PM: Time to refresh, refocus

• Published date: 26 January 2023

The newly-minted leader was officially sworn in yesterday and delivered his first press conference

“Today that work started in earnest and we had a good discussions about the next steps we’ll be taking to reprioritise, refresh, and refocus the Government’s work programme so we can move our resources where we need to so that we can address the bread-and-butter issues that New Zealanders are most concerned about.

“I’ve already said publicly that we will be reining in some of our plans, putting them on a slower track, giving us more room to move and greater capacity to focus on the immediate priority issues facing New Zealand, particularly the cost-of-living pressures that have been caused by the global economic situation.”

Stats NZ CPI data for the December quarter shows an annual 7.2 per cent increase — unchanged from the previous quarter.

Hipkins says this reaffirms their priority for tackling the economic crisis.

He says their focus is on getting Kiwis through these times, and they can expect more announcements once the new Cabinet’s set up.

Hipkins said he will meet Auckland businesses today and expects immigration to come up. “One of the main topics I’ve expected to come up is the global labour shortage. IT continues to put additional pressure on those New Zealand businesses,” he said.

Hipkins said the Government had already made...