Labour has unveiled its 2026 election slogan, "Better Starts Now", pitching itself to voters as the alternative to what leader Chris Hipkins called "three more years of cuts, more division, more pain and higher costs" under National.
Speaking on the front lawn of a Summerfield home in Christchurch alongside several local MPs and candidates, Hipkins framed November's election as a choice about the country's direction.
"Better is possible, and better starts now," he said.
"We need change if we want better as a country."
He said Labour's campaign centred on the cost of living, jobs, healthcare and housing.
"New Zealanders want to see a government that's focused on the things that matter most to them: more affordable household bills, making sure your own hard work pays off, making sure that every New Zealander can access healthcare when they need it, and making sure that everybody has a place to call home," Hipkins said.
Hipkins said Labour had already set out policies across those areas, with more to come, and issued a direct appeal to voters.
"If you want a country that's better, a country that's your kids are going to want to stay in and make their future in, you need to vote for change at this election, because three more years of this government means three more years of cuts, three more years of pain, three more years of high costs."
He also took aim at National's rival catch-cry announced on Sunday, "no new taxes", which he said the party could not stand behind.
"The National Party can't be trusted on anything. Some of the taxes that they're now saying they don't want to do, they've already done in this year's Budget," he said.
Hipkins cited the bank levy in this year's Budget, a cap on charitable donation tax rebates that ACT leader David Seymour has said he will scrap, and commitments from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters to reverse foreign affairs cuts and renationalise BNZ.
He also questioned where Seymour's $2 billion for new cancer hospitals would come from.
"It's about time they started to explain how they're going to make their own numbers add up," he said.
The slogan follows Labour's 2023 tagline In It For You, Let's Keep Moving in 2020, and Let's Do This in 2017.
National has been campaigning on Fix The Basics, Build The Future, after running on Get New Zealand Back On Track at the 2023 election.
Meanwhile National's Nicola Willis hit out at Labour's "secret tax plan", saying to meet its government spending and revenue plans it would require "unprecedented increases in tax, well beyond the policies it is explicitly campaigning on".
“New Zealanders deserve straight answers from Labour about its tax plans, not continued attempts by Chris Hipkins and Barbara Edmonds to mislead them," she said.
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