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Welcome to Inside Politics, the week that the summer break ended abruptly for politics and the week the summer weather finally arrived in Wellington – wouldn’t you just know it?
It is also the week that a former BNZ bank clerk replaced a former GP as Minister of Health. But it had to be done. The state of the health system became an open wound in the first year of the National-led Government and, if anything, the perception of problems has been growing, not improving.
The Prime Minister intervened at what was effectively his earliest opportunity when he realised the job required greater horsepower than it was being given.
So what has Simeon Brown got that Shane Reti hasn’t? On top of his laser-like efficiency and ruthlessness, he has an innate sense of politics.
Everything he does and says is filtered through a political lens. For Reti, that was a struggle. And when your second-most important portfolio (behind Finance) could see your Government tipped out of office next year, Christopher Luxon’s drastic move was required.
It has been a meteoric rise for Brown. It wasn’t so long ago that he was the regular object of online mockery by Opposition MPs. They are not laughing now. In a prescient move, Herald political editor Claire Trevett named him her Politician of the Year in 2024.
A moral conservative, Brown gets on famously with his liberal predecessor in Pakūranga, Maurice Williamson. And they have a political philosophy in common: that it is a good thing to be disliked in politics. It means that you are differentiating yourself very clearly from the “other lot”.
You cannot accuse them of being blancmange politicians. When Brown was police spokesman for National, the Mongrel Mob started a petition asking Judith Collins to get rid of him. Others faced charges for threatening to kill him.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins will be warning his MPs at today’s caucus in Palmerston North not to get sidetracked by culture wars and to stick to the basics.
Hipkins has every reason to be chipper. As he told Adam Pearse, 2024 could have been very messy for Labour and it wasn’t. The party begins the year ahead of National in the latest Curia Taxpayers’ Union poll.
However, one of the big issues the party must settle this year will be whether to go for a wealth tax or a capital gains tax to take into the 2026 election, and whether to earmark it for specific spending. One of the obvious options would be to do what the Australians do and ring-fence a particular tax for health spending.
The President of Superlatives, Donald J Trump, has certainly made America-watching gripping again. Is it possible he is even responsible for the sun coming out in Wellington? “A tide of change is sweeping the country, sunlight is pouring over the entire world,” he effused in his inaugural speech.
In a more informal speech half an hour later, he spent five minutes explaining how Melania’s shoes were killing her. And then in a deadly serious executive order a few hours later, he pardoned about 1500 offenders (he calls them “hostages”) convicted of crimes related to the storming of the Capitol in 2021. Buckle in.
Te Pāti Māori has highlighted just three Māori academics whose warrants on the Waitangi Tribunal have not been renewed.
But the changes are deeper than that. With half of its members not being reappointed in the past year, it constitutes a purge. That was possible because the previous Government allowed so many members' terms to expire at the same time. Not very smart. But some of the members have been on there for many, many years.
Historian and author Dr Monty Soutar, for example, was first appointed in 2002, and historian Dr Robyn Anderson in 2004 (Anderson did not seek reappointment).
Others whose warrants were not renewed were: Dr Grant Phillipson; Professor Rawinia Higgins; Prue Kapua; Professor Tom Roa; Tania Simpson; and Professor Linda Tuhiwai Smith. All were willing to be reappointed.
Ron Crosby and Herewini Te Koha did not seek reappointment.
Safe for now are two other long-servers: Basil Morrison and Sir Pou Temara, who have both been on the tribunal since 2008. Dr Ruakere Hond, Derek Fox, Kim Ngarimu and Hana O’Regan have also been reappointed.
Other current members are Kevin Prime, Professor David Williams, Professor Susy Frankel and Dr Paul Hamer.
New members are Richard Prebble and Ken Williamson, who were appointed in October last year, plus eight new members appointed last week: Tipene Chrisp; Philip Crump; Vanessa Eparaima; Rex Hale; Grant Hadfield; Kingi Kiriona; Ron Mark; and Professor Tafaoimalo Tologata Leilani Tuala-Warren.
Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka indicated on RNZ today that the norm will be two terms (six years), not a job for life. The Government has clearly decided that the quickest way to effect change at the tribunal is to change its membership. That would have happened more gradually were it not for Labour allowing it to make wholesale change.
In case you missed some of the best summer reading on politics, here’s a catch-up on Jenée Tibshraeny’s interview with the new head of Treasury, Iain Rennie; my own account of being arrested 50 years ago; and a piece explaining how former Tukituki MP Anna Lorck is plunging into a new business venture.
“Americans ... crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted millions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand” – US President Donald Trump’s inauguration speechwriters confuse Robert Oppenheimer with New Zealand’s Lord Ernest Rutherford.
To which ministers did Luxon give Brown’s Transport, Local Government and Energy portfolios in order to free Brown up for Health in the Cabinet reshuffle? (Answer below.)
Tui billboards. It was bad enough that former MP Golriz Ghahraman was questioned by Pak’nSave about items in her bag before she had got to the check-out counter, but it’s outrageous that a Tui billboard has turned that into a guilty verdict. It’s no better than putting her in stocks.
To former Health Minister Dr Shane Reti – for taking his medicine in the Cabinet reshuffle like the decent guy he is.
State of the Nation: PM Christopher Luxon is set to deliver an economic reality check during his State of the Nation speech today.
Hipkins interview: “The public has started to lose faith in the Government“ - Labour leader Chris Hipkins on why his party won’t implode in 2025.
Health shake-up: New Health Minister Simeon Brown has signalled more change is coming to Health NZ’s executive team.
OPINION - reshuffle: Ex-Health Minister Shane Reti seemed to be the only one in Parliament who didn’t know his demotion was coming, writes Claire Trevett.
Budget reboot: Finance Minister Nicola Willis has quietly ended a Labour-era pilot to change the way the Government writes budgets.
Minimum wage: The minimum wage should go up by another 10 cents an hour, ministers were told last year by officials at MBIE.
Waitangi Tribunal: Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka’s new-look Waitangi Tribunal has been labelled a “whitewash” by Te Pāti Māori.
Roche interview: “Something is getting lost in translation” - Sir Brian Roche spells out what’s wrong with the public service.
Abuse redress: Children’s Minister and abuse survivor Karen Chhour has recused herself from any Cabinet decisions on the redress framework.
Public surveillance: The retail surveillance network that recorded a supermarket shopping incident involving former MP Golriz Ghahraman is able to be searched by police even when no complaint has been made.
Quiz answer: Chris Bishop got Transport and Simon Watts picked up Local Government and Energy.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
China thinks NZ has signed up to a big Belt and Road project. Luxon disagrees.