{"id":613238,"date":"2026-09-27T09:26:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613238\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T09:26:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:26:11","slug":"it-made-me-so-angry-hipkins-targets-cost-of-living-at-labour-campaign-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/613238\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It made me so angry’: Hipkins targets cost of living at Labour campaign launch"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Hipkins is promising “plenty more fire” this election, as Labour promises to cut student debt if elected.<\/p>\n

About 600 Labour supporters, volunteers and candidates packed into the Due Drop Events Centre in South Auckland for the party’s election campaign launch.<\/p>\n

The Pacific Youth Choir set the tone early, belting out classics like Mt Raskil Preservation Society’s ‘Bathe in the River’ and Stan Walker’s ‘Aotearoa’.<\/p>\n

Hipkins took to the stage in front of cheering supporters and immediately honed in on the cost of living as his focus for the election.<\/p>\n

“Is there anyone Christopher Luxon hasn’t talked down to?” he asked supporters.<\/p>\n

“You can choose a prime minister who will fight to get your costs down or a prime minister whose response to rising prices was ‘cry me a river’.<\/p>\n

“Have you ever heard anything so out of touch?<\/p>\n

“It made me so angry\u2026 it still does.”<\/p>\n

Hipkins also took aim at National – who had their own conference a couple hours earlier – for “bullshit” claims about Labour’s tax policy.<\/p>\n

“Christopher Luxon promised to fix the cost of living. He’s had three years. He’s failed.<\/p>\n

“And ask yourself this – after three years of National, are you better off?” he said.<\/p>\n

Hipkins said the election would be about the cost-of-living, making his pitch to parents, tradies, and small business owners: “This is middle New Zealand,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They get up, go to work, look after their families and do their best and right now, far too many of them are working harder than ever and still going backwards.<\/p>\n

“I won’t accept that as the future of New Zealand.”<\/p>\n

Hipkins announced Labour would write off 10 percent of eligible student loan balances<\/a>, applying to current and future graduates who are New Zealand-based for tax purposes , did not benefit from the fees free scheme and still had a loan to pay back.<\/p>\n

Loans of $2000 or less would be completely written off and the policy would cost $583.4 million over five years.<\/p>\n

Speaking to media after the launch, Hipkins said his team was “fired up” for the election.<\/p>\n

“We’re out on the doorsteps every day at the moment, we’re going to be fighting hard to win this election.”<\/p>\n

He said the party’s student loan policy would give young people “more of a reason” to stay in New Zealand, rather than going abroad.<\/p>\n

“We’re seeing far too many New Zealanders giving up on this country. I want to give them more of a reason to stay.”<\/p>\n

He said National were telling “outright lies” about Labour’s tax plans and he “calling them out on it”.<\/p>\n

“Christopher Luxon seems to stand for blame, excuses, slogans, no real answers, and New Zealand going backwards.<\/p>\n

“At least I know that my whole team 100 percent backs me. He can’t make the same claim, can he?” he said.<\/p>\n

Asked how the upcoming election would be different to the 2023 election – where Labour lost much of the “red wave” vote they secured in 2020 – Hipkins accused media of “listening to National Party spin bullshit”.<\/p>\n

“I’d encourage you not to.” he said.<\/p>\n

Asked again, Hipkins said people would see “plenty more fire” over the election.<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Chris Hipkins shakes hands with former Prime Minister Helen Clark during the Labour Party campaign launch at the Due Drop Centre in Manukau, Auckland, on 27 September 2026.<\/p>\n

Jo Moir \/ RNZ<\/p>\n

The student loan announcement was met with cheers, as Hipkins declared “neo-liberal, trickledown economics does not work”.<\/p>\n

Responding to claims from the National Party about Labour, Hipkins was blunt: “It’s bullshit.”<\/p>\n

“People aren’t asking the prime minister to feel sorry for them. They’re asking him to do his bloody job.”<\/p>\n

He also touched on Labour policies regarding supermarkets, public transport fare caps and free GP visits, before wrapping up his speech before a cheering crowd.<\/p>\n

“You are how we win this,” Hipkins told candidates and volunteers.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got something they don’t have. We’ve got you!”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris Hipkins is promising “plenty more fire” this election, as Labour promises to cut student debt if elected.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":613239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-613238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613238","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=613238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/613238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/613239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=613238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=613238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=613238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}