'Do you have Givealittle?': Labour halts election ads as it doesn't have Nats' rich donors, claims Hipkins

Chris Hipkins says Labour has had to hold its campaign advertising as it doesn’t have National’s budget – which he claims is fuelled by “millionaires wanting to further their own interests”.

In recent weeks, the National Party has heavily increased its election campaigning, with Labour yet to follow suit.

The Opposition leader was asked on Ryan Bridge TODAY when the party planned to kick off its advertising as National had “been going hard”.

“Yeah, we don’t have the same amount of money that they do,” Hipkins told Bridge.

“So we’ve saved most of our advertising revenue to the actual campaign period because, let’s be frank, we don’t have the big budget that they do.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins at a roadside human hoarding rally in Wellington in 2023. Photo / Mark Mitchell

“We don’t have the multimillionaires wanting to further their own interests by paying for our advertising. So we have to hold our advertising.”

The National Party was approached twice for comment - yesterday and today - but has yet to respond.

National spent almost $320,000 with social media agency Topham Guerin for 2023 election campaign - 9% of the party’s total spend.

Founded by former Young Nats Sean Topham and Ben Guerin, the agency was known for its use of memes. It had worked on campaigns for conservative parties in Australia and the United Kingdom and had been credited with helping Boris Johnson and Scott Morrison win elections.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon puts up an election hoarding in Botany on September 5. Photo / Cameron Pitney

National also spent more than $1.1m with Rainmakers agency and $310,000 with Big on Writing for television, radio, print and outdoor ads.

Hipkins said the party planned to kick off its advertising when it launched its campaign this Sunday.

“It’s going to be very positive about New Zealand’s future because ultimately the Labour Party is positive about New Zealand’s future.

“You’ll see us being focused on the issues that actually matter to Kiwis: the cost of living, jobs, health, and homes. Because that’s fundamentally what this election is about.

“It is a cost of living election, despite the fact the National Party are desperately trying to make it about anything but the cost of living because they’ve failed so spectacularly to fix it.”

Bridge asked: “And if anyone wants to donate to the Labour Party’s ad campaign, because it sounds like you guys need some coin, do you have a Givealittle or something we can put on the end?”.

Hipkins said: “Oh, labour.org.nz. You can make a donation right now, Ryan”.

The National Party received more than $6 million in party donations last year, almost $4m more than the Labour Party.

The largest donor to National was the late Nelson philanthropist John Wares, who died in March last year. Wares gave $210,000 to the party in February 2025.

The second-largest donation came from Brian Cartmell, a Queenstown-based tech entrepreneur, who also made sizeable donations to other parties. Cartmell gave $201,993 to National in 2025.

Other big donors include Sistema founder Brendan Lindsay and controversial former Xero boss Sir Rod Drury.

Two of the larger donations to Labour were from or connected to Phillip Mills, managing director of the Les Mills gym franchise and a regular political donor.

The top donor, the Mills Family Trust, for which Phillip Mills is the trustee, donated $125,000. Mills donated another $38,200.

Renowned artist Dick Frizzell donated almost $20,000 and former Prime Minister Helen Clark is listed as donating just under $11,000.