OPINION

You really have to wonder what sort of drugs Labour is imbibing to come up with this sort of nonsensical rubbish to explain away why they lost. But here we are:

Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins does not think ruling out a capital gains or wealth tax this year cost his party the election.

Hipkins told Morning Report he did not regret making a captain’s call on a wealth or capital gains tax before the election and supported all the decisions his party took in the run-up to the election.

In terms of policy changes, Hipkins said nothing was off the table as his party “resets” in opposition.

“After an election loss you do need to go back to the drawing board and we need to accept the election in 2026 will be fought on very different territory to the election in 2023.

“So we start again our policy process and that means looking at things we might not have campaigned on in 2023 and it also means that the things we did campaign on in 2023 might not be part of our platform in 2026.”

Labour would be revisiting all of its policy positions after the election loss but at this point nothing could be ruled in or out, Hipkins said.

NZ Herald

Oh, absolutely! Because nothing says “middle New Zealand” like a party that embraces an extreme left-wing ideology and wants to burden its hardworking citizens with even more taxes. It’s genius, really.

You see, the Labour Party is convinced that by going further left, proposing an onslaught of new taxes, and making them even higher, they will magically convince middle New Zealand to vote for them again. Clearly, the secret to winning back the hearts and minds of everyday people is to take more of their hard-earned money and limit their financial freedom. Brilliant strategy!

Who needs common sense fiscal policies and economic stability when you can just promise radical wealth redistribution and capital gains taxes, right? Because that’s exactly what middle New Zealand wants – a government that will punish their success and hinder their ability to grow their own wealth. Such a winning formula!

And let’s not forget about the magical “reset” button that Labour plans to press. They believe that by wiping the slate clean and coming up with new policies that weren’t even part of their platform in the previous two elections, they have a shot at convincing us all to forget about their past failures. Because nothing screams “trustworthy” like a party that constantly changes its tune to suit its own political interests!

The Labour Party’s values would remain the same, he said.

Those values included an inclusive society with world-class public services for health and education and making home ownership available to all.

“These are value policies that have always informed the policies of the Labour Party but the specific commitments we make in terms of what we would do in government. Of course, three years from now they’re going to be different to what they were in this election campaign.”

NZ Herald

Oh, and don’t worry about Labour’s values changing. They’ll still claim to champion an inclusive society and provide world-class public services. They just conveniently forget to mention that these promises come at the expense of hardworking taxpayers, who will be expected to foot the bill for their grandiose plans.

There you have it, folks. Labour’s brilliant strategy to win back middle New Zealand is to double down on their left-wing agenda, propose more and higher taxes, and hope that we all somehow forget their track record of broken promises and economic mismanagement. Because, clearly, that’s exactly what we’ve all been clamouring for. Well done, Labour. Well done.

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As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he’s not creating the news,...