Cam Slater: A Forlorn Hope

Via Stuff we find out that Chris Hipkins wants to mend Labour’s relationship with Auckland, after treating Auckland so harshly during the lockdowns and derisively trying to tell us what to do from Wellington.

The Labour Party is on a mission to reconnect with Auckland, after losing substantial support in the super city last year.

The entire caucus met in Auckland on Wednesday, for a two-day hui. The main goal is to rebuild support in the most important region for any party wanting to win an election.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins is confronting the Auckland issue head-on, saying the party clearly failed to respond to the needs of the country’s biggest city. This week’s two-and-a-half day mission is the latest in Labour’s “listening” exercise, which has seen groups of Labour MPs tour Auckland to do some post-election soul searching.

Stuff

Good grief, it is all so formulaic, isn’t it? Go on a tour and ‘listen’. Every opposition leader does this and it’s pathetic.

Well listen to this Hipkins: ‘GFY from Auckland’.

Labour’s support nosedived between the 2020 and 2023 elections in Auckland. It secured majority support from Aucklanders, 52.4% of the vote, in 2020. By October, 2023 that was down to 29.2%.

Even in the safest Labour Party seats, Labour lost major support. In Mangere, for instance, support sunk by 16 percentage points.

Stuff

What is bizarre is that they need a listening tour to find out why we hate them.

The Labour Party is meeting in Auckland this week. Through Wednesday MPs were meeting with Auckland businesses, including a trades training academy and the Port of Auckland.

On Thursday, Hipkins would meet with Ngati Whatua Orakei and Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown.

Labour’s relationship with Auckland had been a well known issue before the election, but October’s results clearly laid out how fractured the relationship had become.

After the Auckland Anniversary Flood, Hipkins appointed the first Minister for Auckland to serve in Government since 2007 – with Michael Wood taking the role. But Wood’s political career came to an end later that year.

Since then, Labour’s Auckland spokesperson, Shanan Halbert, has been coordinating events for MPs to get around the region.

Stuff

The same Shanan Halbert who has been writing to Police Minister Mark Mitchell, whinging about the harm to rainbow communities of having an illegal pedestrian crossing painted over… Him? Oh yes, it is him.

Hipkins said a number of issues, but mainly crime, lockdowns, and the cost of living, had lost Labour the election in Auckland.

On the lockdowns, which were longer and harsher for Auckland, he said: “I don’t think we should ever underestimate how tough it was for Auckland.

“One of the things that was very challenging and that we continue to get feedback on is that the people who were making those decisions were largely based in Wellington, therefore the people in Auckland felt their voices weren’t being heard. I acknowledge that.”

Stuff

Crime? You mean the crime Ginny Andersen said wasn’t actually increasing? It was just a new way of recording statistics: hush now, you don’t know what you are talking about, crime… that crime?

Crime was and still is out of control in Auckland, and the mean streets have got meaner. Their lockdowns screwed the economic base, the criminals smashed what was left and now he comes crawling wanting to listen.

Well listen to this Chippy; ‘GFY from Auckland’.

Halbert argued that Aucklanders had not seen any improvement in either, and were losing faith in the coalition’s ability to respond to those issues.

“There were a number of areas where Aucklanders lost confidence in part of our Government. They voted for change, and they haven’t got the change they were looking for,” Halbert said.

“So, it is now our time to step up and demonstrate our leadership and vision.”

Both Halbert and Hipkins said their focus for the next year was “listening”.

“The election is not going to be next week or next month. It is still another at least another two years away. And so we’ve got to make sure we make the most of the time that we’ve got,” Hipkins said.

Stuff

Hang on a minute, Labour opposes the change that voters asked and voted for, but now that opposition is being spun as “listening” and “leadership”. Remind me again who it was who emptied the prisons and caused a crime wave on the streets of Auckland.

This is trite bull dust from Labour, who only ever “listen” when in opposition, then when they regain power set about ignoring us, forgotten what they listened about and start dictating our lives like the know-it-all socialist losers they are.

Cam Slater is a New Zealand-based blogger, best known for his role in Dirty Politics and publishing the Whale Oil Beef Hooked blog, which operated from 2005 until it closed in 2019. Cam blogs regularly on the BFD - where this article was sourced.