{"id":536133,"date":"2026-07-21T02:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/536133\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T02:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T02:21:12","slug":"hipkins-instead-of-nz-first-you-could-call-it-labours-seconds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/536133\/","title":{"rendered":"Hipkins: ‘Instead of NZ First you could call it Labour’s seconds’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has given his two cents on former Labour Party MPs who have defected to New Zealand First in recent times.<\/p>\n

Leading up to this year’s general election, three previous Labour MPs have joined the party<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stuart Nash, who was a cabinet minister in the last Labour government before being sacked by Hipkins, is running as a candidate for New Zealand First in Napier.<\/p>\n

Another former Labour minister \u2013 Rino Tirikatene \u2013 has also recently joined the party as a member. He previously had represented the Tai Tonga M\u0101ori electorate from 2011 to 2023.<\/p>\n

Dover Samuels, who was a Labour MP from 1996 to 2008, had also made the move to New Zealand First.<\/p>\n

When asked about it on Breakfast, Hipkins said: “It’s clear Winston Peters has adopted a new recycling strategy when it comes to candidate’s elections.”<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he should change the name of his party. Instead of it being New Zealand First you could call it Labour\u2019s seconds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend at New Zealand First\u2019s 33rd annual conference<\/a>, Nash had acknowledged the defections and said \u201cwe didn\u2019t leave Labour, Labour left us\u201d.<\/p>\n

Former National MPs Harete Hipango-Brownlie and Alfred Ngaro have also joined the party and were at its annual conference.<\/p>\n

\u2018Disgraceful\u2019 \u2013 Hipkins on Jones\u2019 \u2018knee pads\u2019 comment<\/p>\n

\"New<\/p>\n

New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones speaking over the weekend in Auckland. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Hipkins was also asked about a comment made by New Zealand First deputy leader Shane Jones\u2019 over the weekend which appeared to reference the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.<\/p>\n

In a speech at the conference, Jones said: “The next time you go to an ethno-nationalist rally to receive a foreign leader, take off your knee pads.”<\/p>\n

The remarks were labelled as \u201ccrass\u201d<\/a> and \u201cunprofessional\u201d by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon yesterday.<\/p>\n

When asked about it this morning, Hipkins said: \u201cShane Jones would have been sacked a long time ago if he was a cabinet minister in any Cabinet that I led.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis behaviour is absolutely disgraceful. His attacks on the migrant community are wrong, and they are causing a lot of harm within our communities. People feeling really vulnerable and targeted as a result of Shane Jones\u2019 comments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hipkins added this kind of \u201cvulgar language\u201d has \u201cno place around a cabinet table\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinisters should lead by example, they should set some basic standards of conduct and behaviour, and they should show some decency in the way they conduct themselves publicly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hipkins was then asked to describe ACT\u2019s newly announced candidate, former broadcaster Paul Henry<\/a>, in one word.<\/p>\n

\"ACT<\/p>\n

ACT candidate Paul Henry speaking to Q and A. (Source: Q and A)<\/p>\n

“One word, far out,” Hipkins replied.<\/p>\n

“Colourful.”<\/p>\n

The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including a triumphant welcome for Spain\u2019s footballers, and a 1 in 15 million birth in Australia. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins has given his two cents on former Labour Party MPs who have defected…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8028,111,137,43,139,69],"class_list":["post-536133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-labour-party","tag-new-zealand","tag-new-zealand-first","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}