OPINION: New PM Chris Hipkins Has Forgotten His Student Roots
Words by Ethan Manera (he/him)
When Chippy was sworn in as Aotearoa’s new PM, you would have been forgiven for thinking the former VUWSA president would be a victory for students. Yet Hipkins’ track record shows he is more of a sell-out than a student saviour when it comes to supporting students doing it tough.
As the first ex-student union president to make it to the Beehive’s 9th floor, Chris Hipkins started off as a radical at an institution renowned for its history of progressive activism.
While a fresher, he was arrested at the grounds of Parliament for protesting against the commercialisation of universities. He then served as VUWSA president in 2000 and 2001, fiercely advocating for free tertiary education and higher student allowances.
In 2001, Hipkins said “fees must come down and access to living allowances will have to increase.” He demanded the government make education a higher priority, accusing politicians of “mortgaging the future of our country”.
But Chippy’s days of pushing for radical change for students are long gone. The man who built his career on fighting for our interests seems to have abandoned his principles at the door of the Beehive.
When Labour won the election in 2017, Hipkins became Education Minister under Jacinda Ardern. Despite this, students were still crying out for help under Hipkins’ leadership. As the cost of living and student debt rose, he neglected to implement targeted relief for students. Things got harder for students, but Hipkins wouldn't budge.
Then Covid-19 hit, and students were doing it tougher than ever. Yet student support was the first on the list to be scrapped in the name of financial belt-tightening. Hipkins announced that the free fees program would be cut back and the reinstatement of postgrad student loans was to be scrapped, breaking Labour’s 2017 campaign promise and doing exactly the opposite of what he fought so strongly for in his youth.
Students are now facing a cost of living crisis, juggling study alongside working multiple shifts each week, and paying unaffordable rents for mouldy flats, all while going into tens of thousands of dollars of debt. A 2022 report found two-thirds of students regularly can't afford food, bills, and health care. A leg up from Chippy is still nowhere to be seen.
Things are objectively worse than when Hipkins was a student, but since reaching a position where he has every power to change things, he's simply decided not to.
Hipkins has ruled out universal allowances, refused to wipe student debt, and only coughed up miniscule increases to weekly student loan payments, giving students the immense privilege of going into more debt each week. Thanks Chippy.
It seems our once-loved ex-student union president would rather play to the centre; he’s too scared to lose votes. Chippy has played us, using student issues to launch his career, but then abandoning us when we really need help.
In Hipkins’ welcome letter last week, he addressed students, writing, “I want to ensure you can focus on your education without stressing about power bills or the price of groceries.” This empty and meaningless assurance represents Hipkins’ approach to students: signalling all the right things, but refusing to actually implement policy that helps.