Why Should You Vote Labour?

In the run-up to the 2026 election, Salient is interviewing all of the major parties to understand their responses to the issues students face. Here, Shanan Halbert, Labour list MP and Tertiary Education spokesperson pitches Labour.

What is the biggest challenge facing students in New Zealand in 2026?

Students are paying more to live and more to study, which is making higher education less accessible. Labour stands by ensuring tertiary education is accessible to everyone in this country no matter where you live. 

With that in mind, what is Labour proposing to support students?

We’ll have a direct response to the cost-of-living challenges. A number of student surveys have come out saying transport costs are one of the main barriers in getting to class, so the first one is our public transport fare cap—$20 a week in Wellington, Auckland, and Christchurch. At the moment in Auckland, the fare cap is $50 and we’re coming in at $20. People are having to choose between a meal or going to university, and that’s not the tertiary education lifestyle we believe in. 

Students are currently the only beneficiary group not eligible for the winter energy payment. Is this something Labour would change?

Labour introduced the winter energy payment. What’s important to use in this election is that we are bringing down the cost of living for students. People are having to choose to not turn their heater on. This means people get sicker for longer which impacts our hospitals. We’ll be outlining a number of cost of living measures in our manifesto, which will be announced in a few weeks time. 

Will including students in the winter energy payment be included in the manifesto?

We’ll be looking at a range of measures which will save students money.

Are there student specific measures?

Some, yes. 

Can you give us any indication on what those might be? 

I’m not announcing our manifesto today, but I can give you an example of public transport fare caps. In Auckland, it’s largely students who access public transport, and we have significantly higher usage in Auckland. Last time we were in government, we made public transport half price, this time we’ve done better and capped it at $20. 

Let’s attack this question from a different way: if you’re elected and making students eligible for the winter energy payment isn’t in the manifesto, is this something you will advocate for from within Labour? 

Well what we have put in the manifesto is our solar saving-

-I’m not asking about the manifesto, I’m asking if making students eligible for the winter energy payment is something you would advocate for from within Labour.

Absolutely advocate. It’s important that students are living in warm, dry households. That’s why Labour enacted the healthy home standards last time we were in government, and it needs to be enforced further. I don’t think the winter energy payment as a one off solution is going to address the problem, which needs a range of responses, starting with enforcement of the healthy homes standard and continuing with other policies, like our Solar Saver policy. So the winter energy payment is one option, but there needs to be a range of responses to supporting students through the cost of living crisis. 

Between 2014 and 2024, the amount course fees could rise each year was between 2 and 2.8 percent. In 2025 and 2026, course fees were allowed to rise by 6 percent. If elected, what would your policy on course fees be?

This government has increased course fees by 19 percent across three years. Students are having to increase their loans, and the number of students accessing student loans and the number of students borrowing have both increased. On top of that, fees-free has been removed, which is an additional $12,000 of debt. We can’t just continue to load students up with debt, it’s not acceptable, and so we’re focused on reducing student debt. 

So, are you saying you’d keep yearly course fees between 2 and 2.8 percent? 

I’m saying my focus will be on reducing student debt in the policies we announce for this election. 

These course fee rises have come with the removal of final year fees-free. Is that 

something Labour wants to bring back? 

We won’t return fees-free. Our focus will be on restoring pay equity and reducing the debt burden this government has put on students. 

Why not? 

There’s fiscal implications. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. The money has been reallocated elsewhere, and to bring it back we’d have to rebuild the system. We know students are finding it tough out there, and I don’t think it’s acceptable for student loans to be the size they are. 

The other important point in this is that a lot of the fees-free discussion is focused on university students, but the impact has largely been on Polytech, Wānanga, and work-based learners. University students, because of the qualification, have a higher earning potential and can therefore pay the loan back, but other training areas may not have the earning potential. So that’s why we need a broader focus around how we achieve pay equity in the system. 

In 2017, Labour were elected on making all three years of university free. That eventually quietly went down to one year, and now Labour won’t bring it back. Why should students trust Labour again?

Labour has always stood by students and always supported them to reduce the loan burden. I contrast that to a government which has increased student fees by 19 percent, removed fees-free, taking away $12,000 from eligible students, and provided no cost-of-living support through a cost-of-living crisis. That’s not the experience under a Labour-led government; we introduced fees-free, provided significant support through the pandemic, and youth unemployment was incredibly low. 

Wellington’s unemployment rate is at 6.3 percent, but for those aged between 15 and 24 it is 8.4 percent. There are ten thousand fewer jobs in Wellington than there were last election, and the government is looking to remove 8700 public sector jobs, which would disproportionately affect Wellington. Right now, what incentive is there for a graduate to stay in Wellington?

I’m hopeful that anyone training can see a life here in Wellington or New Zealand, but that requires a government committed to them being here, living here, and working here. We have to create more job opportunities for graduates, and we have to make sure the response to cost of living is a real one. Christopher Luxon promised to fix the cost of living—he hasn’t. Things have gotten more expensive and students have worn the brunt of it, whether it be petrol, food, rent, or power. And those are the priority areas you’ll see Labour focusing on this election. 

So is there a good reason to stay in Wellington right now? 

There are lots of great reasons to stay in New Zealand. But the government has to give young people a reason to stay here. That starts with employment opportunities: if people can’t find part-time work while studying, let alone full time graduate opportunities, they have no other decision but to go off to Australia. 

The brain drain to Australia is a problem, but what about the brain drain from Wellington? It’s the only city in the country which is losing population. 

If we look at the public service, the job losses there definitely hurt Wellington significantly, but we feel those numbers right across the country. A lot of the public service works in Auckland, and that’s where a lot of those job losses will come from. But in small towns, if one office of MSD goes from ten FTEs to six, then four people in a small town are no longer employed. 

Access to mental health addiction services for young people has declined—there are 5000 fewer people receiving care than five years ago. How would Labour address the gap between demand for mental health care and the services available? 

There are 100,000 young people currently not engaged in education, training, or employment. That’s the size of Palmerston North, and up from 60,000 when we left the government three years ago. Whether you look at this socially, economically, or otherwise, this is going to spin around to bite New Zealand because we don’t have pathways into training or employment to offer them. 

This group is largely underserved by our health system and unable to access mental health support. So they are a real focus for me. We’ve put significant investment into mental health and addiction services in the past and we want to do so again, but that's a manifesto commitment and will be announced in a few weeks time. 

I understand you can’t talk about the manifesto until it’s released. But what can you tell me about Labour’s mental health plans?

We’re committed to young people and to those who are most vulnerable. We look at the government which does punitive measures like move on orders. That’s not our style. Our homeless are a group which have suffered from poor mental health and addiction, and this government’s response has been to lock them up. We have far more empathy than this government, we believe we can rehabilitate them and take a health approach to addressing their needs. 

Thank you for your time, Shanan.

No worries.