Pharmac announced it would change hormone replacement therapy patches to Mylan estradiol in 2025.
It was a gang member who delivered the best PR for the National Party as it marked its first anniversary in power with two coalition partners it did not want to mention.
National’s new gang laws had kicked in the week before the anniversary andproved very handy for the celebrations.
Police were putting out daily updates about gang members pinged with their patches, guaranteeing a string of headlines — the kind of headlines National wanted, having talked very tough about the ban and faced some scepticism for it. It could not be a fizzer.
No patch was safe, from a bandana on a steering wheel to a patch at the Head Hunters President’s pad — and finally an entire throng of patches at a tangi in Matapihi.
A gang member arrested on his way to the tangi and issued with a non-consorting order had a sulk at police for policing those attending the tangi. It was, he said to Stuff “disrespectful and rude”.
Police were being too mean, he reckoned.
Police Minister Mark Mitchell had promised the gangs would hate the law, and the gang member provided a handy illustration of it. National’s PR people couldn’t have written a better script.
National’s social media was quick to move with the diddums memes, circulating the headline and interview, including an Instagram story with a Brahms violin concerto playing over the gang member’s sulk.
Illustration / Guy Body
In the divvying up of who gets credit for what of the three parties in the Government, that gang patch ban is very much National’s baby and it had made the most of it.
However, while Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and National were boasting about gangs crying into their cornies, Act leader David Seymour was dealing with an even more fearsome group worrying about losing their patches: menopausal women.
Pharmac’s announcement that it was changing the oestradiol patches from Estradot to Estradiol TDP Mylan surprised a demographic with an even greater capacity for rage than gang members.
It is also a demographic far more likely to vote than the gangs.
The news on Monday sparked petitions and menopause advocates took to the airwaves in a more eloquent fashion than the gang member.
Pharmac chief executive Sarah Fitt tried to explain the current supplier could not provide enough for the nation’s needs, and after a few days delivered a compromise that Estradots would still be provided for those who needed them.
Seymour watched as the good capital from the funding boost for cancer drugs started to whittle away. It did not take him long to work out which side he was on in this battle: the women.
He issued a stern letter to Pharmac, reminding them he expected them to listen to the concerns of patients before making such decisions, and asking them to explain the decision.
He then informed the media he had taken such a step.
It was a fitting end to the coalition’s anniversary week, which provided a lot more entertainment than expected.
In his interview with the NZ Herald, NZ First’s leader Winston Peters had issued an ominous warning about what 2026 might look like as the election loomed.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon rejects Winston Peters' claim he is "struggling" in the top job. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He noted it would be every party for themselves. The last week delivered a bit of a dry run as to what that might look like.
The three parties clearly decided it was the right time to test-drive the clause in the coalition agreements allowing them to “maintain independent political identities” rather than the commitment to “stable and effective” Government that preceded it.
As a result, while the three parties celebrated their wedding together last year, National decided to spend the anniversary doing a victory lap on its own.
The three parties then started bickering over who should get the credit for doing the dishes.
Each day Luxon and a rotating shift of National ministers held a press conference to boast about what National — not the coalition Government — had delivered in a different area: law and order, education, the economy, farming.
On social media, National MPs dutifully recirculated a video summary with “National just dropped their one-year video” on it.
The other parties may well have had reason to be peeved National was trying to hog the limelight and credit, especially when it came to topics on which all parties had campaigned during the last election.
For example, neither Act nor NZ First was included — or even told about — the law and order gloat-fest on Monday, including the announcement of funding for the Auckland CBD police station rebuild.
All of that resulted in the spouses taking potshots from the sidelines during this celebratory parade.
They had started well enough, saying nice things about each other in anniversary interviews — including both Peters and Seymour admitting they had been wrong to cast aspersions on each other, and it had worked out surprisingly well.
So far, so “stable and effective”.
However, it was not long before Seymour and Peters had found a common gripe with Luxon.
Act had started the week with Seymour claiming his party wielded a disproportionate influence in the Government, and releasing a very long list of things it took credit for.
Peters had then observed Luxon was “struggling” as Prime Minister. He hurried to insist that he did not mean that in a bad way, although it is hard to interpret it as anything good.
It was, he explained, a reference to Luxon’s experience. In comparison to Peters’ slat-kicking verdicts of the last Labour Government, it could be seen as “good” perhaps.
As this went on, even Luxon’s tight hold on his emotions about his coalition partners started to seep out. He was clearly keen not to let any perception seed that the minor parties were engaging in that manoeuvre known as the tail wagging the dog.
He started to refer to his partners as “minor parties” in the coalition — a reminder to know their place.
His response to Peters’ observation that he was “struggling” as Prime Minister was to announce “I love Winston Peters” before saying he also loved his job and was not struggling at all.
His response to Seymour was more barbed, possibly because it has been a longer trial with Seymour after the Treaty Principles Bill had given him so much grief the week before.
He did not hesitate to bat back Seymour’s claim Act had a disproportionate influence over the Government, and then suggested Seymour stuck to his lane as Minister of Regulation rather than throw his weight around over National’s hopes for a Waikato Medical School.
It made anniversary week a lot more entertaining than a week-long laundry list of boasts, bumper stickers and slogans would have been.
