performance of Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong, who was rated the best by Stuff’s online audience and could hold the balance of power at the election, Hipkins is less direct in his answer.
“Look, I’m not going to get into providing an individual commentary on any of the other party leaders.
“People can make their own judgments on that, I’m campaigning for Labour.”
Earlier, during his walkabout, members of an apparent stag do spotted Hipkins coming to speak to media and seemed interested in getting the stag to intervene. One large and imposing member of Hipkins’ security team quickly warded them off before they could disrupt proceedings.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins takes a photo with Adam (left) and Luke during Adam’s stag do. Photo / Adam Pearse
However, just as Hipkins is leaving, another man sporting a black wig and a red dress with quite an open front wanders up to Hipkins with his mate.
They’re part of another stag do attending the show. The stag, Adam, is covered in bruises. His mate, Luke, generously estimates the stag was pelted with about 2500 paintball projectiles.
After showing Hipkins a fairly crude haircut under the wig, the trio take a photo together.
Speaking to the Herald afterwards, Luke remarks how fortuitous it is to come across a would-be Prime Minister while on a stag do.
“Hopefully not the Prime Minister,” Adam mutters.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.