Top “NZ Politics Daily” stories today
Below are some of the more interesting and insightful New Zealand politics items from the weekend and this morning.
1) Corporate lobbyists will be breathing a sigh of relief. The pressure and scrutiny appear to be coming off them under the new government. After a year in which a clampdown on the wild west of lobbying was shaping up, RNZ’s Guyon Espiner reports this morning that under the new administration, they might get an easier ride, with less regulation and sunlight directed on them – see: Lobbyists are back at Parliament – with a new privacy measure hiding their identities
The main revelation is that Gerry Brownlee, the Parliament’s new Speaker, has reversed the previous Speaker’s cancellation of access swipe cards for corporate lobbyists in the parliamentary facilities, and what’s more, he’s refusing to release the list of those with special access. He says it’s to protect their privacy, but it all goes against what National was promising before coming to power.
Futhermore, Espiner has a copy of a new proposed “voluntary” code of conduct for lobbyists that has been put together by the Ministry of Justice. While it has some good suggestions for the behaviour of lobbyists, it maintains the idea that it’s up to the lobbyists themselves to police their own activities. One lobbyist is even interviewed saying that the draft code “appeared to have been captured by lobbyists opposed to change.”
2) One of the most influential events in the political year occurred last week but was barely reported on – Shane Jones’ annual Waitangi home party. About 450 influential figures from politics, business, and media turned up at Jones’ Kerikeri family home on Sunday. The Herald’s “Media Insider” Shayne Currie reports that “The worlds of local, national and international business, media, PR, politics and diplomacy collided”, with a long list of the powerful, including 70 diplomats, city mayors such as Wayne Brown, MPs and journalists – see: The PM, VIPs and crayfish – inside Shane Jones’ big Waitangi party (paywalled)
Currie writes that, unusually, Labour and Act MPs didn’t turn up this year. And the only Green MP to attend was James Shaw, who is a regular attendee” and “a mate” of Jones. However, there were lots of people from PR and vested interests to cultivate relationships, with Currie reporting one attendee saying “The place was crawling with lobbyists”. He points out that the list included veteran lobbyist Mark Unsworth through to newly established lobbyist, Jessica Mutch McKay, who has just left TVNZ to run ANZ bank’s government relations.
Currie lists other lobbyists at the party: “Sky TV’s corporate affairs manager Chris Major, Banking Association chief executive Roger Beaumont, ANZ public, consumer and government executive general manager Peter Parussini and Fletchers Building corporate affairs general manager Christian May.” Other sources have also pointed out that it was notable that no tobacco lobbyists turned up this year.
3) The President of Te Pati Māori, John Tamihere, is also the Chief Executive of the Waipareira Trust charity, and there are ongoing concerns about how much the two organisations overlap, and the legality of funding that is given by the charity to Tamihere’s political campaigns. The latest in a long-running saga is that the Department of Internal Affairs regulator of NGOs, Charity Services, has forced Tamihere to repay a $385,307 interest-free loan that the Waipareira Trust gave to him for various election campaigns – see Matt Nippert’s Waipareira’s controversial campaign loan repaid, executive salaries skyrocket (paywalled)
It’s illegal for NGOs like the Waipareira Trust to use charity money for political purposes like bankrolling Tamihere’s election campaigns. Hence, although the $385,307 initially appeared as a donation to him, it was converted to a “loan”. According to Waipareira’s latest annual report, the money was repaid by Tamihere. But at the same time, he appears to have been given a substantial salary increase. Although it's not clear how much Tamihere is paid, the annual report shows that the average salary of the thirteen senior managers at the Trust, of which Tamihere is at the top, is on average $510,679 per annum. Tamihere has refused to answer questions about the loans and salary, accusing the Herald of running an “anti Maori Pogrom”.
4) Tamihere’s Te Pāti Māori is also under scrutiny for its ethical and legal behaviour in how it may have illegally interfered with voting activity in South Auckland at last year’s general election, in which its candidate Takutai Tarsh Kemp beat incumbent Labour MP Peeni Henare by just 42 votes. The candidate was also the Chief Executive of the Manurewa Marae, which the Electoral Commission used as a voting booth. The Sunday Star Times’ Andrea Vance reports that serious allegations have arisen that the Marae was effectively used to increase the vote for Te Pāti Māori, and the Electoral Commission failed to take seriously those problems – see: Deleted social media posts raise further questions about 'treating' at a marae polling booth (paywalled)
Here’s the key part: “the Sunday Star-Times can reveal that during the period where advance votes could be cast, the marae's social media accounts promoted a ticketing system where voters could collect free hāngī, doughnuts, hot chocolate and coffee on providing proof of voting. The first 300 voters on a given day would get freebies. The account also posted a live video which included footage of Kemp's campaign vehicle, branded with Te Pāti Māori livery, and invited people to vote at the marae where an event that day would include free food. Documents, released after an Official Information Act request, reveal the commission was first made aware of the videos in the fortnight before election day on October 14, but they remained up for the duration of voting.”
Tamihere has responded to the reports, calling them “fake news”. But details in the story raise serious issues of potential electoral fraud that call into question the validity and fairness of how Te Pāti Māori won the electorate and party votes in general.
5) The latest Taxpayers Union Curia poll shows significant increases for the Act and National parties, and a big drop for the Greens. Here are the figures for the party vote:
National: 39.6% (+2.6)
Labour: 27.9% (-0.4)
Act: 13.7% (+5.6)
Green: 9% (-4.8)
NZF: 5% (-1)
TPM: 2.3% (-1.1)
TOP: 2.9% (+0.2)
For the best coverage of the poll, see Claire Trevett’s Poll shows Act leader David Seymour and party gaining support after Waitangi events
6) Labour’s continued doldrums are explored by Andrea Vance, who argues the party has become too focused on the middle class, identity politics, and at the expense of their traditional working class constituency and working class issues – see: What’s left for the left? (paywalled)
Here’s her argument about Labour needing to reconnect with class politics: “Labour should be asking: who does it now represent? It hasn’t been the party of the working man since its neo-liberal revolution of the 1980s… From there, as inequality sharpened and real wages declined, Labour distanced itself from core support, evolving into a clique of career-driven politicians who marketed themselves at the progressive middle class.” Then in lieu of a class focus, the party gets distracted by culture wars: “In failing to speak clearly to swathes of the electorate, Labour has opened a vacuum on the left which is being filled with another kind of politics that does not serve them. The unwinnable struggle against capitalism has given way to futile culture wars and identity politics, which the right is adept at stoking. The current row over Treaty rights is a case in point. ACT and National have dragged their opponents onto a battlefield for a fight they have no intention of having. The left has allowed itself to become consumed by a debate that many find uncomfortable and detached from their everyday struggles.”
7) The future of the Greens is under consideration at the moment, as Chloe Swarbrick looks to replace James Shaw as one of the party’s co-leaders. Swarbrick is also regarded as taking the party in a more middle class, liberal direction. She was interviewed yesterday by Jack Tame on Q+A, especially about her continued use of the slogan that Palestine shall be free “from the river to the sea”, which some in the Jewish community see as calling for the destruction of Israel. You can watch her 17-minute interview here: Israel-Gaza: Swarbrick used controversial chant despite urging from school
8) The only candidate to contest Swarbrick for the co-leadership so far, Alex Foulkes, is arguing that the Green Party has become too middle class, and this is likely to continue under her leadership. He’s proposing a more radical way forward for the party – see RNZ’s Green Party activist puts forward radical manifesto in leadership bid
9) Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has to decide whether to invest significant taxpayer money into upgrading Premier House – the Wellington house designated for PMs to live in. Until then, he’s choosing to live in his own apartment, for which he can charge taxpayers up to $52k in accommodation grants – see Thomas Manch’s Luxon yet to move into Premier House as he considers 'significant' renovations (paywalled)
10) For a useful insight into how the National-led Government will be thinking about how it cuts and reforms spending in the public sector, it’s worth reading former National Finance Minister Steven Joyce’s column in the weekend about the challenges of making huge cuts while also trying to deliver better services – see: The former Labour Government – what have they got to show for its spending? (paywalled)
He argues that the previous government’s huge increase in spending – which he says is 83% higher than when National was last in office – hasn’t led to better outcomes for the public, and can be explained by a whole host of duplications in the public bureaucracy and the creation of low-value projects. In fact, there are plenty of areas – especially in infrastructure – where the government now needs to spend a lot more. Here’s a key quote from Joyce explaining where a lot of the new money has gone: “Thanks to the last Government we now have three bureaucracies in charge of health, not one, three also in charge of the polytechnic sector instead of the previous one, and something like six or seven agencies with their oar in infrastructure provision. All over the public sector there are tales of little fiefdoms arguing over who is on top.” And he warns that Labour will have to be very careful in opposing National’s cuts: “If you kick up a fuss about every single thing that is stopped by the new Government, you look like you are still part of the spending problem and haven’t learnt anything.”
11) The Herald’s Fran O’Sullivan also has an insight into what the new Government is proposing in the reform of the public service, saying, “Chris Luxon and Nicola Willis want the key roles in the New Zealand public service to be filled by appointees with ‘successful real world’ experience” – see: Machiavellian Wellington insider antics present traps for aspiring civil service leaders (paywalled)
O’Sullivan reports on how Luxon’s private sector colleagues might be used: “Luxon, in particular, has chivvied former members of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council that he used to chair that they should step up and perform public service. But such businesspeople are more likely to emerge as members of short-term advisory groups to advise on a particular issue where an independent view is needed, or as directors of Crown-related companies, rather than jump in to the river themselves.” She warns that previous attempts to bring in private sector CEOs to the public service haven’t always been very successful – citing the last National government’s mistake in bringing in John Allen to run MFAT.
12) Property developers are lobbying the government for more generous rules that would allow a new type of housing property to be more commercially viable – “build to rent” houses. They’re currently using the media to get their advocacy across. RNZ has published an article on the call by the Kiwi Property Group for the government “to make tax and investment rule changes to boost build-to-rent developments as part of the solution to the shortage of affordable housing”. In particular, the property developers say “overseas investment rules should be relaxed to allow greater offshore participation, along with other incentives” such as used in Australia – see: Tax changes needed to boost build-to-rent sector – Kiwi Property
13) The property developer PR campaign is typically effective, with the media publishing very positive stories about how this new landlord business model can make renting more prevalent, instead of home ownership – see for example, Stuff’s article by Miriam Bell: Here’s how renting is changing in NZ (paywalled) and Newshub’s article by Dianna Vezich: New Zealand's biggest build-to-rent complex nears completion in Auckland
14) The horror of the housing affordability crisis is laid bare this week in the Listener by broadcaster Duncan Garner explaining his own sad personal house-hunting dilemmas, which end in him considering living on a boat instead – see: Housing horrors may force me to live on a boat (paywalled)
15) The sudden announcement by the Prime Minister during the week that the National Party would definitely be killing off Act’s Treaty Principles Bill has been explained by the Herald’s Claire Trevett, who reports that the PM decided that David Seymour had gone too far: “Luxon’s decision to make it clear was forced by Act deciding to launch a website on the issue, the stated aim of which was to try to force National to change its mind by trying to drum up popular support for it. It’s the kind of thing a party does in Opposition, not in coalition. As far as Luxon was concerned, that went beyond the agree-to-disagree clauses in the coalition agreement and bordered on a misrepresentation of National’s policy. Up until that point, Luxon had been happy to give Seymour some air to get the debate going around his bill but, once he deemed Seymour was taking advantage of that, he decided to punch back” – see: Why Prime Minister Christopher Luxon punched back when Act leader David Seymour pushed his luck too far on Treaty bill (paywalled)
Trevett argues that Luxon is winning the internal coalition fight against Seymour: “It has afforded Luxon the opportunity to look like a Prime Minister by taking the stance that he would do what he considered right, rather than what he considered popular”, and that the ongoing saga is hurting the popularity of the Act Party.
16) There’s huge tension between Act and National according to political commentator Janet Wilson, who says that their two leaders have doubled down on their very divergent positions on the Treaty Principles Bill, and this has “set the coalition government on a course where divisiveness abounds, not only between the coalition partners but in wider society, and trust corrodes” – see: The bill that will not die, but could prove politically lethal (paywalled)
She argues that there’s a strong case that the coalition agreement has now been breached, and animosity is now growing, which will leave voters to decide on which leader is acting with more integrity.
17) In contrast, Newstalk’s Heather du Plessis-Allan argued in the weekend that Luxon is underestimating both the popularity of the Bill and the cunning of the Act leader: “Seymour isn’t afraid of playing dirty. He’s deliberately made a fool of Luxon this week, saying that he thinks Luxon got nervous after Waitangi and that his mind can be changed by public popularity. That’s akin to saying the man has no spine and no principles. Seymour has an advantage in this debate. He’s not afraid of controversy as Luxon is. In fact, he needs it. The more we talk about this bill, the more opportunities Seymour has to repeat his ideas, dispel the misinformation and convince more voters” – see: Waitangi Day wasn’t nearly as ugly as anyone feared (paywalled)
Du Plessis-Allan also reminds readers of how much support the Bill might have: “A Curia-Taxpayer’s Union poll in October found 60 per cent support for those principles. The support is consistent across every age group, both genders, all three major cities and supporters of all political parties. Even the Green Party. Even Wellington. Awkwardly for Luxon, National Party voters like it too — 66 per cent of them. Which means he just chose to disagree with two-thirds of his own voters.”
18) A new survey, highlighted by RNZ, shows the level of support for Act’s Treaty Principles referendum, and what type of people are most supportive. Of those surveyed, 36% favoured a referendum, 35% were against, and the rest were undecided. Interestingly, the demographics that had especially strong support for a referendum, included: the young, Māori, men, and those living north of Taupō – see: Do New Zealanders really want a Treaty referendum?
The survey had some other useful results about what the public wanted the government to prioritise: “There were three: high cost of food and other everyday essentials (90 percent); long GP and hospital waiting times (87 percent); and the rate of crime committed by young people (84 percent). Also ranking high on issues people want addressed were a lack of affordable, healthy housing (78 percent); and old leaking water pipes in the major cities (75 percent).”
Dr Bryce Edwards
Political Analyst in Residence, Democracy Project, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington
NZ Politics Daily – 12 February 2024
PARLIAMENT, TAXPAYERS’ UNION-CURIA POLL, ELECTION
Guyon Espiner (RNZ): Lobbyists are back at Parliament - with a new privacy measure hiding their identities
Scott Palmers (Newshub): New poll shows sharp rise for ACT during heated Waitangi period, Greens' support slumps
Claire Trevett (Herald): Poll shows Act leader David Seymour and party gaining support after Waitangi events
William Hewett (Newshub): ACT leader David Seymour says 'a lot' of customs, traditions at Waitangi designed to 'intimidate'
Andrea Vance (Post): What’s left for the left? (paywalled)
Herald: On the Tiles: 100-day deadline counts down and Labour MPs excel in Opposition
Thomas Manch (Post): Luxon yet to move into Premier House as he considers 'significant’ renovations (paywalled)
Andrea Vance (Post): Deleted social media posts raise further questions about 'treating' at a marae polling booth
Phil Smith (RNZ): Parliament's new bible
Paul Gorman (ODT): Toxic politics (paywalled)
Tracy Watkins (Post): Why I needed some distance from political reporting (paywalled)
GOVERNMENT, TREATY PRINCIPLES BILL, WAITANGI
Janet Wilson (Post): The bill that will not die, but could prove politically lethal (paywalled)
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Herald): Waitangi Day wasn’t nearly as ugly as anyone feared (paywalled)
Vernon Small (Post): ACT’s Treaty bill undermining coalition unity (paywalled)
Hayden Donnell (Spinoff): What is Chris Luxon’s true position on Act’s Treaty bill? A Spinoff investigation
Claire Trevett (Herald): Why Prime Minister Christopher Luxon punched back when Act leader David Seymour pushed his luck too far on Treaty bill (paywalled)
RNZ: Sunday Morning: Do New Zealanders really want a Treaty referendum?
Peter Wilson (RNZ): The Week in Politics: Seymour's bill still front and centre
Eric Crampton (Post): New localist approach can be more responsive to local needs (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Christopher Luxon survives crash course in Waitangi politics - with help from Ngāpuhi’s Mere Mangu
Steve Braunias (Herald): The secret diary of … Waitangi (paywalled)
Anneke Smith (RNZ): Government faces the music at Waitangi
Brian Easton (Pundit): Te Tiriti As A Social Contract
Paul Buchanan: A NZ Identity Crisis?
Lois Williams (Newsroom): The other side of Waitangi Day
Brent Edwards (NBR): Redefining principles, tough on crime, unfinished business (paywalled)
Ian Taylor (Herald): A letter to Act leader David Seymour (paywalled)
Grant Duncan: Luxon's trial by fire: How did he fare?
Donna Miles (Post): The betrayal of ACT’s attacks on fairness and equity (paywalled)
Helmut Modlik (Post): Some Treaty parts are not up for debate (paywalled)
Paid subscribers can access the full “NZ Politics Daily” from here. The following categories of news and analysis continue: GREENS; TRANSPORT; LOCAL GOVERNMENT; WATER; EMPLOYMENT, WELFARE; ECONOMY, TAX; MEDIA; FOREIGN AFFAIRS; HEALTH; EDUCATION; JUSTICE, POLICE; ENVIRONMENT; EXTREME WEATHER, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT; HOUSING, PROPERTY INDUSTRY
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