Labour leader Chris Hipkins has accused the government of leaving New Zealanders in the dark over the fuel supply crisis, while laying out his party’s economic vision and pledging to do more for those living rough in the city’s red zone.

Speaking to Chris Lynch Media, while in Christchurch on Thursday, Hipkins doubled down on comments he made this week that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was not being straight with the public, saying businesses and community groups urgently need answers.

“There are a lot of businesses who want to know, will we still be able to get diesel, and if we’re not going to be able to get diesel we need to plan for that,” Hipkins said. “We’re months into this now. The government do need to be letting people know in advance so that people can make plans.”

He pointed to Labour’s decision while in government to build a $70 million strategic diesel reserve, a move he said would be proving its worth right now had the current government not cancelled it after taking office.

Hipkins drew parallels with the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing the government had time on its side and should be using it.

“The royal commission found that had we had more time at the beginning to consult with people, to make sure everybody understood how the framework was going to work, who was an essential worker and who wasn’t, that would have been far better than rushing into it. The government now have the luxury of time. Now is the time to really be talking to people so that they can be prepared.”

Fossil fuels and the economic argument

With the International Monetary Fund warning an escalation of conflict in the Middle East could trigger what it described as the largest energy crisis in modern times, Hipkins said the fuel crisis exposed a deeper structural problem in the New Zealand economy and that transitioning away from fossil fuels was not just a moral issue but an economic one.

“We need to map out a future for New Zealand that moves us away from fossil fuels and there is a huge economic opportunity for New Zealand. We’ve got so much renewable energy, it should be a source of competitive advantage.”

He was specific on how he would start, targeting what he described as a broken electricity market.

“The price of electricity at Huntly, which is a small minority of the electricity in our system, is determining the price that we all pay for electricity that comes out of solar panels, wind and the hydro lakes. That shows the market isn’t operating the way we need it to. That needs to be changed.”

Hipkins also said government-owned electricity generators had prioritised extracting dividends over investing in new renewable generation, and pointed to Australia’s rollout of 800,000 home batteries since mid last year as evidence of what was possible with political will behind it.

Food resilience groups and the red zone

Hipkins met with a Christchurch food resilience group during his visit, one of several community organisations seeking critical service status under the government’s national fuel plan. He said he hoped they would get it.

“Making sure that those community groups who keep people who can’t go to the supermarket fed is really important. Making sure our food rescue services can keep operating so we’re not sending a whole lot of food to the rubbish dump, that’s also really important.”

But he said the deeper goal had to be eliminating the need for those services in the first place.

“My goal for New Zealand is I hope that we’ll get to a point in the future where we don’t need food banks anymore. We’re seeing pensioners, people living on superannuation, having to go to food banks because they can’t make ends meet. They’ve worked hard through their life, they’ve earned their retirement. They shouldn’t be having to go to food banks just to survive.”

On the estimated 30 or more people living in makeshift tents and vehicles in the Christchurch red zone, Hipkins acknowledged the issue went well beyond housing.

“You can take a homeless person off the street, put them into a house, and unless you provide other wraparound support to deal with the issues around why they were homeless in the first place, they’re probably not going to sustain that accommodation. We do need more programs like Housing First which wrap support around homeless people so that we can get them into sustainable long-term accommodation.”

Infrastructure and Christchurch’s slice of the pie

Hipkins backed findings from the Infrastructure Commission that New Zealand had chronically under-invested in maintenance while chasing new builds, and agreed Christchurch and the South Island were not receiving funding proportionate to their economic contribution.

“We need more stability in our infrastructure planning so that priorities aren’t chopping and changing all the time whenever there’s a change of government. That is one of the reasons things are taking too long and costing too much.”

He said Labour would shift focus toward critical but unglamorous infrastructure including water, sewage and stormwater systems.

“Less money on building new roads, more money on road maintenance, more money on critical water infrastructure. We need a lot more focus on getting those basics right.”

The polls and MMP

With recent polling showing Labour ahead of National, Hipkins was measured about what that meant in an MMP environment, acknowledging the right bloc overall still held an advantage when Act and New Zealand First were factored in.

“One of my criticisms of Christopher Luxon is that he’s given far more to Act and New Zealand First than the votes they received at the election really justifies. The more votes Labour gets, the less you have to compromise with other smaller parties.”

He left the door open on coalition arrangements, pointing to the minority governments run by both Helen Clark and John Key as proof that formal coalitions were not the only path to stable governance.

“We should leave all those options on the table. Ultimately voters make that choice and my message is pretty clear. If you want a good strong stable government then giving us more support, more of a mandate, will put us in a better position to do that.”

Hipkins also declined to criticise reports that Prime Minister Luxon was receiving media coaching, calling it a message worth hearing.

“No one is above self-improvement. We are all works in progress. The day you stop learning is the day you stop living.”