Hipkins goes on the offensive

Written By: - Date published: 8:46 am, September 29th, 2023 - 39 comments
Categories: act, election 2023, national, nz first, racism, racism, same old national, winston peters - Tags:

Labour has finally managed to capture the media’s attention, this time with a full on attack on racist campaigning that the right have been engaged in.

On Wednesday night at the leader’s debate he blindsided Christopher Luxon by reading out something that a New Zealand First candidate said and asked him why he was willing to work with racists.

Luxon stammered around the answer but eventually conceded that what was said was racist.

The NZ First candidate, Rob Ballantyne, is number 16 on their list and is standing in the Rangitata.  And what he said is every bit as unhinged as it initially sounded.

He is someone whose speech writing licence should be taken off him.

Then yesterday Hipkins gave a speech titled Progressing Together and said this:

But in this election – our unfinished journey towards better; the sense of nationhood we’ve worked so hard to define – is at risk.

That’s not to say we haven’t been in this position before and prevailed.

Political parties have used race-baiting and anti-Treaty politics to divide us in elections.

But even when the polls were down, we as a country stood our ground and held them back.

And in this election we need to do it again.

The National, ACT, New Zealand First coalition of chaos and cuts puts all we have worked for at risk.

And those with the most to lose are Māori and the place of Te Tiriti.

Let’s be honest. When it comes to Māori politics and politicians vying for votes at the election – leaders of the main political parties have generally done one of two things.

First, we have leaders who see anti-Māori positions as vote winners.

They reach out to New Zealanders through one-liners like ‘One system for all,” putting out the narrative that Māori somehow get something other New Zealanders don’t.

This approach plays on some people’s fears.

It’s not pretty, and it’s wrong. It also ignores the facts. Far from being privileged, Māori are over represented on the wrong side of far too many social and economic statistics.

Then there is the second option.

Leaders that play to the middle ground – or in other words keep quiet on Māori issues, make change but put policies under wraps, water down positions for fear of being seen as too ‘pro-Māori’ and losing votes.

It’s depressing that the options seem to be race bait or keep quiet.

I refuse to choose either of those options.

I’ve decided to do something novel, and that’s tell the truth and stick to my values.

I’m going to be open and transparent about why I support a Māori Health Authority, why I believe in Te Tiriti and why I think it’s important to our future that Māori and the Crown work together – and that when we do we are not only at our best as a country but whole new opportunities open up for all of us.

It always gets me that overseas and on the world stage we’re so rightly proud of Māori culture and our heritage.

The All Blacks doing the haka unites us as a nation.

When we see extreme racial injustice in other countries we reflect on how different things are here.

But we can never take progress for granted.

In the first leaders debate Christopher Luxon reiterated his commitment to abolishing the Māori Health Authority in favour of ‘one system for all’.

This type of one-liner may be catchy to some– but it made me angry.

Angry that he simplifies a long battle many have fought to have a health system that finally works for Māori.

Angry that he thinks he knows better than Māori about Māori Health and well-being.

But what is worst of all – it makes me angry that he wants ‘one system for all’ even when that one system fails 20 percent of the population, and has failed them for decades.

It isn’t even one system for all – it’s a worse system for some.

Māori life expectancy is seven years’ lower.

Māori are twice as likely as non-Māori to die from cancer.

Avoidable hospitalisations for Māori aged four and under are higher than the equivalent rate for non-Māori and non-Pacific children.

And around forty percent of Māori are living in the highest areas of deprivation, compared to just over ten percent of Europeans.

These are the facts.

But Christopher Luxon is choosing to continue to deliver poor health outcomes for Māori because it gets a few points in the polls.

That just isn’t leadership.

Winston Peters and Shane Jones have run interference and claimed that Ballantyne’s comments have been taken out of context.  I think they are saying that Ballantyne did not say something racist because when he said “we have the cultural mandate to cut out your disease and bury you permanently” he was talking about co governance and not Māori.  His speech was peppered with dog whistles.  References to sinister Global organisations, proudly saying that all Government departments will revert to English names and that they will ensure one person one vote of equal value are as dog whistly as you can get.

And he was using prepared speech notes,  This was not some accidental misspeak.

Peters will not mind the publicity.  He has made a career of making outlandish statements that appeal to racists.

Good on Hipkins for calling them out and addressing this directly.  And shame on the parties of the right who are willing to seek support by trying to divide us.

39 comments on “Hipkins goes on the offensive ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. James Simpson 1
    29 September 2023 at 9:03 am

    Hipkins, the guy that was a senior minister in a Labour/NZF government, 3 years ago, is now realising that NZF are racist?

    Good grief politics is sinical.

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 1.1
      29 September 2023 at 9:07 am

      Sharing Defeatist Bollocks ? Maybe back off in this Post aye?

      And onya Chris Hipkins.

    • Bearded Git 1.2
      29 September 2023 at 10:56 am

      The choice was 3 more years with English as PM or go with Winston and the Greens-what did you expect Labour to do?

      (its cynical btw)

    • Adrian 1.3
      29 September 2023 at 11:12 am

      Yeah…wouldn’t it have been so much better getting through Covid with a Nat/Act/NZF government. Do you really think that Luxon and Peters and Seymour wouldn’t think that they knew more than the scientists and medical professionals. The only ones to do well out of that would have been funeral directors. Bring out yer dead.

  2. PsyclingLeft.Always 2
    29 September 2023 at 9:11 am

    Hi Mickey Savage. As a Labour supporter, I was wondering if it would be possible to have a Post for Labour..and highlighting what Labour have achieved?

    I am Left Solidarity….but feel somewhat less than support for Labour on the Standard..

    What think?

  3. Mac1 3
    29 September 2023 at 9:13 am

    Amen to all that. I have been to six public meetings so far, about 400 people, and these racist calls from the ACT, NZF and Democracy NZ candidates have met with just a smattering of applause, mostly from their entourage. In contrast, the Labour candidate said simply "He waka eke noa" as her fifteen word summary of her politics. "We are all in this together".

    The worst hoarding for me is the NZF one which says we should take our country back. My immediate response is "from whom" and "who is 'us'"? The ACT hoarding also is offensive and wrong which says they will end racial division.

    Our NZF candidate says that NZF sits in the centre. Not on this issue, it doesn't, with his racist rhetoric and references to "virtue-signalling, woke socialists".

    This is all a different kind of signalling, (certainly not virtuous!), and it is deeply divisive and dangerous. Hipkins is absolutely correct to call it out.

  4. Tiger Mountain 4
    29 September 2023 at 9:36 am

    Well done to Chris Hipkins for this.

    And…the other offensive he could have gone on was…you guessed it…a Wealth Tax like Robbo and David Parker were into.

    And hey, Weka, that is not defeatist bollocks but an objective view if you look at a number of polls on the subject.

    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300979367/new-survey-shows-widespread-support-for-taxes-on-capital-gains-and-windfall-profits

    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/08/newshub-reid-research-poll-results-do-kiwis-support-chris-hipkins-decision-to-rule-out-wealth-tax.html

    I continue to campaign in my networks and with anyone I run into for a Labour/Green/Te Pāti Māori Govt on Oct.14.

    • James Simpson 4.1
      29 September 2023 at 9:55 am

      I think that will be seen as a mistake regardless of the election result. It is is now indisputable that a wealth tax is favoured by the majority. The numbers show that even those voting for right wing parties, want the tax.

  5. Dennis Frank 5
    29 September 2023 at 9:59 am

    I agree. The PM is doing the right thing. Consensus is the better way forward in politics. I have no problem with rightist views of Te Tiriti when based on principle and accuracy rather than ignorance. The ancient Greek word for the guts of the situation here is ethos. That's what coheres folk onto common ground.

    Ethics then becomes the intellectual derivative to drive policy development, but ethos itself is an ambient thing. In politics, it drives us into the cultural interface via working together in shared motivation. It has a spiritual dimension which unfortunately is forced to remain tacit in contemporary society…

  6. Ad 6
    29 September 2023 at 10:14 am

    Get up there and keep going Hipkins.

  7. ianmac 7
    29 September 2023 at 10:16 am

    What Hipkin's calling out of racism and the Right's denial, means from now on every time Right wing politicians and their supporters make racist remarks, they are more likely to be called out. Policies espoused will have to be cleansed.

  8. Bearded Git 8
    29 September 2023 at 11:04 am

    Great that Hipkins has found his mojo.

    Just hang in there people. Lab 29 Gr 15 TPM 4 means a Left government.

    I seriously doubt the pollsters have it right when they say TPM are on 2. Another thing that occurred to me the other day was that in every election the late overseas votes come in strongly for the Left-I doubt the pollsters allow fully for this.

    • PsyclingLeft.Always 8.1
      29 September 2023 at 11:15 am

      I seriously doubt the pollsters have it right when they say TPM are on 2.

      Aye ! And absolutely We are still in there. Cmon the Left !

    • Dennis Frank 8.2
      29 September 2023 at 11:29 am

      There's a mystery around this which is why you again point to it – they did hit 7% in that RM poll a couple of months back. I commented at the time that it seemed anomalous but other polls had them higher than currently too.

      Input here from folks with Maori political insight would be real useful on this conundrum. Did the MP come on too radical & spook Maori voters?

      Could be that they realised they ought to support Willie & co. My understanding is that the MP have the support of the Maori king & consequently a majority of the Maori political establishment too but Willie – the ex-Alliance activist – operates in an equally traditional political establishment.

      Strange tho – we haven't had any other RM poll since & I thought they were monthly. Haven't seen a Guardian poll either since theirs of about the same time ago.

      • Belladonna 8.2.1
        29 September 2023 at 12:10 pm

        I have a real question over how effectively the standard polls penetrate the Maori roll. I think that many of their standard selection tools in finding participants, are not effective in reaching this population.

        I don't really have any confidence that the vote for TPM, as reported in the polls, reflects reality.

        Of course, the result on election day (or a couple of days later for final tabulation) – may well prove me wrong, and the polls right.

    • Tiger Mountain 8.3
      29 September 2023 at 12:15 pm

      Live in hope perhaps…but, TPM have to be considered underrated given polling catchments.

      Debbie Ngarewa Packer in particular has been running a flax roots campaign in small towns for months.

      In the Far North our first FNDC Māori Mayor did the same, visiting the margins, and yes it was close, but Moko Tepania won, as the tory candidate Anne Court sat on her arse in Kerikeri and did little if any campaigning.

    • Anne 8.4
      29 September 2023 at 12:23 pm

      Great that Hipkins has found his mojo.

      Just wish it had happened a bit sooner.

      As for the WT/CGT… MMP politics is the art of consensus. If Lab/Green/Te Pati Maori do pull it off then there is an excellent chance Labour will have a change of heart. They have a good excuse because both the Greens and TPM have it as pretty much a bottom line.

      And this is why the rich pricks have been pouring the millions into NAct. They know there will be a new tax aimed at them if the current government is re-elected.

  9. Patricia Bremner 9
    29 September 2023 at 11:24 am

    He has our back and will fight for fair. Go Chippy. Go the Left.

  10. Adrian 10
    29 September 2023 at 12:22 pm

    If you want to win, offer to help the hard workers of the LECs and Greens. Now is the time with 2 weeks to go for small signs to go up on fences, or make your own because they work. Signs are only good for 2 weeks after that they are wallpaper. Make it look like a surge, hear how a footy crowd rises to a chant of a rolling maul.
    WE CAN DO THIS.

    • Bearded Git 10.1
      29 September 2023 at 1:52 pm

      Good idea…the guy I help resurrect smashed Labour and Green signs with has a big Labour sign that he could put up on his property….will txt him

      • Tiger Mountain 10.1.1
        29 September 2023 at 2:32 pm

        Yep, I have done signs, corner Far North beach property with several hundred vehicle movements a day, lots of utes, but it all helps.

        • Adrian 10.1.1.1
          29 September 2023 at 3:31 pm

          Good on ya mate! and it feels good!

          • Patricia Bremner 10.1.1.1.1
            29 September 2023 at 6:47 pm

            I have a big sign on our section. When I am out in the garden I get toots and waves. There is a surge of belief in us again. We look like a team.

            Gold that Willis said she does not want to go with NZ First. Disunity and they are not even over the line.devil

            • Anne 10.1.1.1.1.1
              29 September 2023 at 7:08 pm

              Yes Patricia I'm hopeful Labour has turned a corner. I'm also hopeful the Greens will keep up their momentum and Te Pati Maori will be able to increase their party votes.

    • weka 10.2
      29 September 2023 at 3:35 pm

      great advice cheers.

  11. Stephen D 11
    29 September 2023 at 3:35 pm

    In our electorate it’s a constant struggle replacing damaged signs. Faces cut out with knives, frames wrecked, signs ripped off. Doing it almost every day. A local electorate has had over 40% of its signs destroyed.

    • Tiger Mountain 11.1
      29 September 2023 at 3:56 pm

      Same in Far North, but ex Nat MP Matt King’s Democracy NZ signs all seem to be left alone.

      Outside of elections there is a hard core of boofheads that pepper road signs with shotgun pellets and smash over beach care/no vehicles on dunes signs–always at night.

    • Anne 11.2
      29 September 2023 at 5:50 pm

      Somebody in Devonport, Auckland doesn't like ACT. They've taken to a prime spot hoarding with an axe two or three times now and another has been removed altogether.

      • SapphireGem 11.2.1
        29 September 2023 at 10:14 pm

        We’re in Devonport too, and the other day I saw a Matt King hoarding on Lake Road corner Seabreeze Ave defaced with the c word and a swastika.

    • Craig H 11.3
      30 September 2023 at 10:57 am

      Same in much of Christchurch although not quite to that extent.

  12. Graeme 12
    29 September 2023 at 3:40 pm

    Luxon has people on his face book page referring to wiggers.

    it is no surprise he is desperately looking to where ever he can to get power. That’s all it is to him, a massive ego trip. The travelling lectern should be enough tell us what he is.

    • Barfly 12.1
      29 September 2023 at 4:55 pm

      IMO Luxon is all hot and sweaty wanting to be called "Sir Christopher Luxon:" and he knows if National doesn't win this election he will only get a back full of sharp stabbing instruments instead of the knighthood he craves.

  13. SapphireGem 13
    30 September 2023 at 8:14 am

    Te Pati Maori has reported the following on their Facebook page seven hours ago (I can’t link it as I don’t know how to…):

    “Te Pāti Māori Candidate Hana Maipi-Clark’s Home Invaded in Politically Motivated Attack

    Te Pāti Māori are not strangers to hate speech and online threats. Today however, a line was crossed.

    Our Hauraki-Waikato candidate, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi Clark’s home was invaded, vandalised, and left with a threatening letter. This premeditated and targeted attack is the latest of three incidents to take place at Hana’s home just this week.

    When our billboards are vandalised, and when our candidates are verbally assaulted, it is not an attack on them as individuals or us as a political party. It is an attack on what we represent: our whakapapa, our culture, and the dreams of our tupuna and mokopuna.

    To our knowledge, this is the first time in our history that a politician’s home and personal property has been invaded to this extent.

    This escalation of danger is what happens when right wing politicians race bait and fearmonger for votes. They have emboldened this type of behaviour. Now it is time we embolden ourselves.

    Such ugliness has no place in our Aotearoa Hou. It only shows the strength of our movement.

    Speaking at The Hui’s Hauraki-Waikato electorate debate tonight, Hana Maipi-Clark had a clear message to the people who entered her home and threatened her: “Don’t be scared”

    “The kohanga reo generation are here, and we have a huge movement and a huge wave of us coming through”

    “I am not scared… I am here to be a light and a māramatanga to us that we belong in these places” said Maipi-Clark

    Hana is our mokopuna, and no mokopuna should ever be treated this way.

    It’s time to stand up for our whakapapa. To defend our mokopuna.

    Vote for the movement that will never allow this to happen to us. For our Aotearoa hou. For our mokopuna.”

  14. Ad 14
    30 September 2023 at 11:16 am

    Totally Sapphire.

    2 attacks on 2 candidates in 1 day is dark.

    Police Commissioner and Minister of Police need to reassure us, to media.

    Especially after the mob-march in Wellington this week.

    NZ doesn't need this.