The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi has today launched its "Don't risk 6 years of Luxon" election campaign. A campaign that uses the stories of working people to warn that another term of an out-of-touch Prime Minister is a risk they can't afford.
The campaign runs across multiple platforms until the election.
"Everyday workers are sharing their experience living under Luxon's leadership, and just how hard it is," says Sandra Grey, President of NZCTU.
"They are speaking up clearly about their concerns about what another three years under a National-led coalition would mean. They have told us they've gone backwards while the Prime Minister has shown he has no idea what their lives are like."
Since the National-led Government took office, 48,000 more people are unemployed, and the number unemployed for six months or longer has risen 130 percent. The minimum wage has fallen 4 percent in real terms since 2023. That leaves a full-time minimum-wage worker $2,076 a year worse off than if it had kept pace with inflation. Wages measured by the labour cost index have fallen 1.5 percent after inflation.
At the same time, the cost of essentials has kept climbing. Household energy costs are up 23.8 percent, bread is up 20 percent, fresh milk 23.8 percent, and beef and veal 30.6 percent. In 2025, an estimated 473,000 people were living in material hardship, including 169,000 children.
"Luxon is a Prime Minister who told the country his weekly shop cost $60, and who saw nothing wrong with taking $52,000 a year from taxpayers for an apartment he already owned," says Grey.
"Meanwhile, working people are skipping meals, putting off the dentist and watching their savings disappear. His choices are making it harder for working people to make ends meet: a minimum wage that's going backwards, wages that haven't kept up, and more people out of work."
The campaign encourages people to enrol or update their details at vote.nz, and will be followed shortly by the NZCTU's report into the cost of living, where real working people tell their stories of how the cost of living is affecting them.
"Three more years of National means six years of Luxon," says Grey. "Working people can't afford to take that risk. It's time to vote for change. Don't risk six years of Luxon."
For more on the campaign head to dontrisk6.nz
