Why should I vote for Labour?

Vote for our COVID-19 response and recovery plan

From the outset, we went hard and early to protect the health of New Zealanders, and cushion the economic blow of COVID-19. This included putting in place one of the strictest managed isolation and quarantine systems in the world, which has seen New Zealand keep COVID-19 contained at levels that only a few other countries have managed to achieve.

Our initial economic response saw us launch the wage subsidy, supporting around 1.7 million workers and 250,000 businesses, and providing practical support, like interest-free loans and $3 billion in tax refunds, to help small businesses through. We also moved quickly to keep our critical air freight and exports flowing, and to support workers impacted by COVID-19 into new jobs.

There are challenges ahead, but our response so far means we’re now in a stronger position than many other countries – and now is not the time to put on the brakes. Vote for Labour to ensure our careful and considered COVID-19 response isn’t put at risk.

Vote to keep up our rebuild and recovery momentum

Thanks to our careful economic management before COVID-19, and our strong health response since the virus arrived in New Zealand, we’ve been able to get our economy going faster than many other countries.

We’re taking advantage of this headstart with our five-point plan that creates jobs, invests in our people, and supports Kiwi businesses.

Through our plan, we’re creating almost 11,000 new environment jobs across New Zealand, which will help clean up our waterways and protect our native wildlife. Another 20,000 jobs will be created through our investment in shovel-ready infrastructure projects – on top of the $12 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme we rolled out earlier this year to support local jobs and upgrade roads, rail, hospitals and schools in towns throughout the country.

We’re making it easier for people to get the skills they need for these jobs by making all apprenticeships, and trades training in targeted areas, free. We’re supporting our communities, and creating local jobs, by expanding our free lunches in schools programme to 200,000 children, and we’re funding 8,000 new public and transitional homes, which will create construction jobs while ensuring more Kiwi families have a warm, healthy place to live.

This is just a quick overview of our plan – you can read about it in more detail here. Vote for Labour to make sure we can continue with our plan and keep up our momentum as we recover and rebuild.

Vote to continue Labour’s progress on the big issues

During our time in Government, the Labour team has worked hard to improve the wellbeing of New Zealanders while making progress on the long-term challenges facing our country.

During our first 100 days in office, we introduced the Families Package and Winter Energy Payment, extended paid parental leave, passed the Healthy Homes Guarantee, banned overseas speculators and stopped the state house sell-off.

We’ve passed the landmark Zero Carbon Act and Child Poverty Reduction Act, and rolled out the world-leading Wellbeing Budget – all of which will make a big difference to future generations of New Zealanders.

We’ve built more public houses than at any time in the last 20 years, banned single-use plastic bags, made doctor visits cheaper or free for 600,000 people, and lifted the minimum wage to $18.90. And we’re upgrading hospitals, roads, rail and schools right around New Zealand, creating jobs and ensuring our communities have the essential infrastructure they need.

We’ve made a good start, but there’s still more to do. Vote Labour to ensure we can continue to make progress on the long-term challenges as together, we move forward with our recovery and rebuild.

Our strong track record, COVID response, and detailed rebuild and recovery plan are three solid reasons to vote Labour. Need a little more convincing? Check out our top 100 reasons to vote Labour this election.