Christopher Luxon cops fiscal backlash after allowance blunder, registration fee hikes - Audrey Young

OPINION

This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s politics newsletter. To sign up for this newsletter or Thursday’s subscriber-only Premium Politics Briefing, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Welcome to the Politics Briefing. Christopher Luxon is very fond of saying he is not going to take lectures from the Opposition, which is usually followed by a lecture from him on the faults of the last Government and some cost blow-out. 

But after the past week, his Government has lost some of its fiscal righteousness - be it his decision to take an accommodation allowance of $1000 a week when Premier House was available, or slogging motorists with a $50 hike in annual rego renewal fees this term during a cost of living crisis. Ouch!

The price of procrastination

There is much in Simeon Brown’s draft Government Policy Statement on land transport to be applauded, including big roading projects such as expanding four lanes into Northland, targeting potholes, ending the obsession with speed bumps, and exploring funding options for faster builds - all well-signalled.

But promises are never free. The promise not to increase fuel excise duty in the current term of the Government will be met, but it will be imposed in any second term the Government gets, and motorists will get hammered with a 47 per cent spike in rego fees (on a petrol private passenger car) which was not signalled before. Rego fees have not gone up for ages, and nor has the level of fines. But that is a big flashing sign in support of incrementalism. In the end, incremental increases are less painful and fairer. 

Successive governments have put things on the back-burner that they should have done for fear of a negative headline. It is a false economy. That applies to the deferred maintenance and/or upgrades of Premier House and the increasingly poor record of the Air Force Boeing-200s - now 31 years old. Today’s breakdown has delayed Luxon’s visit to Melbourne to attend a summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). If anyone can get the planes replaced, it will be new Defence Minister Judith Collins.

Premier House is an historical asset that needs to be protected through regular maintenance. Luxon has attempted to link his decision to stay in his apartment with the “need” to spend $30 million on Premier House. That is not credible. The $30m is at the upper end. It would be a nice-to-do. According to Chris Hipkins, who stayed there occasionally when he was PM, it is perfectly liveable, although needs some improvements. Luxon should not be criticised for wanting to remain in his apartment, but for claiming the allowance and giving such spurious reasons for doing so. Top marks to Newstalk ZB talkback callers for apparently changing his mind.

MPs weigh in on rally assault

Meanwhile, politicians are condemning the outcome of a district court case yesterday in which a young man who punched a pensioner three times in the head at the Posie Parker protest last year was discharged without conviction and got permanent name suppression. Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters has clearly breached the spirit if not the rule in the Cabinet Manual in tweeting about it last night: “The cabinet manual means a minister cannot comment on the court sentencing of man for a blatant assault - no matter how ridiculous and out of touch the sentencing is.”

Quote unquote

“He speaks politics as a second language” - commentator Liam Hehir puts Christopher Luxon’s decision to take an accommodation allowance down to political inexperience (RNZ).

Micro quiz

Where was Sir Robert Muldoon’s official residence as Prime Minister and, for a bonus point, where was Sir Keith Holyoake’s? (Answers below.)

Brickbat

David Seymour. Photo / RNZ, Samuel Rillstone

Goes to Act leader David Seymour for suggesting 25 per cent of the school lunch programme was wasted - it was 12 per cent, according to the Treasury report.

Bouquet

Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Photo / AP

Goes to Anthony Albanese, Australia’s Prime Minister, who invited Christopher Luxon to the Asean summit he is holding in Melbourne - but could you send your plane next time to pick him up?

Latest political news and views

Plane breakdown: Government ministers say the breakdown of the Defence Force’s Boeings is “embarrassing” – but no plans are on the cards to replace them sooner.

Rally assault: The Act Party says it’s a “tragedy for women” that a man was discharged without conviction after punching a 71-year-old woman in the head during the heated Posie Parker counter-protest in Auckland last year.

Transport policy: Transport Minister Simeon Brown has pledged to build the Government’s 15 Roads of National Significance, despite advice obtained by the Herald that showed those roads were over budget by as much as $24 billion.

Transport policy: The Government has been accused of breaking a campaign promise after announcing New Zealanders would face a 22c fuel tax hike and a $50 jump in vehicle registration fees.

School lunches: A coalition of health charities has slammed the Government’s decision to give ministerial responsibility for free school lunches to Act leader David Seymour after he campaigned for the programme to be abolished.

Premier House: The report into Premier House that PM Christopher Luxon has given as the reason he cannot live in it does not state that the residence is uninhabitable, but does raise red flags about its condition.

Opinion - accommodation allowance: Christopher Luxon’s short-lived attempt to claim a taxpayer-funded accommodation allowance was never going to be defensible, writes Claire Trevett.

Plane breakdown: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is taking a commercial flight to Australia this morning after a fault was found with the NZ Defence Force Boeing 757 jet he was due to fly on.

Gang laws: The police’s efforts to communicate with gangs will become more coordinated in preparation for the enforcement of controversial Government policies limiting gang insignia and gatherings.

Treaty settlements: The Government’s aim to cut public service spending will likely cause delays for some Treaty of Waitangi settlements, MPs have been told.

Opinion - Auckland Future Fund: Mayor Wayne Brown’s figures on the proposed Auckland Future Fund don’t add up, writes Simon Wilson.

Election fraud: Fifty-five people allegedly voted more than once in last year’s general election and their names have been passed on to police.

Quiz answer: Vogel House in Lower Hutt and Pipitea St, Thorndon.

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.