Prime Minister Christopher Luxon speaks to NZ's goal of minimising the amount of people, of all ages; using the job-seekers or any benefit rather than working.
Opinion by Audrey Young
Audrey Young, Senior Political Correspondent at the New Zealand Herald based at Parliament, specialises in writing about politics and power.
This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s subscriber-only Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.
Welcome to the Politics Briefing. The response to worsening child poverty statistics yesterday reinforced that thesubject is set to become an ongoing battleground for the Coalition Government. The deterioration is down to inflation and the cost of living crisis. That much is agreed.
But the long lag time is problematic in terms of political accountability. Yesterday’s figures from Stats NZ were for the 2022-2023 year under Labour’s watch. The figures released in 2025 will be for the 2023-2024 year, most of which will also cover Labour’s term of Government. It won’t be until 2026 that the stats will cover a period for which the Coalition will be fully responsible, 2024-2025. Social Development Minister Louise Upston has used the latest data to justify her Government’s policies, saying “it’s clear a new approach is needed”. Child-focused groups, NGOs, academics and Labour say her policies, especially the policy to lower benefit increases, are set to exacerbate the poverty statistics.
Green MP Efeso Collins' chair at Parliament after his sudden death in Auckland on Wednesday. Photo / Hagen Hopkins
It has been a traumatic week for MPs. Many were sitting on select committees when the news came through that Green MP Efeso Collins had collapsed and not long afterwards that he had died. Committees were immediately suspended. When MPs gathered in the debating chamber a few hours later, the devastation was evident not just in the tributes that followed but in the personal support that MPs across the House were giving each other, especially support to the Greens. Collins touched so many of them in such a short time. He was a giant of a leader in South Auckland, albeit a gentle one. Parliament’s great loss is in not knowing how he could have harnessed that special style of leadership in Wellington.
“... this might sound really, really radical, but we went to the election with a campaign promise, Aucklanders overwhelmingly voted for the coalition Government, and we’re delivering it” - Transport Minister Simeon Brown replies to a question from Labour about why the Government is moving fast to abolish the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax.
Micro quiz
Former Speaker Sir Basil Arthur died in office in 1985. Who replaced him in a byelection as the MP for Timaru? (Answer below.)
Labour leader Chris Hipkins introduces new finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The winner of the week is Barbara Edmonds, who was named Labour’s new finance spokeswoman after just over three years in Parliament, plus she’s a mother of eight. A “star” maybe, but “superwoman” may be more apt.
Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
