Christopher Luxon will take questions from Chris Hipkins for the first time in Question Time today.
Question Time in the new Parliament starts today and it will see MPs who were former rivals in a strict reversal of positions, such as Finance Minister Nicola Willis vs former Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
But there will be some new ministers in new portfolios, such as Simeon Brown in Energy, facing a former Energy Minister in Megan Woods and Brooke van Velden in Workplace Relations facing an employment lawyer, Camilla Belich.
In most substantial portfolios, Finance, Education, Health, and Social Development, the Government and Labour MPs are the same people and their roles reversed. Changing personnel in such critical issues would not make sense for either Prime Minister Christopher Luxon or former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins.
And, of course, Luxon will be fending off attacks from Hipkins. They are likely to be much better matched since the campaign than the lop-sided duel before it.
Luxon will now not only have had ample experience of thinking on his feet but after the campaign and Coalition negotiations, have greater knowledge of every portfolio area of Government. And Luxon will have an inbuilt advantage of authority with the mandate he was given at the election.
Battleground issues are likely to continue to be inflation, education standards, and timely access to health services.
But the Prime Minister and Health Minister are likely to be targeted over plans to repeal amendments to Smokefree laws which will help to fund National’s tax cuts. The amendments would have reduced the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, banned sales to people born after 2008 and slashed the number of retail outlets for cigarettes.
The Government’s broad Maori agenda is also likely to attract questions from across the Opposition parties to the Prime Minister and specific ministers.
The gutting of the Labour caucus and the injection of new MPs to the Greens and Te Pati Maori is also likely to change the dynamics of Question Time.
But the following are some of the areas in which there is either a new minister or a new Labour shadow spokesperson:
PUBLIC SERVICE
Nicola Willis vs Ayesha Verrall
Finance Minister Nicola Willis took this portfolio to keep a close eye on the overall performance and spending. Most of the heat generated by the 6.5 per cent cuts to public sector agencies is likely to happen in individual portfolios. But trends, overall cuts, use of consultants, gender and ethnic pay gaps, guidelines to the public service on te reo and being a Treaty of Waitangi partner could be ignition points. Both Willis and Ayesha Verrall are from Wellington which adds a political overlay to their contest. Greens co-leader James Shaw will also shadow Willis.
HOUSING
Chris Bishop vs Kieran McAnulty
One of the matchups in which the minister will know much more about the portfolio than the Opposition spokesman. Bishop held housing in Opposition but former minister Megan Woods has passed it on to McAnulty. Tamatha Paul is also shadowing Bishop for the Green Party. National have talked big about failures in the state house waiting list and kids in motels so will be expected to make a tangible difference. Eyes will also be on the public housing building programme set by Labour.
JUSTICE
Paul Goldsmith vs Duncan Webb
Goldsmith will be a central figure of controversy in the new government. Banning gang patches, stopping gang members gathering in public will be part of the first 100-day plan, although the strongest opposition is likely to come from the Greens’ Golriz Ghahraman and Te Pati Maori. Labour will be more sensitive to appearing pro-gang. He will also be responsible for new measures to deal with youth offending. And he is also like to be given responsibility for overturning the foreshore and seabed Court of Appeal decision which made it easier to have customary title recognised. One contentious area that has been neutralised is hate speech – the new Govt has stopped the Law Commission from even working on it.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Chris Bishop vs Rachel Brooking
Chris Bishop’s job between now and Christmas is to repeal the mammoth Natural and Built Environments Act which the previous Govt spent six years devising to replace the RMA. Before becoming an MP, Brooking as an environment lawyer was on the original review panel. She has a detailed knowledge of the law but is not a naturally combative politician. She is likely to get reinforcement from the Greens but Eugenie Sage has gone and its environment specialist is new MP Pham Lan. Bishop is concerned only with repealing the new law, replacing it with the old RMA and devising another new law to replace the RMA. National’s Environment Minister is Penny Simmonds.
TRANSPORT
Simeon Brown vs Tangi Utikere
Brown held the portfolio in Opposition and must make decent progress on National’s 12 roads of national significance. Tangi Utikere, Labour’s chief whip, new to it but the Greens’ Julie Anne Genter was an associate minister to Phil Twyford in Labour’s first term and is likely to have a high-profile and unrelenting focus on public transport. The portfolio is increasingly a magnet for trouble be it over public transport, potholes, motorways, train services, cycleways, tunnels, fuel tax, light rail, congestion charging.
WORKPLACE RELATIONS & SAFETY
Brooke Van Velden vs Camilla Belich
This will be an early point of conflict as the Coalition repeals Labour’s industrial relations centre-piece, Fair Pay Agreements, in the first 100 days. FPAs was also the subject this week of the first leak of a cabinet paper. There will also be moves to restore 90-day trials to all businesses. But there could be conflicts ahead for the minister who is from a party with a war on regulation and the fact she is now responsible for regulations on employment, health and safety at work and on the standards regulation.
ENERGY
Simeon Brown vs Megan Woods
Woods is the former Energy Minister up against a new minister and someone who hasn’t had any involvement in Energy. It’s an area that has huge impact on the economy in households and business and will suit his attention to detail. But Woods knows the area backwards. He stopped work on the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme estimated to cost $16 billion over 10 years and which was said to be having a chilling effect on investment in renewable energy. He has to prove that right by encouraging greater renewable investment. His big issues for the public will be security of supply and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the sector. Plus making sure the expansion of the EV charger network is financially sound and on track.
MAORI DEVELOPMENT
Tama Potaka vs Willie Jackson
Tama Potaka is an inexperienced politician but has been a rising star since being elected in the Hamilton West byelection a year ago. He now has to be the Government’s face in one of its most controversial areas, Maori-Crown Relations. Former Minister Willie Jackson, however, and other Opposoition MPs are likely to initially target the Prime Minister and individual ministers than him for, say, disestablishing the Maori Health Authority and downgrading the importance of te reo Maori.
IMMIGRATION
Erica Stanford vs Phil Twyford
It’s unusual for the Education Minister to carry another portfolio, let alone one as controversial and time-consuming as Immigration. But having built up expertise in Opposition, Stanford has a forensic knowledge of its recent problems and a chance to put them right. Chris Penk as associate minister may be useful for more than the appeals ministers must decide on. The associate’s role was once held by Phil Twyford but Ricardo Menendez March, an immigrant himself, is likely to be as vocal on injustice and exploitation. The question is who will champion the needs of employers on immigration in the new Parliament?
RESOURCES
Shane Jones vs Megan Woods
The sparks will fly in this area as the Coalition repeals the previous Government’s ban on new oil and gas exploration, brought in by Megan Woods. The Energy and Resources portfolio was decoupled with National keeping Energy and Shane Jones getting responsibility for mining and exploration, for which he is an unapologetic advocate. Resources gives Jones a firm platform for an ongoing campaign against the Greens, and synergy with his Regional Development portfolio.
Audrey Young covers politics as 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. She was political editor, leading the Herald’s Press Gallery team, from 2003 to 2021.
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