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Welcome to Inside Politics in what is turning out to be the Paul Goldsmith week. The Justice Minister has been talking everywhere, every day, on everything about law and order.
A recess week is the perfect time for a blitz of announcements. Without the noise of a parliamentary sitting week, the Government has more chance of setting the agenda and getting a clear run.
Most Opposition MPs know to tread carefully on law and order, lest they be seen as siding with offenders.
But Green MP Tamatha Paul suggested yesterday that people with no money to buy food could turn to shoplifting, and Goldsmith pounced immediately. He suggested the Greens were excusing shoplifting and rattled off all the law and order policies Opposition parties have opposed. And as Paul may already have realised, shoplifting is probably a subject the Greens should avoid altogether.
Since Sunday, Goldsmith has announced an expansion of sentences for violence towards first responders and expansion of first responders from police officers to such occupations as Corrections officers and ambulance officers, announced a new crime for so-called coward punches in which the assailant attacks from behind, as well as a new penalty regime for shoplifting that would allow police to issue instant fines.
He has another announcement this afternoon. And the law limiting the discretionary discounts judges can give to some offenders in sentencing also took effect this week.
For some announcements, Goldsmith has had NZ First alongside, and for others, the Act Party. There are many points of difference between the three coalition partners, but on law and order, there is more agreement than not.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins got the pip on Newstalk ZB yesterday, telling Wellington host Nick Mills that the reason ram raids no longer featured on the front page was because its “Tory owners” wanted National to look good. “It’s still happening,” Hipkins said; it just wasn’t being covered as much.
NZME owns ZB and the NZ Herald, and Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan decided to do some fact-checking on Hipkins’ claims. Coughlan told Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan last night that in 2022, the last full year of the last Labour Government, there were 714 ram raids, or 59 a month. The numbers started coming down in 2023, Labour’s final year in office, to 495 (Hipkins was Prime Minister for most of it and instituted new responses), but in the first five months of this year, there were only 45 ram raids, or nine a month.
“I would imagine the reason why there aren’t so many ram raids on the front page is there are just far fewer ram raids,” Coughlan said.
It has been quite a time for Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The week before last, Takutai Tarsh Kemp gave him a piece of her mind on his changes to Whānau Ora during scrutiny week at Parliament. A few days later, he was leading tributes to her in Parliament after her sudden death, thought to be related to kidney disease.
On Sunday this week, Potaka attended the tangi for Kemp at Ōpaea Marae in Taihape. On Monday morning, the changes to Whānau Ora took effect, and he was at Hongoeka Marae at Plimmerton to launch Māhutonga, the new Whānau Ora commissioning agency for the lower half of the North Island, established by Ngāti Toa.
On Tuesday, Kemp’s funeral service and burial took place.
MC Elijah Pue described the service as a Te Pāti Māori hui – and he was only half-joking. Pue, Kemp’s son Te Manea Kauika-Quinlan and Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi all implored Māori to sign up to the Māori roll before leaving and had the forms ready on a table, along with party merchandise. The deadline is July 11.
John Tamihere, Waititi’s father-in-law and president of Te Pāti Māori, is also chief executive of the previous Whānau Ora commissioning agency, Te Pou Matakana.
Potaka last week asked his ministry, Te Puni Kōkiri, to look into whether public money was used in a recent advertising campaign in the name of Whānau Ora to get Māori to switch to the Māori roll.
• Only four MPs have died in office since 2000: Greens co-leader Rod Donald in 2005, former Māori Affairs Minister Parekura Horomia in 2013, Green MP Efeso Collins in 2024 and Kemp.
• Remembering Keith Locke: The former Green MP was not only a committed lifelong left-wing activist but was unfailingly pleasant and happy to engage with people across the political spectrum in the contest of ideas. Locke died in June last year at the age of 80. So it is fitting that the invitation to the Inaugural Keith Locke Memorial Debate in Auckland tonight says everyone is welcome, regardless of their views or place on the political spectrum. The moot is that “China is a threat to regional peace”, and leading the affirmative is former Defence Minister Wayne Mapp. The debate will be moderated by Herald senior writer Simon Wilson. More information, including livestream details, is available at keithlocke.org.nz.
“iReX was going to build a Taj Mahal terminal building here in Picton and a Sydney Opera House in Wellington” – Rail Minister Winston Peters visits Picton and says his infrastructure plans for the new Interislander ferries will be modest.
Which broadcaster did Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith appoint to the TVNZ board last week? (Answer below.)
Goes to NZ First MP Tanya Unkovich for giving up her job as a list MP halfway through her first term for no reason other than she thinks she can make a better contribution in the private sector. It’s called a three-year term, not an 18-month term.
Goes to former Auditor-General John Ryan, who has just completed his seven-year term with integrity and fearlessness.
SOE pay: Chief executives at some state-owned enterprises (SOE) were awarded six-figure pay increases while their companies’ profitability tanked, Treasury data shows.
ACC squeeze: The Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) is planning to tighten its claims process as the Government pressures it to rein in rising costs.
MP’s funeral: Te Pāti Māori MP Takutai “Tarsh” Kemp, who died last week after a battle with kidney disease, has been laid to rest in rural Taihape.
Shoplifting: A new fines regime, longer prison sentences and an “aggravated theft offence” are being introduced to deter shoplifters.
‘Coward punches’: The Government will introduce specific offences for coward punches, with maximum penalties as high as life imprisonment if the victim dies.
First-responder assaults: The Government is proposing longer prison sentences for people who assault first responders and prison officers.
Fiscal hole unit: Act and NZ First have shot down a proposal to create a publicly funded body that would cost political parties’ election promises.
Tax credit: The Government has widened eligibility for the FamilyBoost tax credit, meaning “thousands” more people will be able to claim it, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says.
NZDF cuts: Unions are warning of reputational damage to the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) and the country as a whole due to the organisation’s cost-saving drive.
Treaty row: Lobby group Hobson’s Pledge and Education Minister Erica Stanford have clashed over a claim Stanford is sneaking a “radical” Treaty of Waitangi clause into legislation.
MP’s resignation: New Zealand First MP Tanya Unkovich is resigning from Parliament to take up “coaching and consultancy” roles in the private sector.
Whānau Ora shake-up: Whānau Ora Minister Tama Potaka has called for transparency at the organisation as he unveils four new commissioning agencies that will co-ordinate national support services.
Funding probe: The owners of Moana Pasifika have rejected allegations of inappropriate use of public funding and say no taxpayer money has been used to support the Super Rugby Pacific team.
Parent visa: Ministers were warned there was “significant uncertainty” about the number of migrants who could access the Government’s new five-year parent visa, with potential impacts on New Zealand’s health system and infrastructure.
Quiz answer: Paul Henry
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