March 11, 2026 • 6 mins
We know Labour’s leader wants to be the PM come November 7, but who else is lining up for the job? And how is his rural cred?
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's the Labor Party leader Chris Sipkins. But will he
be our next prime minister? Let's ask him. Chris. Good
to see you along with Karen Maconnulty at the Golden Shares.
Is this part of building your rural cred?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, Karen's been trying to get me along to the
Golden Cheers for ages and this was the first time
that we actually managed to make it work. And it
was an absolutely incredible event. I've got to say, really
impressed with those years, the speed with which they work.
And you could sort of see, particularly as they were
going through the you know, the last competition that I
got to see whether you know they got get pathway
(00:33):
part way through it and you could just see them
really starting to hit the wall, but they just pushed
on through. It's just incredible stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Do you get sick of people, namely me buying you
a sausage roll. I've got to cover my basis just
in case you are the next prime minister.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
It was a very nice gestures, Thank you, JB. Although
I have cut back on the sausage rolls very heavily
in the last little while after putting on about ten
kilo's last election year I'm going to drive very hard
not to do the same this summer out.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
How did you get on? And I cheekily call it
the sleep over the love and with Federated Farmers. This
is one of the initiatives that Joe Luxton is doing
to try and make labor a bit more farmer friendly.
I think it was Wayne Langford, I hope I'm not
misquoting him who said you were able to get up
and speak for half an hour three quarters of an
hour without notes and in an informative way about farming.
(01:23):
And you on this show have admitted that you guys
dropped the ball in the last government. So how much
are you prepared to become farmer friendly?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I think we certainly didn't give the relationship with
the farming community that any government should have. And as
I said, when you're in government, you've got to govern
for the whole country, not just for the people who
vote for you. So regardless of whether or not the
people who are running our farms vote for us, we've
got to be able to work with them. So I
made it a priority after the last election to get
out go do a lot of farm visits. I visited
(01:54):
heaps of farms, you know, all different types of farms,
from small, little family farms to you know, big high
country farms to you know, sort of every level of
dairy farming. You name it. And I really enjoyed those visits.
I've learned a lot about farming. I've learned a lot
about the issues that affect farmers, and I have to
say I've been really impressed with some of the environmental
protection work that I've seen our farming community doing, which
(02:17):
I don't think they get enough credit for.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Are you going to get New Zealand's most high profile
farmer to stand for you in West Coast Tasman.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I think Wayne himself has said that he has a
nominated for that, but you know plenty of people speculate
on that. We don't normally comment on nominations or the
selection process until candidates have been selected.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
They've sort of left that one open a week. But anyhow,
let's move on. Do you think I know you want
to be prime minister come November the seventh? Do you
know who I reckon also wants to be Prime minister
come November the seventh? And I'm not talking about Christopher Luxon.
I think Winston wants the job.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, you know he's sending going to get that job
in a labor government. I can categorically rule that out.
Christopher Luxon, on the other hand, that's probably a very
good question to be asking him.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So do you think this is like a legacy election
for Winston? It's his final shot? Could you see a scenario,
for instance, where New Zealand first polls really well, act
perhaps less so a national having a declining vote in
Winston gets to call the shots and one of his
bargaining tools is I want to be Prime Minister. Do
you think Christopher Luxen would wear that?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I think a lot of Kiwis have had enough of
Winston Peters and David Seymore basically holding the country to
rents calling all of the shots, and they want to
to get back to stable, sensible, mature, growing up government,
which they haven't seen much of over the last two
and a half years. So my pitch to Kiwis at
the coming election is, if you want to end this
circus and you want to get back to good government
(03:51):
that works with people, that focuses on making good, solid,
sensible decisions, that's not interested in division or in populism,
then voting labors the way to achieve that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, but how are you going to do all those
achieve all those goals if your coalition partners and they
will be out to party Mari and the Greens they're
hardly stable.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well. I think during an election campaign, you go out
to win as many votes as you possibly can, and
you do draw somep some lines in the sand. Christopher
Luxan basically they haven't had any lines in the sand.
He's let David see Moore and Winston Peters call all
the shots. And that's not my approach now. I think
people should get the sort of government that they vote for.
Far more people voted for National the last election that
(04:30):
voted to Uzmitus and X combined, but you wouldn't know
that from the way the government's been operating.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Let's perhaps just finish on the COVID inquiry. You were
last man standing? Will you hung out to dry your mates?
Just Sinder and grant Wan know where to be seen?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh, I mean they've moved on with their lives and
that's fair enough.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They're still responsible.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Surely there's been a lot of desperate spin on the
COVID inquiry. You know, if you look at that, there
was a handpicked by the current government with the terms
of reference deliberately designed to try and make the previous
government look bad, and their hand picked inquiry came back
and said, actually New Zealand's COVID response was one of
the best in the world. We should all be proud
of it as a country. There are some things that
(05:11):
we could do differently and that we should learn from,
and I absolutely accept that. But actually the COVID inquiry
report was pretty damn positive and so you know, I
support it. I think it was at the end of
the day. While I was skeptical about it when it
was first mooted, and I think you and I might
have had a conversation about that at the time. Overall,
I think they did a damn good job.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Are you going down to Dunedin coming down to Duneden
where I'm based Regent Theater April the sixteenth and evening
with Jacinda and Grant. Did you know that they're doing
a comeback?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that's something to do probably the book tour
for both of them, and you know, and that's good.
They both were very good, both both well worth a read.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Chris Sipkins, I thank you very much for your time,
and in all sincerity, it was good to see you
at that iconic rural event, the Golden Shares and Master
Than last weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Were great to talk to you to JM. No doubt
as election year, so we'll be talking more. I'm sure
we will be. Bye bye, bye bye
Here's the Labor Party leader Chris Sipkins. But will he
be our next prime minister? Let's ask him. Chris. Good
to see you along with Karen Maconnulty at the Golden Shares.
Is this part of building your rural cred?
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Well, Karen's been trying to get me along to the
Golden Cheers for ages and this was the first time
that we actually managed to make it work. And it
was an absolutely incredible event. I've got to say, really
impressed with those years, the speed with which they work.
And you could sort of see, particularly as they were
going through the you know, the last competition that I
got to see whether you know they got get pathway
(00:33):
part way through it and you could just see them
really starting to hit the wall, but they just pushed
on through. It's just incredible stuff.
Speaker 1 (00:40):
Do you get sick of people, namely me buying you
a sausage roll. I've got to cover my basis just
in case you are the next prime minister.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
It was a very nice gestures, Thank you, JB. Although
I have cut back on the sausage rolls very heavily
in the last little while after putting on about ten
kilo's last election year I'm going to drive very hard
not to do the same this summer out.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
How did you get on? And I cheekily call it
the sleep over the love and with Federated Farmers. This
is one of the initiatives that Joe Luxton is doing
to try and make labor a bit more farmer friendly.
I think it was Wayne Langford, I hope I'm not
misquoting him who said you were able to get up
and speak for half an hour three quarters of an
hour without notes and in an informative way about farming.
(01:23):
And you on this show have admitted that you guys
dropped the ball in the last government. So how much
are you prepared to become farmer friendly?
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, I think we certainly didn't give the relationship with
the farming community that any government should have. And as
I said, when you're in government, you've got to govern
for the whole country, not just for the people who
vote for you. So regardless of whether or not the
people who are running our farms vote for us, we've
got to be able to work with them. So I
made it a priority after the last election to get
out go do a lot of farm visits. I visited
(01:54):
heaps of farms, you know, all different types of farms,
from small, little family farms to you know, big high
country farms to you know, sort of every level of
dairy farming. You name it. And I really enjoyed those visits.
I've learned a lot about farming. I've learned a lot
about the issues that affect farmers, and I have to
say I've been really impressed with some of the environmental
protection work that I've seen our farming community doing, which
(02:17):
I don't think they get enough credit for.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Are you going to get New Zealand's most high profile
farmer to stand for you in West Coast Tasman.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I think Wayne himself has said that he has a
nominated for that, but you know plenty of people speculate
on that. We don't normally comment on nominations or the
selection process until candidates have been selected.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
They've sort of left that one open a week. But anyhow,
let's move on. Do you think I know you want
to be prime minister come November the seventh? Do you
know who I reckon also wants to be Prime minister
come November the seventh? And I'm not talking about Christopher Luxon.
I think Winston wants the job.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
Well, you know he's sending going to get that job
in a labor government. I can categorically rule that out.
Christopher Luxon, on the other hand, that's probably a very
good question to be asking him.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So do you think this is like a legacy election
for Winston? It's his final shot? Could you see a scenario,
for instance, where New Zealand first polls really well, act
perhaps less so a national having a declining vote in
Winston gets to call the shots and one of his
bargaining tools is I want to be Prime Minister. Do
you think Christopher Luxen would wear that?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I think a lot of Kiwis have had enough of
Winston Peters and David Seymore basically holding the country to
rents calling all of the shots, and they want to
to get back to stable, sensible, mature, growing up government,
which they haven't seen much of over the last two
and a half years. So my pitch to Kiwis at
the coming election is, if you want to end this
circus and you want to get back to good government
(03:51):
that works with people, that focuses on making good, solid,
sensible decisions, that's not interested in division or in populism,
then voting labors the way to achieve that.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Yeah, but how are you going to do all those
achieve all those goals if your coalition partners and they
will be out to party Mari and the Greens they're
hardly stable.
Speaker 2 (04:10):
Well. I think during an election campaign, you go out
to win as many votes as you possibly can, and
you do draw somep some lines in the sand. Christopher
Luxan basically they haven't had any lines in the sand.
He's let David see Moore and Winston Peters call all
the shots. And that's not my approach now. I think
people should get the sort of government that they vote for.
Far more people voted for National the last election that
(04:30):
voted to Uzmitus and X combined, but you wouldn't know
that from the way the government's been operating.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Let's perhaps just finish on the COVID inquiry. You were
last man standing? Will you hung out to dry your mates?
Just Sinder and grant Wan know where to be seen?
Speaker 2 (04:46):
Oh, I mean they've moved on with their lives and
that's fair enough.
Speaker 1 (04:48):
They're still responsible.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Surely there's been a lot of desperate spin on the
COVID inquiry. You know, if you look at that, there
was a handpicked by the current government with the terms
of reference deliberately designed to try and make the previous
government look bad, and their hand picked inquiry came back
and said, actually New Zealand's COVID response was one of
the best in the world. We should all be proud
of it as a country. There are some things that
(05:11):
we could do differently and that we should learn from,
and I absolutely accept that. But actually the COVID inquiry
report was pretty damn positive and so you know, I
support it. I think it was at the end of
the day. While I was skeptical about it when it
was first mooted, and I think you and I might
have had a conversation about that at the time. Overall,
I think they did a damn good job.
Speaker 1 (05:30):
Are you going down to Dunedin coming down to Duneden
where I'm based Regent Theater April the sixteenth and evening
with Jacinda and Grant. Did you know that they're doing
a comeback?
Speaker 2 (05:41):
I think that's something to do probably the book tour
for both of them, and you know, and that's good.
They both were very good, both both well worth a read.
Speaker 1 (05:49):
Chris Sipkins, I thank you very much for your time,
and in all sincerity, it was good to see you
at that iconic rural event, the Golden Shares and Master
Than last weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Were great to talk to you to JM. No doubt
as election year, so we'll be talking more. I'm sure
we will be. Bye bye, bye bye
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