The insurance scheme is just being sent back to the drawing board with a decision to be made sometime after the next election (in a more clement economic environment) on whether it proceeds and in what form. The hate speech legislation will be withdrawn from Parliament and sent to the Law Commission to study. It will be back in some form.
Hipkins maintains that the Government had tried to do “too much too fast” and the Cabinet’s immediate reprioritisation of policies was unanimously agreed.
This was certainly the advice that senior members of the business community were relaying late last year, particularly to Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
They wanted Robertson — and by implication the Government — to focus on fewer priorities, take on board sensible feedback, execute policies well and strip out all the multiple working groups which just created policy uncertainty and fuelled a loss of business confidence.
They also wanted some policies axed and a focus on labour market issues.
Hipkins does have the political momentum.
But there is something quite awry when the very action of tossing policies overboard can be celebrated as a political triumph.
Simply repudiating policies — like the media merger and biofuels mandate — raises the fundamental question of why the Government went down these tracks in the first place.
These issues of judgment will be glossed over as Hipkins throws even more policies on the so-called bonfire in coming weeks.
Notably, one of his own signature policies in the education sector — the haphazardly executed plan to merge the nation’s polytechs — will not be among them. As Education Minister he inherited an environment where the Government had to pump $90 million-plus into the sector to stop the polytechs going under. But questions over the execution persist. It has been a messy process.
Other Cabinet ministers are the ones who are having their pet projects canned.
It is remarkable that the Cabinet as a whole has been prepared to see some of their “darlings murdered” in the interests of retaining power.
While Hipkins has the momentum — and the other Chris (Luxon) continues to flag in journalists’ eyes — the Cabinet will remain united.
But once the bonfire is cold, what happens next?
The bread-and-butter issues and dealing to the cost of living crisis will not be enough to address the fundamental issues New Zealand faces.
There are major challenges where Hipkins will have to take a leadership position.
In Canberra this week, he met Australasian business leaders representing firms on both sides of the Tasman.
At a subsequent media press conference he said the issues raised were very similar to those he talked about in his meeting with CEOs in Auckland last week: regulation, labour shortages, supply chains and the cost of living were among them.
It went a bit further than that.
What these Australasian chief executives and chairs were also concerned about was the rise of retail crime in New Zealand, the safety of their staff — particularly in supermarkets; a slip in New Zealand’s OECD rankings and falling educational capability.
They may have taken an emollient stance while seated about the conference table with Hipkins at the New Zealand High Commission in Canberra.
But there would have been sufficient telegraphed to the new Prime Minister for him to take on board that these issues must be addressed.
At Anzac weekend an announcement is expected that will pave the way for New Zealanders to have an easier path to citizenship in Australia.
That announcement is the upshot of the leadership position that Jacinda Ardern took, first with former Australian PM Scott Morrison and now the incumbent Anthony Albanese — and superb spadework by Dame Annette King who is New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Canberra.
It is a significant step that will be welcomed by the many New Zealanders who now call Australia home.
But it will also be a drawcard for many more of our talented people to make their living in a country that pays much higher wages and has an overall lower cost of living.
These are critical strategic challenges which Hipkins must confront.
Lighting bonfires, as Savonarola found, may increase power momentarily — but also creates a target.
