Dan Moskovitz (he/him)
When democratic precedent is eroded by one government, it provides the next government with a problem. Do they try to rebuild said precedent, and risk the following government ignoring it again? Or consider it lost and press on, destabilizing democracy in the process?
Should Labour win in 2026, with the number of repeals the coalition government has issued, it's a problem they’ll have to grapple with.
In essence, a repeal is striking a previously passed law in its entirety. During Labour’s six years in government, they passed just two. The coalition so far has passed twelve. And that’s not including directives to ministries reversing Labour policies - the ending of half-price fares being one such example.
Former VUWSA president, prime minister, and current leader of the opposition Chris Hipkins doesn’t mince words when asked for his thoughts on the number of repeals.
“I think the current government has this mentality that if we just go back to 2017, New Zealand would be a utopia. So they came in and decided anything the previous government had done was hopeless and should just be cancelled,”
“It was petty, spiteful, immature, and not at all focused on the future.”
But has National taken the cat out of the bag? Should Labour issue a similar number of repeals if they return to government? Hipkins isn’t so sure.
“There's no point in repealing for the sake of repealing. If what the government is doing is pointing the country in a forward direction then we'll continue with it. If they're pointing us backwards, then we'll look to change. But I'm not going to devote my first year in government to undoing everything my predecessors have done.
“Ultimately, that just results in the country spiralling backwards all of the time, and I just don't think that's healthy.
According to Hipkins, Labour was trying to change the way governments govern. One of the common complaints about Labour in 2023 was how little they had delivered. But Hipkins says it was more about getting decisions right even if making them took a long time. He cites the example of Resource Management Act reform, something which took Labour years to do - but he says they did it properly.
Yet National was able to repeal Labour’s reforms in a matter of weeks. Which Hipkins finds typical of the Luxon government.
“If you look at the speed with which National have done things, all they've done at pace is repeal stuff we did. They haven't replaced it with anything positive,” says Hipkins.
What Hipkins really wants is to restore trust in democracy, something which is declining worldwide. While reticent on the details of how and promising more later in the year, Hipkins wants to set the precedent of governments governing for the long run.
“Probably the number one challenge facing democracies around the world is restoring public trust in the institutions of government. If we don't do that, you only need to look at the US to see what kind of backlash you can get,” says Hipkins.
It’s clear a Hipkins-led government intends to go all in on restoring democratic precedent. But ultimately, it won’t be up to them to ensure democratic precedent is restored.
It will be up to the National government after them.