��һ�ǿ�����

Labour leader Chris Hipkins says his party wants to win Auckland back after a dismal 2023 election result that included several of the city’s electorates turning blue. 

Hipkins will make his first official speech of the year at the party’s caucus retreat today, after slamming National leader Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nation address on Monday as “management-speak mumbo jumbo”. 

Political parties go on caucus retreats at the start of each year, allowing MPs to come together for the first time after the summer to strategise for the year ahead. 

National MPs are attending their own caucus retreat today in Christchurch, where Luxon, the Prime Minister, is expected to announce the date of the election. 

Hipkins said there will be no major policy announcements or reshuffling of MPs’ positions at Labour’s retreat (or any revealing of the party’s stance on the Government’s India free trade agreement – this is being saved for next week’s caucus meeting). 

The Government requires Labour’s support for its trade deal with India, after coalition partner NZ First said it would vote against it. 

Hipkins said the party had “tried hard not to play politics around trade agreements in the past”. 

“There’s certainly some things we’ve asked for a more detailed briefing on ... I think we do want to, as much as we can, try and keep this ... a bipartisan issue.” 

But he said he wanted to make sure the party knew what it was signing up for first. 

Instead of policy announcements or reshuffles, Hipkins said the retreat’s agenda would be focused on election-year campaign plans. 

He said his MPs are feeling bullish and upbeat after ending 2025 on a high with some positive polling and the unveiling of several campaign policies. If elected, the party is promising all New Zealanders three free GP visits, funded by a capital gains tax. 

“We made some pretty big policy announcements at the end of last year, and that really is kicking off our process of setting out how we’ll do things differently to the current Government. 

“And you’ll see a lot more policies from Labour this year. It’s election year.” 

Labour’s campaign strategy will of course include a focus on Auckland, where several of the party seats flipped to blue in 2023. 

“We want to win back to the country’s biggest city,” Hipkins said. 

“We’re having our first meeting for the year in West Auckland. That’s a clear signal to Auckland that we do recognise that we needed to win back support in Auckland and we’ve been working hard on that over the last two years.” 

Although support in Auckland was “continuing to increase”, Hipkins said “we’ve still got more work to do”. 

The selection process for who will contest the Auckland electorates for Labour is underway. 

“We’ve certainly got more up our sleeves that you’ll hear about more in the coming months but ... there will be a dedicated strategy around Auckland.” 

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.