Hipkins accepts cost-of-living policy 'won’t help' farmers, denies Labour bailed on Fieldays stand

Labour leader Chris Hipkins denies his party is writing off the rural vote but does accept his most recent cost-of-living policy won’t help farmers, and acknowledged his party had decided against having an official stall at the Fieldays.

He said Labour would present agriculture policy before the November 7 election, but it wasn’t ready to be announced when he visited Fieldays at Waikato’s Mystery Creek today.

During his walkabout to various exhibitions, Hipkins said he found common ground with attendees, including on issues such as agri-tech, environmental protection, conservation, pest control and wilding pines eradication.

The party did not have a stall at this year’s event, despite having exhibitions in some previous years.

National has attempted to suggest that absence signals Labour has little interest in farmers.

A social media video of National MP Chris Bishop standing in an empty piece of land on which he claims Labour was meant to have a stand has been viewed nearly 200,000 times in less than a day on Instagram. The spare land is right next to National, Act and NZ First stands.

“There is nothing here. Emblematic, isn’t it. Labour offers nothing to farmers, nothing to rural New Zealanders,” Bishop says in the video.

The Herald understands National based its claim in part on what it says it was told by a worker at the event before Fieldays kicked off on Wednesday.

Hipkins said Labour never booked a space and did not give any indication to Fieldays that it was expecting to have a stall. Labour said it didn’t have a stall every year.

“That space has certainly never been set aside for Labour because we never had any space booked,” he told the Herald at a press conference today.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins attended Fieldays today. Photo / Jamie Ensor

The Herald approached Fieldays for clarification, including whether Labour had initially booked a space and then pulled out, and whether the land next to the other political parties had been put aside for it.

Fieldays said, “We don’t have any comment to provide on individual exhibitors or their participation. Alongside this, Fieldays is a neutral platform and does not take positions on political matters.”

Hipkins said, “We made the decision a year ago, probably. We had a stall last year, and actually we found the best engagement we got was when we were out and about walking around.

“So having people standing behind a table waiting for people to come to you isn’t the best way of getting engagement.”

The area where the political parties are set up is on the outskirts of the Fieldays site, away from main thoroughfares.

The Herald has seen multiple Labour MPs speaking to visitors at events and exhibitions over the past two days.

Spare land next to other political parties' exhibition areas. Photo / Jamie Ensor

‘It won’t help farmers’

Hipkins didn’t make any policy announcement while at Fieldays today, having revealed Labour’s capped public transport fare initiative yesterday.

He was straight-up when asked by the Herald how that policy would help farmers and those living in the regions.

“It won’t help farmers, and we’ve been very clear that every policy that we announce isn’t going to help every community.

“The big issue around public transport that farmers have been raising is around rural school bus services, and we are looking very closely at that.”

Hipkins said Labour would have a policy announcement in that space before the election, and it was currently working through its agricultural proposals.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins at Fieldays. Photo / Jamie Ensor

Labour’s priorities for farmers ranged from environmental protections to investing in research and development to ensuring they had access to medical care, he said.

“There’s a lot of common ground there. I know probably two contentious areas people want to hear from us on are around methane and water, and they will do that in due course.”

He denied writing off the farming vote and said those who worked in agriculture were in a range of roles, from “doing quite low, minimum wage jobs through to people who own very large farms, and people who are in very large corporate entities”.

“We have to engage right the way across the spectrum.”

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s Chief Political Reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.