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Trust in Government
Speech to the Law Association
Rt Hon Chris Hipkins, Leader of the Labour Party

I want to start with what trust in government means around the kitchen table. 

For the parent looking at the grocery bill. The small business owner trying to keep the doors open. The young person applying for jobs and wondering whether they have a future here. The family waiting for healthcare. 

They hear governments promise that things will get better. But if life keeps getting harder, those promises start to sound empty. 

People lose confidence in a government. If it happens often enough, they can lose confidence that changing the government will make any difference. 

They stop asking who has the better plan and start asking whether anyone will actually deliver. 

That’s a serious challenge for democracy. 

People need to see that government can improve their lives. And they need to be able to hold it accountable when it doesn’t. 

Today, I want to talk about how we do both. 

Why people lose faith

People don’t expect government to solve every problem overnight.

They understand that choices are difficult and resources are limited.

But they are right to expect that when they work hard, they should have a fair shot at getting ahead. 

That they can afford the essentials. That healthcare will be there when they need it. That their children will have opportunities in the future. 

Right now, too many people are doing everything asked of them and still falling behind. 

They work hard. They pay their bills. They try to put something aside. But getting ahead keeps getting harder and harder. 

When that happens year after year, people can start to doubt whether the system works for them at all. They lose hope that things can change. 

Around the world, we can see the risk when politics becomes a cycle of promises that don’t improve people's lives. 

Some people disengage. Others become more receptive to politicians offering easy answers, someone to blame, and the promise that only they can fix it. 

Politics becomes a performance. Anger is rewarded. The patient work of solving problems gets pushed aside. 

And cynicism can take hold. They are all the same; nothing changes; why bother? 

Telling people to have more faith in democracy won’t answer that. We have to give them a reason to believe their vote can make a difference. 

An economy that works for people

For too long, there has been too much faith that leaving things to the market would produce the outcomes people need. 

That if government stepped back, competition would take care of prices, investment would flow to the right places, and the benefits would reach everyone. 

Businesses are essential to our prosperity. They create jobs, develop ideas and invest in our future. 

But markets need rules. Competition has to be protected, and customers and suppliers need a fair deal. 

When a few large companies hold too much power, the family paying the bill has little power to change the terms. It’s the same for the small supplier trying to get a fair deal. 

Telling them to shop around is not much use if their choices are limited. 

And telling a community that the market will eventually sort things out is not enough when its jobs are disappearing and its young people are leaving. 

Government has a responsibility to act. 

That means taking on companies that use their power to shut out competitors or squeeze suppliers.  

It means investing in the schools, hospitals and infrastructure our communities need.  

And it means helping businesses grow and create good jobs. 

People should be able to see a connection between the choice they make at an election and what happens in their lives afterwards. 

If they vote for lower costs, better healthcare and more opportunities, they should expect a government to get on with delivering them. 

AI and the future of work

We have to apply that same approach to the changes ahead of us. 

AI is already changing how people work and how organisations make decisions about our lives.  

It certainly has the potential to help us improve public services and make businesses more productive. 

But people also want to know what it will mean for their jobs, what happens to their personal information, and who is responsible when something goes wrong. 

Those are reasonable questions. Government needs to answer them. 

If your job changes, you need a chance to learn new skills. If an automated decision affects your access to a service, you should be able to understand it and challenge it. 

And as false information becomes easier to produce and spread, protecting public debate becomes harder. We have to take that seriously. 

The benefits of new technology won’t reach everyone automatically.  
Government has a role in making sure people have a say in how it is used and a fair chance to benefit. 

That also means investing in the places where we build connections with each other. 

Strong communities cannot be built online alone.  

They are built outside our front doors - in the schools that educate our children, the workplaces that reward our hard work, and the public services we all share. 

A secure job, an affordable home and healthcare when you need it give you more than financial security. They give you the confidence to build a future here and be part of your community. 

When people can see a future for themselves and their children, they have more reason to believe in the country’s future too. 

Delivering change people can feel

For Labour, rebuilding trust starts with easing the pressures people are facing now. 

This election is about the cost of living. 

People want to know that their hard work will get them ahead. 

That was the deal in this country. And that deal's been broken. 

Our plan starts with the things that make a difference to a household budget - decent jobs, bills people can afford, and healthcare when they need it. 

And we’ll get on with it immediately. 

People should not have to wait years to see whether a change of government has made any difference. 

We will take on the supermarket giants for fairer grocery prices. That means tackling the barriers that stop competitors growing and giving suppliers a fairer deal. 

We will cap public transport fares at $20 a week and freeze fuel tax for three years. 

We will give every New Zealander three free GP visits a year. 

We will cut eligible student debt, so graduates can finish repaying their loans sooner and keep more of their pay. 

And through Start Work Now, we will get work moving on the schools, hospitals and homes that need it, creating work for local firms and jobs for local tradies. 

For a family under pressure, lower household bills matters.  

So does being able to see a doctor without worrying about the cost, or getting a job that pays enough to cover the essentials.  

I am not suggesting that a set of policies will, by itself, repair trust in politics.  

We have to earn that trust through delivery, be honest about the choices we make, and answer for the results. 

That includes being clear when things are taking longer than we expected, or when we need to change course. 

And it means proper scrutiny of how we use the power people give us. 
Power accountable to the public

People deserve to know who is influencing decisions. They deserve a chance to be heard before laws are passed. 

And they deserve access to the information they need to hold ministers accountable. 

Those rights belong to people whether they voted for the government or against it. 

When we change the rules for an industry, people should be able to see whose advice we took and why. 

When we change a public service, the people who rely on it should have a chance to be heard. 

When we fail to deliver what we promised, people should be able to find out what went wrong and demand an explanation. 

Our democratic reforms will make it easier to do those things. They must apply to every government, including a government I lead. 

Opening up lobbying

First, we will make lobbying more transparent and shut the revolving door between ministerial office and paid lobbying. 

People and organisations have every right to make their case to government. The question is whether the public can see who is being paid to influence decisions, and whose interests they represent. 

When I was Prime Minister, I asked for work to be done to set out proper lobbying rules. Labour will finish that job. 

We will introduce a mandatory code of conduct for paid lobbyists and a public register showing who they are and who is paying them. 

We will also introduce a stand-down period, so ministers cannot walk out of Cabinet and straight into a lobbying job. 

If someone is being paid to change a minister's mind, the public has a right to know about it. 

Access to government should not depend on being able to afford someone with the right connections. 

Giving laws proper scrutiny

Second, we will limit the use of urgency. 

Everyone in this room knows how much the detail matters – and how important proper scrutiny is to getting it right.  

Scrutiny helps Parliament identify mistakes before they become law. It gives people a chance to point out what Parliament may have missed.

 
Labour will restrict urgency to genuine emergencies, fixing urgent errors in the law, budgets, and implementing a 100-day plan where policies have been clearly signposted before the election. 

Every law passed under urgency will also automatically go back to a select committee within six months, so the scrutiny that was missed actually happens. 

Governments of both stripes have used urgency too much, including Labour. That’s why we need to change the rules. 

Winning an election gives a government a mandate to act. It does not remove the need to listen or to test the detail of what it proposes. 

Strengthening access to information

Third, we will modernise the Official Information Act and give it more teeth. 

The Act was written for a world of filing cabinets and paper. It needs to work for the way government operates today. 

We will codify proactive releases, including ministers' diaries, and create an effective penalties regime for breaches of the Act. 

People should be able to see who ministers are meeting and understand how decisions are being made. 

Journalists need that information to test what ministers tell them. Communities need it to challenge decisions that affect them. And the public needs it to judge whether government is doing what it promised. 

Transparency is not a favour ministers grant when it suits them. It is part of being accountable to the public. 

Protecting participation

Fourth, we will protect the right to have your say. 

Labour will restore election-day enrolment. Eligible New Zealanders should be able to turn up, enrol and vote. 

We will give 16 and 17-year-olds the right to vote in local elections. 

We will make it one person, one vote in local elections, ending the rule that allows some people to vote in more than one council area. 

And we will require third-party campaigners in local and national elections to disclose donations on the same terms as political parties.

 
People should be able to participate, and they should be able to see who is funding efforts to influence their vote. 

Earning trust

We cannot ask people to trust us simply because we say we have the right intentions. 

We have to make their lives better and be prepared to answer for what we do. 

For the family around the kitchen table, that means being able to afford the groceries, get healthcare when they need it, and see a future for their children here. 

It also means knowing that ministers have to listen, explain their decisions and face scrutiny when things go wrong. 

That is the standard I want a Labour government to meet. 

People need to see that their vote can change their lives, and know that their voice still counts after the votes have been counted. 

If you're not willing to make that happen on behalf of the people of the country you purport to lead, then why be in politics at all? 

Thank you.