CHRIS HIPKINS AND LABOUR : THE SAME, BUT DIFFERENT

Chris Hipkins may have reorganised Labour's policy priorities, but it doesn't mean that the party has returned to its political roots like some of its supporters claim. 

THIS WEEK Prime Minister Chris Hipkins released a list of policies that his government is no longer committed to, or even believes in. In what can be regarded as a less than favourable judgment on Jacinda Ardern's political legacy, Hopkins has pruned away the weeds of some contentious policies that were slowly strangling the life out of the Labour Government. It's goodbye to such proposed reforms as the RNZ-TVNZ merger, the hate speech legislation and the introduction of unspecified changes to the Three Waters legislation. The thorny issue of co-governance though is still rattling around in Labour's policy cupboard.

But Chris Hipkins will be hoping he has done enough to provide Labour with a firmer platform on which to fight October's general election. And, pssst, he's also hoping he's done enough to stop 'soft National voters' returning to home base. 

But by telling us what Labour doesn't believe in, we still don't know what Labour does believe in other than the same old neoliberal orthodoxy it has been committed to for some four decades. While Hipkins might say he leads a party that will be sticking to 'the bread and butter issues', he is still only tinkering with Labour's present settings rather than charting a completely new course. 

It's a very generous interpretation to suggest that Labour has, after all these years, rediscovered the working class. But there are Labour supporters who are already saying that. But it doesn't take much to convince them that Labour has changed. They are, after all, the very same people who hailed Jacinda Ardern as the flag bearer for a new, progressive left. Still hoping to breathe life into Labour's rotting social democratic corpse and just too conservative to embrace a more consistent left politics that doesn't involve Labour, they will rally around Labour regardless.

And Hipkins has provided them with their convenient excuse this time round. So terminal Labour supporter Chris Trotter writes that the minimum wage increase 'was the new Labour Leader’s pièce de résistance. Nothing could better signal Labour’s return to its political roots – a movement dedicated to the welfare and uplift of ordinary working-class New Zealanders.'

What Trotter doesn't say - or he hasn't worked it out yet (I'm being charitable) - is that Hipkins has simply raised the minimum wage in line with CPI inflation (7%) or $1.50 per hour to $22.70 per hour from April 1. That means there actually isn't a real increase in the minimum wage. In sharp contrast, the previous five increases under Labour averaged twice the CPI inflation rate. This folks, according to the excitable Chris Trotter, is Labour 'returning to its political roots'. That's the same 'political roots' that has judged that struggling beneficiaries will get zilch, despite the rising cost of living.

By discarding policies deemed to be unpopular with the electorate, and Labour is nothing if not a poll driven party, Hipkins has moved Labour even closer to National. There is nothing in what Hipkins has said that suggests Labour is going to abandon its dour centrism. By the time the election campaign properly kicks off Chris Hipkins and Chris Luxon may have little left to argue about but the relative merits of Pepsi and Coke. 

Instead of coming up with new and compelling ideas to address the pressing issues of day, like the accelerating problems associated with capitalism, Labour's new leader has turned inward. He is not concerned with finding a new way to shape our economy and society, he is merely interested in reconfiguring Labour in one last desperate attempt to avoid a catastrophic election defeat. But in doing so, Chris Hipkins has highlighted that centrist Labour has run out of ideas.