‘Untenable’ after tax call, vs role refocus

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Senior Labour minister David Parker says he didn’t want to cause any “disturbances” as he took the opportunity of a reallocation of ministerial roles following Kiri Allan’s resignation to exit the revenue portfolio, just ahead of the party’s long-flagged tax policy release.

He might not have been clear in his discussion with Prime Minister Chris Hipkins that he intended to state the obvious, that this request was over his disappointment at not being able to implement a weath or capital gains tax, and avoided his leader trying to explain it away as freeing him up to focus on transport (which he took over last month when Michael Wood had to resign from his ministerial roles).

Although Hipkins is the one who tried that weak explanation, when Parker had already admitted his disppointment last week at the Prime Minister’s decision to rule out such taxes, after he had worked “intimately” on a tax-switch proposal.

“You know my views on those things,” Parker told reporters on Tuesday, “I thought it was untenable for me to continue so I suggested to Chris that it’s in the best interests of him and the party that someone else takes that role.

“I’ve tried to do this in a way that makes it as smooth as possible for Chris Hipkins.”

It is far from smooth, though, as it puts renewed focus on an area of discord within Cabinet and huge disappointment for many Labour Party supporters — and strong disagreement with potential coalition partners — that Labour under Hipkins won’t be taking what many see as the key step towards a fairer tax system.

NZ Herald political editor Claire Trevett described it in a comment piece yesterday as “an ill-timed bout of personal principle that carries a whiff of petulance and selfishness”.

Eleven weeks before a general election, “especially when your party is, quite frankly, looking very ragged”, was not the time for a minister to stand on principle or opt to step out of a portfolio, she wrote.

National leader Christopher Luxon said on RNZ yesterday that, with Finance Minister Grant Robertson also having supported a wealth tax, this situation showed Labour was divided as well as unstable (having lost four ministers in seven months).

Political polls have shown that National has not capitalised on the travails of the Government as much as it would have been expected to, so the numbers in coming polls will be watched especially closely.

Hipkins has yet to get the clear air he has been demanding of his team, but that must surely come now as they switch into campaign mode — where he has a lot more experience than Luxon, and will be hoping to get the focus back on what matters to voters.