Erica Stanford doesn’t suffer fools. She is certainly not sidetracked by current affairs interviewers aiming to lead her into a “gotcha” trap.
Not surprising when she gained her political spurs working for Murray McCully, her predecessor in the blue-chip East Coast Bays seat.
Known as the “dark prince” of National Party politics, McCully made sure his successor debuted well once she reached Parliament.
But her prowess as a Cabinet Minister, administering both the education and immigration portfolios, is all her own work.
Stanford has held her own with the powerful teachers’ union. Plans to scrap NCEA are not universally popular, but new subjects are being developed for the years 11 to 13 curriculum, reflecting the growing importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics and equipping students for an AI future. They resonate with business.
Her leadership has been “superb”, said Scales Corporation’s Mike Peterson, who also singled out Police Minister Mark Mitchell as “doing great work”.
In the 2025 Mood of the Boardroom survey, 55% of respondents rated Stanford’s ministerial performance as “very impressive”, up from 37% in last year’s survey.
Second-ranked Winston Peters’ work as Foreign Affairs Minister was rated “very impressive” by 23%. Other Cabinet Ministers whose work was seen as “very impressive” included: Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop (18%), Trade Minister Todd McClay (21%), Health Minister Simeon Brown (15%), Mark Mitchell (12%), Defence Minister Judith Collins (11%) and Regional Development Minister Shane Jones (12%).
Notably, Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk, who sits as a Minister outside Cabinet, came in at 10th place. His rating with business leaders ought to assure him a Cabinet place in a future reshuffle.
Inevitably, there are both personal and policy tensions in a three-party Coalition Government — particularly for the major party. Dairy Holdings chairman Greg Gent said, “It feels like the two smaller coalition partners are keeping National honest and driven.”
Another chairperson added, “Some examples of excellent leadership and clarity of thinking — but many others are distracting, playing politics with little sense of compelling national issues which must be addressed."
Notably neither Prime Minister Christopher Luxon nor Finance Minister Nicola Willis are ranked in the top 10 in this year’s Cabinet ratings. Act leader David Seymour, at 3.18/5, sits just outside the top 10 Ministers.
Where the Government does rate highly is on its maintenance of strong international relationships and progress on cementing new trade relationships. CEOs gave these factors an average rating of 3.93/5 and 3.81/5 respectively. The formation of foreign, defence and security partnerships rated 3.43/5; maintenance of independent foreign policies 3.41/5.
These areas all fall within the ambit of the four external facing Ministers: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters, Trade Minister Todd McClay and Defence Minister Judith Collins.
The maintenance of tight fiscal settings — central to Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ policy agenda — was scored at 3.21/5.
Other ratings included: execution and delivery of policies (3.08/5), policy planning and consultation with business (2.93/5) and regional development (2.91/5).
“Turning this economy around is critical,” said a logistics boss. “Fast track consent is a game changer. Six months after we applied we are starting to build ... that’s what Auckland and New Zealand needs.
“Jobs will flow as will investment and confidence. Certainty of direction builds confidence.”
Scales Corporation chair Mike Peterson observes that it was incredibly hard for the Government to transform the economy and measuring success on these measures was incredibly tough.
“Should focus on delivery of an environment where business and community can flourish and this still needs more work in spite of the number of good initiatives under way.”
A chairperson underlined, “It is a challenge to assess performance given it is a work in progress on issues that will take multi-years to address.” But “speed was essential”.
Some sectors — particularly “hospo” — are hurting.
Said Pernod Ricard’s Kevin Mapson: “With challenging economic conditions globally coupled with excise increases of more than 20% over the past four years, it’s a tough business environment.
“In this context, we welcome changes to nonsensical regulations to get the economy moving. We’re seeing hospitality businesses waiting nine months or more to get a licence to trade.
“It shouldn’t be this hard for a responsible business to get a licence.”
The need to speed up RMA reform and remove roadblocks for infrastructure was repeatedly cited.
A poorly handled pay equity announcement that “disenfranchised so many and so unnecessarily” drew opprobrium from a director.
“This Government has talked big on infrastructure but not remotely delivered,” said another director.
“Any Government can get a free trade agreement with India — anyone can sign a dumb deal.
“Signing a good deal long-term for New Zealand will take patience and time.”
There were warnings.
“There is no sense of transformation when that is urgently needed. We cannot cost cut our way through this type of secular crisis — complete change of direction is critical,” said an F&B chairperson.
The Government’s ratings fell away on addressing climate change challenges (2.47/5) and supporting Māori and Pasifika aspiration (2.36/5).
CEOs ranked the performance of Cabinet Ministers and others outside Cabinet on a scale where 1 = Not impressive — 5 = Very impressive
1. Erica Stanford (Education) 4.38/5
2. Winston Peters (Foreign Affairs) 3.82/5
3. Chris Bishop (Infrastructure) 3.80/5
4. Todd McClay (Trade) 3.74/5
5. Mark Mitchell (Police) 3.66/5
6. Simeon Brown (Health) 3.61/5
7. Judith Collins (Defence) 3.60/5
8. Brooke van Veldon (Workplace Relations) 3.25/5
9. Shane Jones (Regional Development) 3.24/5
10. Chris Penk (Building and Construction) 3.18/5
11. David Seymour (Regulation) 3.16/5
12. Louise Upston (Tourism) 3.11/5
13. Nicola Willis (Finance) 3.09/5
14. Simon Watts (Energy) 3.00/5
15. Christopher Luxon (Prime Minister) 2.96/5
16. Paul Goldsmith (Justice) 2.92/5
17. Scott Simpson (Commerce) 2.91/5
18. Tama Potaka (Māori Crown Relations) 2.85/5
19. Andrew Hoggard (Biosecurity) 2.76/5
20. James Meager (Youth) 2.73/5
21. Karen Chhour (Children) 2.67/5
22. Mark Patterson (Rural Communities) 2.62/5
23. Nicole McKee (Courts) 2.59/5
24. Nicola Grigg (Women) 2.58/5
25. Shane Reti (Universities) 2.57/5
26. Casey Costello (Customs) 2.51/5
27. Penny Simmonds (Environment) 2.37/5
28. Matt Doocey (Mental Health) 2.35/5