Chippy's Take
If you don't know him by now.
All the things that we've been through
You should understand me like I understand you
Now, girl, I know the difference between right and wrong
I ain't gonna do nothing to break up our happy home
Songwriters: Kenny Gamble, Leon Huff.
After three years with the bloke, I can’t really say I know what sort of person Christopher Luxon is, what he really thinks, or what drives him. But Chippy, on the other hand, I’ve got a pretty good idea what makes him tick, and I imagine you do too.
His principles and ambitions might be maligned by those who want to see the status quo not only retained but made more severe, yet I respect them. He cares about decency, fairness, and injustice, as do I.
The coalition parties paint him as responsible for our Covid response, someone to point the finger at in Jacinda’s absence. Yet many of us have fond memories of that time, when it felt like we had a government that cared about people.
You never know which Christopher Luxon you’ll get. The one who decries racism from Winston, or the coward who does nothing about it. Whereas Chippy is consistent, you know what you’re going to get: someone with a good heart who speaks with a maturity missing from the coalition.
Power Prices.
This morning, Chippy appeared on Breakfast to discuss current political issues. They began with electricity prices, following yesterday’s announcement that Contact Energy posted a $423m profit, up 62% for the year. This helps explain the outrageous increase in power prices this year and puts a lie to Simeon Brown’s suggestion on Q&A this week that such gentailers would pass profits on to consumers.
To put things into context, Contact Energy has, according to its website, 650,000 customers. So a profit of $423m means that, on average, each customer is paying Contact Energy $650 a year, or $54 per month, in pure profit, above and beyond the cost of their electricity.
Tova began by asking Chippy whether the big four retailers were “fleecing” NZ households. I thought, how many times can you fleece a sheep? Once the banks and the supermarket duopoly have taken their profits, there can’t be much left.
Chippy responded that it was clear the market was not working, with the four gentailers making “huge profits” while the power prices paid by Kiwis were unsustainable. He said that since energy companies became partially privatised, they have taken large profits while not investing enough in infrastructure, going so far as to say they have been manufacturing scarcity and making huge profits as a result.
Tova asked three times whether we were being fleeced, even joking that she sounded obsessive, as she searched for a soundbite. Chippy laughed good-naturedly but didn’t cave to her demand and summarised it, saying profits are too high, and he’d rather see that money invested in generation that would bring down the price of power.
Unusually, as it isn’t talkback, there was a question from a pensioner about being able to put solar on their roofs. Chippy explained it really well, saying under their policy people could pay it back through line charges or their rates and the debt would be attached to the property, not the individual. A clear, concise answer, just like you don’t get from Luxon, who would undoubtedly not be across the detail.
Tova moved to Simeon Brown’s suggestion during Q&A that the oil and gas ban put in place by the previous government was to blame for higher prices. Hipkins smiled the smile of a man who knew the truth. He explained that energy companies had been searching for large deposits for decades without success, and that even if the ban had not passed and companies had miraculously found substantial fossil fuels, they still wouldn’t have delivered them to the market yet.
Chippy said any link to the oil and gas ban was pure fiction. But that doesn’t appear to matter to National, which will tell outright lies and rely on people believing its disinformation rather than the facts.
Ruling out Winston.
The interview moved to NZ First, and the fact that Hipkins made a statement yesterday that he would not work with Winston Peters, whereas previously he had ruled him out from being Foreign Minister.
Peters has long ruled out working with Chippy, but that is by the by; whatever Winston says he will do after the votes are counted should always be taken with a large grain of salt. His commitments are meaningless.
Tova adopted her Mean Girl persona and asked whether Chippy was trying to win the break-up. A stupid question. Labour already won that break-up in 2020, when the electorate decided they could do without Winston applying the handbrake and threw his party out of parliament.
Chippy said, “Winston Peters is focused on a whole lot of things that aren’t going to fix the country. He’s focused on dividing NZers, overt racism and I would rather we focused on moving the country forward.”
In the past, some of us may have entertained the idea that the left might have to dance with the devil to take power, but over recent weeks the behaviour of Winston and Shane Jones has been so deplorable that I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone on the left who doesn’t agree that Winston had to be ruled out. We want to win to make our country better, but not at all costs, because principles matter.
Tova was not covering herself in glory as she persisted, saying “he already ruled you out, so it was a moot point”; Chippy replied perfectly, “Calling out racism is always a good thing to do”. I was practically punching the air - that’s our guy.
As you’re aware, I have had concerns about Labour being too cautious, but I get that Chippy has to win the centre.
Some say he lacks charisma; I don’t see that. Yes, he is sensitive and speaks cautiously, but I’d rather hear him tell the truth than listen to someone with the charm of a used-car salesman spinning lies.
But when it comes to matters of principle and integrity, he is head and shoulders above anyone on the coalition benches. Although I vote for the Greens, I would be eminently proud to call him PM.
Winston’s reply only went to prove that Chippy was right:
“Chris Hipkins has severe learning difficulties”; for goodness’ sake, who talks like that? The answer, of course, is Winston’s role model, Donald Trump, who prefers to belittle others rather than take responsibility for himself.
Tova would not let it go and kept asking why he would rule Winston out, even though it was already understood; she even said she agreed with Peters. This is the downside of O’Brien’s interviewing; she can’t seem to discern what is important and what isn’t.
Hipkins wouldn’t play along and remained an adult, saying he’d heard from ethnic communities who are being subjected to emboldened racist behaviour in NZ because of the sort of things that Winston Peters and Shane Jones have been saying, which he said was unacceptable.
That’s the thing: you only have to look at places like the UK, where political rhetoric against immigrants has led to horrible scenes of hatred and violence, to see how easily that could happen here and why what Winston said is still the big story here, not how many times Chippy might’ve ruled him out.
AI in advertising.
Prior to the interview, the Breakfast programme showed some of the misleading AI material that coalition parties and closely associated groups are using to discredit Chippy and the left. Asked about Labour’s strategy, Chippy was clear that they would not use AI.
There are those principles again.
Chippy said the National Party were desperate and generating all sorts of “AI slop” because they don’t have a track record to campaign on.
Personally, these adverts make me laugh; they’ll show warnings about the left increasing debt, while completely ignoring the fact that debt has risen under them. I’m not the target, though, and undoubtedly many will fall for the misleading messages.
Chris Hipkins might not be perfect, but as someone who consistently demonstrates strong principles, clearly wants to make things better for the people of this country, and is knowledgeable, honest, and clear in speech, he’ll do me.
Have a good Tuesday, folks, and take care, all of you. To receive new posts from me, join the conversation in the comments, and support my work, subscribe:
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Ngā mihi,
Nick.
To end today, here’s Simply Red with If You Don’t Know Me By Now:
I've said it before. I know Chippy well. I was in Parliament with him, when he and I were whips together. That's the job of rounding up the MPs to ensure voting numbers can be counted, helping decide who speaks on what and what questions are asked (in a procedures committee), pastoral care, overseeing what's happening in select committees, dealing with the staff and their union with regular meetings with delegates, keeping an eye on out of parliament staff and offices, as well as doing our own job as spokespeople on important issues. Whips are in positions of trust, voted on by the caucus. I can absolutely vouch that I never saw anything other than integrity, loyalty and Labour Party values from Chris. He is a true believer and I trust him. That said, I wouldn't have his job for quids! And for the record, Labour decides on the leader. Caucus, affiliate unions and members. Not the media.
I see a lot of derogatory comments about Chippy, on Bluesky, and I ask myself...what do these commenters want? The current government returned? Sometimes it seems that way. I doubt the motives of these commenters.