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.
OPINION
This is a transcript of the Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click here, select Premium Politics Briefing and save your preferences. For a step-by-step guide, click here.
Welcome to the Politics Briefing. And the winner is... Erica Stanford, the Education Minister, has topped a poll by leading business CEOs as Christopher Luxon’s best-performing minister. It is not hard to see why, because she seems to be managing a famously difficult sector with clear purpose and at pace (see the Mood of the Boardroom ratings below).
The one caveat I would have is that in order to bring forward her plan for what she calls “structured maths” to start next year, she needed a fast $30 million and trashed a te reo language course for educators in order to get it. As Julia Gabel reported this week, an independent assessment of the course showed it was getting high praise from those taking it. The Government is rather trigger-happy when it comes to trashing such programmes, boards of directors and infrastructure projects to boost its own narrative.
The CEOs ranked ministers in this order: 1. Erica Stanford; 2. Simeon Brown; 3. = Nicola Willis; 3.= Chris Bishop; 5. Judith Collins; 6. Christopher Luxon; 7. Winston Peters; 8. Mark Mitchell; 9. Brooke van Velden; 10. Todd McClay.
The stakes could not be higher as the world holds its breath for crucial decisions to be made by Israel about its response to Iran’s missile attack yesterday. The options include a strike against Iran’s network of underground nuclear facilities, which are thought to be close to capable of producing fuel for its own nuclear weapons.
This is where the shift by New Zealand to closer security ties with the United States could have real significance, because – as recent events in the Middle East have shown – escalation is more likely than restraint. What may be a set of contained reprisals could quickly become a regional war that could escalate into something bigger.
The US is sending a few thousand more troops to the region where it already has 40,000 stationed. With five weeks to go to the US presidential election, whatever happens is bound to play into voters’ perceptions of who should be Commander-in-Chief. Because it is always easier to campaign than deal with complex realities, the situation is likely to favour Donald Trump over Vice-President Kamala Harris.
The security climate in our own region looks set to change with the elevation of a new Prime Minister in Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, and a new head of Nato, Mark Rutte. Ishiba, a former Defence Minister, wants stronger military co-operation with like-minded countries and has called for a Nato-like alliance in the region as a counter to China’s military rise.
New Zealand is part of Nato’s IP4 with Japan, South Korea and Australia in what used to be an informal grouping of Nato partners in the Indo-Pacific. The informality is very quickly turning into something more formal, with leaders, Foreign Ministers and now Defence Ministers – Judith Collins for NZ – being invited to attend Nato meetings this month with North American and European counterparts.
And let’s not forget that only last week, on the same day New Zealand and Australian naval vessels sailed through the Taiwan Strait, China conducted its first ballistic missile test in the Pacific in decades.
Former Netherlands PM Mark Rutte held his first press conference this week as the new Nato secretary-general and clearly has ideas about the next steps for the IP4: “... I’m so happy that the Defence Ministers will be participating mid-October in the next Defence Ministerial,” he said. “That is crucial. Why is this crucial? Because Russia gets support from North Korea, from Iran, but also from China. There are also other issues at stake in the Indo-Pacific, and that is why we need to strengthen our ties with our Indo-Pacific partners. And we also have to discuss to get more and more meat to the bone. And of course, we can think of many ways to do that. I’m not going now to go into what that particularly might be, because I want also to discuss this with the Defence Ministers and with the leaders.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon released his Government’s fourth-quarter action plan and Derek Cheng has done a blow-by-blow breakdown of it.
Others in the Herald team have got their teeth into some meaty issues, including Thomas Coughlan on the electricity sector, and Jenée Tibshraeny on what should happen to flood-prone properties.
“If we’re going to criticise people for being successful, let’s be clear – I’m wealthy” – Christopher Luxon responds to questions on Newstalk ZB about a capital gain he made (put at $460,000) on the sale of two properties.
Judith Collins is currently hosting a group of other countries’ ministers in Auckland – holding what portfolio? (Answer below.)
Goes to Labour’s associate foreign affairs spokesman Damien O’Connor for reposting a tweet implying his support of the massacre of over 1000 Israelis by Hamas almost a year ago. It said: “Palestinians had every right to do what they did on October 7.” He has since removed it but without apology. Appalling.
A little late, but it goes to Foreign Minister Winston Peters for daring a week ago to demand a bit of hush from the UN Security Council as he was delivering his statement. Manners matter.
Mideast conflict: Israel is weighing its options for retaliation after Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at the country yesterday.
Mideast conflict: Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has warned against retaliatory action in the aftermath of Iran’s strikes on Israel.
PM’s apartment sale: Christopher Luxon narrowly avoided paying what might have amounted to a large tax bill on the sale of his Wellington apartment thanks to changes brought in by the Government.
Law and order: The Government plans to progress several new pieces of legislation in the law and order space before the end of the year.
Climate fallout: Politicians of all stripes say the Government shouldn’t try to stop the values of flood- and erosion-prone properties from plummeting.
Charter schools: The Post Primary Teachers’ Association has changed its constitution so teachers who work at charter schools can be members.
Opinion: It’s time for Labour leader Chris Hipkins to step up or step aside, writes Simon Wilson.
Quiz answer: Judith Collins is hosting the South Pacific Defence Ministers’ Meeting.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
News of merging ministries was just the tip of the iceberg.