Perspective with Andrew Dickens: Anyone else feeling sorry for Chris Hipkins?

Author: Andrew Dickens,
Publish Date: Thu, 11 Jun 2026, 4:41pm

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Chris Hipkins MP Leader of the Opposition of New Zealand speaks to media, Auckland, New Zealand on May 14 2026. Herald photograph by Michael Craig

Is anyone else feeling for Chris Hipkins right now?

He's having a terrible week, and it just looks bad. A large part of the blame has to rest with the people below him just not doing their job.

First, the Superintendent Naidoo schemozzle. Notification of his intent to run for political office on a Thursday, just before it's announced the next Monday, was an organisational failure.

The superintendent should've known the police manual better, and so should the backroom administrators of the Labour Party.

Then, they released their public transport policy that everyone says is low on its costing. And then the spokesman, Tangi Utikere, was unable to name the projects in the National Land Transport Fund that would be defunded to make room for it.

Making it seem like a good enough idea drawn up on the back of an envelope. Making it seem like no one has really done the backroom grunt work on the numbers.

And it is a good idea for young people in towns and cities, but why on earth would you release it when the nation's attention is on Fieldays and the rural sector?

It was plainly evident last night that the country folk have no desire to subsidise the city folks' transport. This was the week for a rural sector announcement, not an urban one. Labour's political management seems amateur.

And then there's the festering accusation that Labour simply didn't set up a site at Fieldays. Which, if true, lies at the head of the organisational staff.

That has been Labour's perennial problem. A handful of somewhat competent politicians without the backup of a competent party mechanism.

It leads us all to the feeling that if they can't manage day-to-day business, how on earth could they run a country?

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