Professor Robert MacCulloch: Why Chris Hipkins Cannot, and Should Not, Ever be PM of New Zealand.

Its easy to explain why Chris Hipkins cannot, and should not, ever be PM of this country:

1. He rolled out the Covid vaccine late & slow, to the extent NZ was bottom of 38 OECD countries for a large part of 2021. That failure ended up imposing a $30 billion cost we're still paying for today in terms of inflation & debt. It led to the nearly 4 month Auckland lockdown in late 2021 which was imposed to buy time to push vaccination rates higher. Hipkins was a key player in that decision. Just as the 2023 election resulted in the rejection of Labour by Aucklanders, who will not forget their incarceration due to the incompetence of the government at that time, should Hipkins ever stand again he will similarly be rejected by Aucklanders, who make up almost 40% of voters in this country.

2. Hipkins' NZ Herald essay saying that National "lacks vision" for Auckland & he is a better friend for the city beggar belief. Aside from the lockdown, whether its light-rail to the Airport or a second harbor bridge crossing, he can have all the visions he wants but his promises to achieve them have been proven not to be worth the speech paper they're written on. He's even arguing National should break its election promise of tax cuts. He's broken his own promises & wants others to break theirs. He's a serial promise breaker.

3. Hipkins rejected his own Labour Party Minister's David Parker and Grant Robertson's advice on implementing both unemployment insurance and capital gains / wealth tax. His decision to not run on those policies in election 2023 was not based on any Labour Party principles - quite the contrary, it was based on maximizing his own personal shot at power. Trying to reverse himself on that tax decision and now pretend he supports those policies is embarrassing. If he does now, why not before?

So as it stands, keeping Hipkins as Labour Leader all but ensures a Nats-NZ First-ACT win in 2026, as they can confidently assume that the vast proportion of Aucklanders will never vote Labour as long as our Prison-Warder-and-Breaker-of-Promises-in-Chief Chris Hipkins is there.

Sources:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/opinion-national-lacks-vision-for-auckland-our-most-productive-city-chris-hipkins/2AO6SSKWX5AELKSDWMKKNTUAPY/

Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.