Hipkins made the comments today at the party's annual conference in Christchurch, a year on from the Labour government's defeat at the polls, and the formation of a coalition government of National, ACT and NZ First.
Beginning his speech, Hipkins said: "We are going to make this the first one-term National government in New Zealand's history."
Labour would bring together government, business, union and the social sector to tackle the problems of today and tomorrow, he said.
"We can change the government in 2026 if we work for it, that's why we need to plan for it."
Hipkins focused on the health system and referred to the government's plan to cut back funding for the new Dunedin hospital.
More than 30,000 marched in the city in October after the government announced it would either down-scale the project or retro-fit the existing hospital.
Labour would have a much bigger focus on keeping people healthy, Hipkins said, rather than rationing care for illnesses that could have been avoided.
"The way you save money in the health system isn't by cutting doctors, nurses and the people who help them to do their jobs. It's by investing in policies like free prescriptions and keeping people out of hospital in the first place.
"We will reinstate Smokefree Aotearoa to keep reducing smoking and improving people's health," he said to loud applause.
Labour would cancel the tax breaks the government had given to tobacco companies.
It would also invest in rebuilding hospitals "so that our regions get the health facilities they've been promised".
"And yes, today I'm going to announce we will complete the full rebuild of Dunedin Hospital, as we promised."
Hipkins said that under a Labour government, New Zealand would not join AUKUS, the security alliance with Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom.
Labour will also invest in a publicly owned interisland ferry service, he said.
"We'll have an unrelenting focus on lifting children out of poverty and we won't just change the targets when that gets hard."
Labour would also focus on getting Kiwis back to work and delivering a fairer deal for working people.
In opening comments on Friday, Hipkins called on his party to change in order to win the 2026 election.
Hipkins said he understood "Kiwis did vote for change last year" and that Labour now needed "to change as well".
In order to win, the party needed to reconnect with a broader range of New Zealanders by talking about the issues that mattered to them and the issues that Labour believed should matter to them, he said.
Kieran McAnulty has been elected to chair the next general election campaign.
- additional reporting ODT Online
