E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, e rau rangatira mā.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Warm greetings to you all

Not even the stormy Wellington weather can dampen the energy and the commitment in this room.

To all our members and supporters, here at Congress and around the country - thank you!

Thank you for everything that you’re doing to propel Labour to victory in November!

Are we ready?

The fight is on!

In just 123 days, we go to the polls and we choose our future.

We can choose better jobs, affordable healthcare, and household bills you can finally pay - a government that backs you to build your future here.

Or we can choose more of the same: more broken promises, more cuts, higher costs.

We can choose a future where working hard actually means getting ahead.

Or a government that’s told our young people their best opportunities are overseas.

We can choose more secure work, better pay, and real help to ease the pressure.

Or a Prime Minister who has given up on the major thing he promised to fix - the cost of living.

Above all, we can choose to stand together, to chart a new path that recognises the contributions everyone can make, and that rewards hard work.

A government that backs every New Zealander to succeed.

I stand before you today seeking to lead that government.

And I’m proud to stand here with all of you.

Our members. Our volunteers. And everyone campaigning right across the country.

Our MPs, who show up for their communities every single day.

The people stepping forward as Labour’s next candidates.

You’re the reason I believe, more than ever, that a better future is within reach

Because that’s what this election is about: building our future here, not overseas.

For everyone doing it tough right now and holding on anyway.

For our nurses. Our tradies. Our bus drivers. Our supermarket workers.

The people building businesses, and the people who keep them running.

The people who come home shattered after a long day, then sit at the kitchen table working out how the bills are going to add up.

They aren't asking for much. They're just asking for a fair go.

A fair go for everyone has always been part of the Kiwi Dream.

We even had a TV show that went into bat for Kiwis who weren’t getting a fair go – under National it got cancelled.

They don’t believe in a fair go for everyone. Labour does.

As we go to the polls this year, every Kiwi needs to ask themselves a simple question.

Are you better off than you were three years ago?

Is the weekly shop any easier?

Are your power bills any lower?

Is it any easier to get a doctor’s appointment?

Are your kids and grandkids choosing to build their lives here?

We all know the answers.

When did it become acceptable that a full-time job - working hard, showing up every single day - isn’t enough to get ahead?

When did it become acceptable for so many Kiwi kids to grow up below the poverty line?

When did we decide that was just the way things are?

Well, here’s the thing.

We’re not going to settle for it any longer.

We’re not going to accept higher costs and lower wages.

We’re not going to watch more and more of our friends and neighbours packing up and leave.

Because Kiwis have been doing the right things for years and getting the wrong results.

That isn't a problem with how hard they're working. It's a problem with the system.

Neoliberal, trickle down economics is a hoax.

Smaller government just for the sake of it doesn’t give people more choices and more freedom, it takes those things away. 

New Zealand doesn’t have three more years to waste.

National promised to fix the economy. It got smaller.

They promised to bring the cost of living down. It went up.

They promised to create jobs. More people are out of work than at any time in the last fifteen years.

They promised to back business. More have closed in the past year than at any time in the past fourteen years.

They promised New Zealanders a reason to stay.

Instead, record numbers have left.

Christopher Luxon and his National Government are out of touch, and out of time.

They’re asking for 3 more years so they can inflict more cuts, more division, and more decline.

We can’t let that happen.

This election is our chance to choose better. To vote for better.

A New Zealand where your pay packet stretches to the end of the month, with a little left over.

Where you can see a doctor when you’re sick, without first checking your bank balance.

Where your kids can find work, and afford a home, in the town they grew up in.

Where a young person doesn’t book a one-way ticket to Australia - because the future they want is right here.

And here is why I know we can build it.

Because we’re a nation of leaders, innovators and pioneers.

We went nuclear-free when the world said we couldn’t.

We built world-class film and animation that fills cinemas across the globe.

World-leading agritech and marine technology. Electric fences. Foiling yachts and jet boats.

New Zealand was built out of number eight wire - ambition, innovation, and a willingness to give things a go.

We are a small country that has always made the impossible feel normal.

We know the odds - and we roll up our sleeves and get it done.

Our next Labour Government will lead New Zealand to become a magnet for talent, enterprise and innovation.

A country where the brightest minds want to live, where entrepreneurs want to build, where creators want to create, and where working people share in the rewards of success.

Not because we compete by lowering standards, but because we lead by raising them.

We’ll be a nation that backs its people, investing in skills, research, clean technology and high-value industries, so that ideas born here, grow here, and jobs created here stay here.

Our clean, green identity isn’t just a slogan. It is a promise.

The world is demanding sustainable food, renewable energy, ethical innovation and climate leadership.

These are our strengths. This is our moment.

The Kiwi Dream has always been simple and powerful: if you work hard, you can build a decent life.

A warm home. A secure job. Good schools for your kids. Healthcare when you need it.

Under Labour, that dream won’t be reserved for a few, it will be delivered for everyone.

It comes down to this. Your job. Your health. Your home.

Not promises we can't keep, but a practical, funded plan, ready to start the day after the election.

I won't pretend we can fix it all straight away.

We'll focus on what matters most, and we'll deliver it.

Easing the pressure you're feeling right now, while we build a stronger economy that lifts everyone over time.

Relief you can feel quickly, with money back in your pocket.

And the foundations for better jobs and higher wages in the years to come.

We’ll do this by working together.

The Labour Party was founded with solidarity at its heart.

And that commitment to stand together will be at the heart of our next Labour government too.

And true to that Labour tradition, it starts with work itself.

For too long, New Zealanders have been working harder - longer hours, more pressure - with less to show for it.

Real wages haven’t moved in years.

Productivity has stalled. And too many of our young people are leaving for a better life in Australia.

And cuts won’t fix that.

We’ve watched National try for three years, and it hasn’t worked.

Two weeks ago I had a guy come to visit me at my electorate office.

He works at a government agency where his job’s on the chopping block.

He told me about how he’d worked hard his whole life - from his first paper round as a teenager to jobs in both the public and private sectors.

And he understands that jobs change.

That technology and the way we live can make some jobs disappear. He gets that.

What he can't understand is a government that makes cutting jobs its starting point.

Not delivering better public services. Not being more efficient. Just cutting jobs for the sake of it. Celebrating people losing their livelihoods.

He’s right.

And we can do so much better.

I understand the dignity that comes from working hard and standing on your own two feet.

That’s why creating jobs and opportunity is at the heart of our plan for government.  

We can make more of what we need, right here, with our own hands and our own ideas.

Our New Zealand Future Fund will back Kiwi enterprise, Kiwi innovation, and the skilled, well-paid jobs that grow alongside them.

It will help keep the wealth we build here at home, with the people and the communities who built it.

Because backing your own country isn’t about sitting back and hoping.

It’s about rolling up your sleeves.

Investing.

Building.

And giving working people the power to shape their own future.

We won't tear down everything this government has done just to score petty political points.

If something’s working, we'll keep it.

On infrastructure, that means we won't tell our tradies to put the tools down while we start again.

Builders, tradies and businesses need the certainty to plan, hire, train and invest.

We’ll back the people who'll do the work.

National’s decision to cut, pause, delay or cancel projects has contributed to 20,000 jobs being lost in the construction industry since the last election.

And many of those skilled workers have left the country.

We urgently need to get Kiwis back to work. And to give our young people the chance to get into it.

So today, I can announce the next step in our plan:

We will expand the Apprenticeship Boost, so more young people can learn a trade and earn while they do.

It builds on the Apprenticeship Boost I launched as Minister of Education, which saw record numbers of apprentices in work.

We’ll support employers with $500 a month for up to two years to take on and train new apprentices – and we'll widen it to cover more trades.

That keeps our people and their skills here in New Zealand.

Every apprentice will get a $1,000 toolbox grant to cover the kit they need to get going.

And we'll fund the support and mentoring that helps them stay the course and finish their apprenticeships.

Because every young New Zealander deserves a genuine choice to build their future here.

We’ll put our money to work, too.

Through our simple, targeted capital gains tax we’ll start to shift investment away from speculative housing and towards productive businesses that create jobs.

Houses should be homes first, investments second.

The family home stays out of it. Farms stay out of it. Businesses, KiwiSaver, inheritances - all stay out of it.

And every dollar it raises will go to the one thing none of us can build a future without: healthcare.

Right now, a single trip to the doctor can cost close to $100.

And for a lot of people that comes straight out of the grocery budget. So people put it off.

Under Labour, it’s a choice they’ll never have to make.

This isn’t about spending more. It’s about spending smarter.

I’ve seen too many people end up in hospital because they couldn’t get the healthcare they needed soon enough

Every dollar we invest in someone seeing a doctor early saves a lot more in hospital costs later on.

Three free doctor’s visits, every single year. Free prescriptions. Free maternity scans. And free cervical screening.

No bills, no barriers, just the care you need.

And we’ll make sure there is a doctor there to see, with low-interest loans to help GPs set up and expand in communities across the country.

We’ll take on the everyday bills that never stop climbing - and put real money back in your pocket.

Our latest step is capping public transport fares - twenty dollars a week in our biggest cities, ten dollars everywhere else.

Hit the cap, and the rest of the week you travel free.

Money back in the pocket of every family who relies on the bus or the train, every single week.

And all of it - your job, your health, your home - comes back to one purpose: making sure everyone can get ahead and build their future here.

A job you can build a life on. Healthcare you can afford. Household bills you can actually pay.

And a country your kids can build a future in.

Growing up I was taught to judge your life by what you contribute, not by what you take out.

That’s the country I want to build.

One where everyone who works head gets a fair go, and a real chance to succeed.

Your job. Secure work, better pay, and real opportunity.

Your health. Three free GP visits a year, so no one has to choose between the doctor and the power bill.

Your home with bills you can finally pay.

Relief you can feel now. And a future worth staying for.

The choice you face this year is not just one between Labour and National.

It is a choice between building our future here - or watching it built somewhere else.

I know we have been through tough times. I know the sacrifices so many of you have made.

You have earned a better future. And in 123 days, I am asking you to vote for it.

Vote for affordable healthcare - and a doctor you can actually see.

Vote for cheaper bills, and money back in your pocket.

Vote for secure work and better pay.

Vote for our young people learning a trade and building a life here.

Vote for an economy that makes more of what we need, right here.

Vote for a New Zealand that backs the people who back themselves.

Vote for hope and optimism over fear and division.

Vote Labour - so together, we can build our future here.

National gave up on you. Labour never will.

So let’s go to work and make it happen.

Nō reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.