CHRIS HIPKINS: THE RICH ARE PEOPLE TOO

Chris Hipkins told Labour's Auckland Regional Conference that Labour is on the side of the wealthy. The revolution doesn't start here.

WITH THE General Election still well over a year away, all signs point to the Labour Party pursuing the same centrist course that significantly contributed to its defeat last time round. Given the conservative politics of leader Chris Hipkins its not surprising that Labour is preparing to go down this path to nowhere again. That Hipkins is getting away with it only serves to highlight that no-one in Labour is proposing anything different. Even Hipkins admitting that a Labour Government would not 'necessarily' roll back all the 'reforms' of the present government has not met with any protest.

Chris Hipkins and Labour have not read the room. At a time of economic crisis and with a Government ideologically fixated with its austerity agenda regardless, the mood of the country is for a real change, not a mere tinkering with the policy settings.

But instead of embracing the 'populist' left approach of people like Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Jeremy Corbyn, Hipkins has chosen to defend an unpopular status quo that is failing ordinary people. Incredibly, he thinks this is the recipe for election success. Perhaps he thinks he can repeat the election success of the Australian Labor Party, even though that had more to with the rejection of the hard right politics of 'Trumpism' rather than support for centrism.

Hipkins told the Labour's Auckland Regional Conference over the weekend:

'Whether you're Maori, Pakeha, Pasifika, Asian or a new Kiwi, whether you're young or old, gay, straight, transgender, wealthy or struggling - Labour sees you. Labour hears you. Labour is fighting for you.'

The country's rich elite, who own over sixty percent of New Zealand's wealth, will be very happy to hear that Chris Hipkins and Labour are fighting for them. Frankly, what the hell is Hipkins talking about?

Although it will never happen, Labour should be focusing on the nature of production within a capitalist economy and who it benefits. That's what a left wing Labour Party would do. Instead, we've got conservative Labour leaders like Chris Hipkins defending the wealthy as if, suddenly, the class divide doesn't exist and 'we're all in this together'.

We need to call out the centrism of Chris Hipkins for what it really is: a continued bias favouring an unjust status quo. Capitalism is not working for most people. The evidence for that is all around us. We are confronted with systemic problems that require systemic change. Yet Chris Hipkins and Labour still want us all to believe that just a few minor adjustments will do the trick. And we haven't even got to the existentialist crisis that is climate change.

New Zealand, and the world, need radical change. Chris Hipkins and Labour seek to deny such change. So why on earth should we want to install Labour in office if it's just going to be 'business as usual', again? And, please, don't tell me that at least Labour isn't National. We are well beyond that bad joke.