Chris Hipkins is the leader New Zealand needs and the ‘Better Prime Minister’ Kiwis deserve

OPINION: What good is a Prime Minister’s promise of recovery when the weekly shop still feels like a financial emergency? That is the question Christopher Luxon should be answering, and the reason Chris Hipkins is the most trustworthy to lead Aotearoa.

Luxon promised to turn the economy around but nearly three years later, families are still making hard decisions about every dollar, and Stats NZ puts unemployment at 5.7 percent for the September quarter. That figure does not belong to one politician alone, but it is a brutal test of the Government’s claim that its approach is working.

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Leadership is about whether a parent can book a doctor’s appointment without putting off groceries, whether a worker can find a job, and whether young people can see a future here.

Image: Christopher Luxon responded after being unable to give a specific policy example of an issue on which he had changed his mind. (TVNZ / Leaders Debate 2026)

On those tests, I find Luxon’s record unconvincing.

Hipkins is already doing the hard work of putting forward different priorities.

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Labour is proposing three free GP visits a year, free prescriptions, a weekly public transport fare cap and a three-year fuel-tax freeze. These are election promises, not results, and they deserve proper scrutiny. They directly target the bills squeezing households right across New Zealand today.

There is evidence this message is landing. An October Ipsos survey found Labour ahead of National as the party considered best equipped to handle cost of living and healthcare, while the Government’s performance averaged just 4.1 out of 10.

That does not make Hipkins universally trusted. It does show why Luxon cannot assume his economic rhetoric is persuading the public.

Image: For many households, the election campaign is being shaped by the rising cost of groceries, fuel, power bills and rates, with Opposition leader Chris Hipkins making those pressures a central part of Labour’s pitch to voters. (Courtesy of The Hui)

Hipkins is not above criticism. His time in government came with hard decisions, unpopular pandemic measures and promises left unfinished. Voters should ask him how he will pay for his plans and deliver them. But I see a leader prepared to face the everyday pressures households describe.

I trust a leader who starts with the people still waiting to feel it.

Hipkins is the ‘Better Prime Minister’ by a large margin.

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