PM Chris Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon speak to the media about on bi-lingual road signs. Video / Mark Mitchell
Is Paula Bennett planning to take on Wayne Brown in 2025?
Whispers have reached Beehive Diaries that former National Party MP Paula Bennett is talking to people about running for Auckland mayor in 2025 – whether or not Wayne Brown decides to stand again.
Bennett’s name was talked about asa potential candidate in 2022 – but she held off, understood to be because of family commitments.
Bennett, a columnist for the Herald on Sunday, would not comment on the rumours.
However, a source said she was keen to stand next time and had started talking to people about a tilt and was less than impressed with some of Brown’s moves since taking over.
Bennett voted for Brown, posting that on social media – but was ambiguous when asked about Brown’s performance after the Auckland floods, saying on the AM Show that Aucklanders “got who they voted for”.
She will not find it difficult to fundraise for a campaign or to get big-name endorsements: Her efforts were responsible for a big part of the National Party’s $5 million haul last year and the likes of Sir John Key would happily back her.
After the dramas of Brown, Labourites would probably welcome her with open arms too.
Chris of the Week
Chris Luxon got in the uncomfortable position of having to wrestle with policy positions he didn’t expect to need: National’s position on bilingual road signs at the start of the week (an own goal, thanks to Simeon Brown), and contraception at the end of the week (a Labour gotcha on him). However, he did end up with a sizeable crowd at his New Plymouth public meeting.
Chris Hipkins got in a good line on bilingual signs, noting Luxon had once tried to trademark the words “kia ora” in his years as Air NZ CEO. However, Hipkins loses points for failing to deliver anything new by way of policy at the Labour Party Congress – which meant things like bilingual signs and a phoney war over contraception turned into the topics of the week.
Much of the noise and fury of the week was among the lower-ranked ministers and MPs, while the big issue of National withdrawing from the bipartisan housing accord was a draw.
The big move of the week was Cyclone Minister Grant Robertson announcing funding for a voluntary buyout package for homes on land that was too flood-prone to rebuild on.
However, Grant is not a Chris – so Chris of the Week goes to Chris Luxon by default.
The milestone that keeps giving
PM Chris Hipkins went out to Porirua for a police graduation which he proudly boasted was the milestone delivery of Labour’s promise to get 1800 more police on to the front line.
It was very timely, under the fire of National’s “soft on law and order” claims. However, it also sparked a bit of deja vu among those who have been around for a while.
National’s Chris Bishop noted that in 2019, Labour had had a similar celebration (this time with NZ First leader Winston Peters in tow) to mark the milestone of 1800 new police. The difference this time apparently was that that was “new” police, this time it was “additional police” - meaning the whole police workforce was 1800-stronger than it was in 2017.
Someone else was also not happy to let Hipkins take all the credit - Peters was quick to point out that it was actually NZ First’s policy – Labour had campaigned on a smaller number of police. Needless to say, Hipkins did not mention NZ First.
Judith Collins makes a rare misstep – but recovers
The referral of a minister to the Privileges Committee is such a rare event that some MPs had clearly forgotten they were not supposed to comment on it – including National’s Judith Collins.
This week the Speaker referred Education Minister Jan Tinetti to the committee of MPs, which adjudicates on potential cases of contempt of Parliament, for her tardiness in correcting an answer about whether her office intervened in the release of truancy data.
Collins spoke to media about Tinetti’s actions at some length while National’s press secretary stood behind her with an increasingly panicked look on his face.
She left and then returned soon after to say she had been reminded MPs were not supposed to comment on it “so I have to withdraw and apologise”. Alas, the media are not Parliament so withdrawing and apologising after the fact does not have the same effect. Collins immediately went to dob herself into the Speaker, and then reported back that he had said her comments did not cross the line.
