Top Ten “NZ Politics Daily” stories today
Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the weekend and today.
1) The “Ten faces to watch in politics in 2024” according to 1News’ Felix Desmarais are: James Meager, Tākuta Ferris, Chlöe Swarbrick, Todd Stephenson, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, Casey Costello, Matt Doocey, Judith Collins, Brooke van Velden, and Ayesha Verrall.
In this profile, we find that the “at-times polarising figure” of Chlöe Swarbrick is already the “defacto leader” of the Greens, and likely to take over the co-leadership from James Shaw. Casey Costello is the possible next leader of NZ First: “Leader Winston Peters has spoken highly of her and his faith in her is perhaps illustrated by not just her presence in Cabinet as a first term MP but also with the Seniors portfolio — one very dear to New Zealand First.” Judith Collins has “the most extensive ministerial portfolio in the new Government” which is said to be “all about Luxon keeping Collins busy”.
2) The NBR’s political editor Brent Edwards has interviewed Chris Hipkins about Labour’s upcoming time in opposition – see: Labour’s goal to be back in government in 2026 (paywalled)
According to Hipkins, Labour has to do three things over the next three years: 1) “be a strong and effective Opposition”, 2) “make sure we’re using this time to think and to reflect and to come up with new ideas and be better prepared when we come back into government”, and 3) “rebuild the broader labour movement, noting the longer a party is in government the harder it has to work to retain the support of its base”.
3) Winston Peters has also been interviewed by Brent Edwards about his return to the foreign minister role (for the third time) – see: Keep eyes wide open, NZ: Winston Peters (paywalled)
In this, he talks about the Gaza conflict, China-US tensions, and the need to strengthen MFAT. He’s reported as saying “there is no doubt the world is a more dangerous and uncertain place than it was in 2020” when he was last Minister of Foreign Affairs.
On Gaza and Israel, Peters believes that although Hamas started the recent conflict, the increasing criticisms of Israel are “not without integrity given how many innocent lives have been lost in Gaza.” He believes that Israel’s allies are “coming to the same conclusion that they cannot condone the continuing loss of life in Gaza”. As well as ending the conflict, Peters wants to begin “the process of setting up a tangible, enduring two-state solution.”
Peters wants more funding for his own ministry, pointing out that Singapore and Ireland “has two-and-a-half times the number of people ‘in the field’ as New Zealand”, and thus believes MFAT “needs more trade diplomats abroad opening markets and facilitating trade”. Peters says “this important part of our bureaucracy needs greater investment” and bemoans that “So many New Zealand voters don’t think that foreign policy matters, don’t realise the connection between trade, foreign affairs”.
4) Former National Government Defence Minister Wayne Mapp has written an analysis of where New Zealand’s defence policy is headed under the new government – see: A place in history is in New Zealand Defence Minister Judith Collins’ future
He argues that “Judith Collins stands to be among our most important Defence Ministers ever”, as she will be dealing with resurrecting a more powerful military force, and navigating a more unstable world. Mapp says that Collins “is well known for her desire to improve relations with the United States”.
5) “Security studies” academics at New Zealand universities are lobbying more and more for the country’s military to be upgraded and for the country to take a more hawkish foreign policy, lining up with Washington and Canberra. As an example of this, a new book has recently been released: “State of Threat: The Challenges to Aotearoa New Zealand’s National Security” (edited by edited by Wil Hoverd and Deidre Ann McDonald). The book is reviewed in the latest Listener by University of Otago security academic Peter Grace – see: Collision crossroads: Threats at home and abroad leave New Zealand under pressure to boost security (paywalled)
Grace promotes the idea that New Zealand’s foreign policy of keeping on side with both China and the US has essentially been “buck passing” – especially with the notion that “we have been asking the US and Australia to underwrite our security”. Grace suggests that with the arrival first of Andrew Little as Defence minister, and now Judith Collins, “the era of buck-passing may soon be over”, as New Zealand gets closer to joining up in the Aukus military buy-up in order to confront or deter China in the region.
6) The Wellington Mayor has posted a picture on social media of “what appears to be a Hamas fighter with a gun slung over their back” and with words that the NZ Jewish Council president Juliet Moses says are code for a call for the “annihilation of Israel” – see Tom Hunt’s Wellington mayor Tory Whanau criticised for Palestine post (paywalled). But the article also reports: “Justine Sachs, from Dayenu New Zealand Jews Against Occupation, said the post in no way promoted anti-Semitism, nor did it call for the annihilation of Israel. The call for Palestinians to return to occupied land did not mean Israel could not exist”.
7) The maiden speeches of National MP James Meager and Te Pati Māori’s Tākuta Ferris are seen as representations of very different ideological approaches to race relations in New Zealand according to Richard Prebble, writing in the Herald today – see: National’s James Meager, Te Pāti Māori’s Tākuta Ferris offer contrasting views of race relations (paywalled)
Prebble says: “Thirty-three of Parliament’s 123 MPs are of Māori descent. The deputy prime minister, four of the seven other party leaders and co-leaders, and 30 per cent of the Cabinet are of Māori descent. And Māori MPs are leading the debate over the future of our parliamentary democracy. Two maiden speeches give very different views.” Prebble then quotes the Meager and Ferris speeches to highlight National and Te Pati Māori approaches to finding progress.
8) The Otago Daily Times calls on universities – including the University of Otago, which had tried to keep the costs of a new Māori sculpture secret – to be more open in its editorial today: “A University is the most public of places. Largely, but not completely, funded by the taxpayer, the findings its experts make are meant to inform and benefit humanity. Openness, trust and honesty are also key attributes of a successful university. Academics are allowed by law to be the critics and conscience of society, and with that comes a responsibility to use that privilege wisely. Such freedom in the quest for knowledge should also rub off on students, other staff and the institution as a whole” – see: Learning to answer questions (paywalled)
In terms of the recent attempt by Otago to keep its spending secret, the editorial says: “In the grand scheme of things, that [$113,000] is not a huge amount. Considering all the millions of dollars the university routinely spends on its operation, it beggars belief that so much effort went into keeping the cost of the pou whenua hidden from the public, which it should never have been.” And in terms of the “cultural” arguments the University used, the editorial claims, “This was a piece of breathtaking gaslighting, an attempt to scare off journalists.”
9) The psychology of political leaders isn’t often discussed in New Zealand political commentary. But political scientist Laszlo Szollosi-Cira makes an attempt to understand the mentality of the new Prime Minister, and suggests he suffers from “the psychological problem of escapism” (as did Jacinda Ardern, he says) – see: Escapism: The Similarity between Ardern and Luxon
10) In the latest edition of Metro magazine (not online), rightwing political commentator tries to explain that the advent of the new National-led government is simply a response to the failures of the last Labour Government. In the column, titled “Hard right turn: If you don’t like the new government, blame Jacinda Ardern and Chris Hipkins”, Hooton argues that the “unmitigated failure of the Ardern-Hipkins circus served up New Zealand’s most right-wing government since 1993”.
He says that Ardern and co had some good intentions and ideas, but not real drive to implement them, which meant they achieved nothing much at all: “Ardern became the first prime minister since 1951 to win a majority of the vote. She might have done anything she wanted, but it turned out she couldn’t. Her successor, Chris Hipkins, had the perfect opportunity to do better, with Grant Robertson and David Parker handing him their innovative wealth tax policy, which would also have delivered $20 a week in tax cuts to everyone, including the very low paid. It would have been an election winner, but Hipkins was too scared to emulate Labour heroes Michael Joseph Savage, Peter Fraser and Walter Nash or even David Lange and Roger Douglas in boldly doing what he believed New Zealand needed. Hopes of a more progressive tax system – plus basic management fiascos like Kiwibuild, Te Pūkenga, Oranga Tamariki and of course Auckland Light Rail – died along with dreams of a new Sweden of the South Pacific.”
In power, Labour’s main achievement was to build up the resources and empires of the professional managerial class – basically middle class institutions and the public service, which has taken precious resources away from the welfare state and the delivery of services for the public good. Hence, Hooton argues that there is a public good, including for the political left and Labour’s traditional constituency, in the professional managerial class being confronted by the new government.
In this regard, Hooton is worth quoting at length about what has happened to the public service: “No one, not even the usually reflexively leftwing teacher unions, understands why staff at the Ministry of Education increased by 55 percent to 4311 full-time equivalents since Labour took office, compared with just a 5 percent increase in teacher numbers. Staff in the Key Government’s great bureaucratic folly, the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, ballooned from around 3700 to more than 6100 during Labour’s term. More than 10,000 people now ‘work’ in those two Wellington ministries alone, yet New Zealand’s performance in education, business, innovation and high-productivity jobs has gone backwards. Quite why we need a Ministry for the Environment, a Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment and a Climate Change Commission, all three of which all hire people to review one another’s work, has never been explained. No one, not least Māori, will end up missing the Māori Health Authority, which will have done no more for Māori heath than MBIE has done for economic growth.”
Dr Bryce Edwards
Political Analyst in Residence, Democracy Project, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington
NZ Politics Daily - 10 January 2024
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