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Welcome to Inside Politics. Shane Jones pulled off an unlikely feat this week – making a greater impact by saying nothing than by using his political megaphone.
His absence from the launch of the power reforms yesterday spoke volumes.
The Associate Energy Minister left it to Energy Minister Simon Watts and Finance Minister Nicola Willis to deliver the package, designed to improve energy security and reduce the price of power by 2% a year. Jamie Ensor’s detailed coverage is below.
Jones clearly does not believe the package goes far enough, but in the interests of Cabinet collective responsibility, stayed shtum.
But it gives his pro-interventionist New Zealand First Party plenty of room to differentiate itself from the pro-marketeers in National and Act at next year’s election.
It helps his party that the bigger parties are still fighting over the ban on new oil and gas exploration, with Labour rejecting National’s call for it to support gas exploration for 10 years so investors are not turned off.
Jones also doubled down this week on his criticism of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for what he perceives as foot-dragging over the fast-track consents process. The EPA board chair was so concerned about Jones’ language that he met with him about it, Wellington colleague Ethan Manera explains from Official Information Act (OIA) discussions between the chair and the chief executive.
Jones was unimpressed all around. He rejected the suggestion that his promise to “exterminate problems” in the fast-track process was a threat to sack people – he had no power to sack people.
“I find it a bit kind of confounding really, that they’ve got time for this kind of almost like snowflaky chit-chat,” Jones told the Herald. “I want less kumbaya and more kia kaha.”
No one could accuse Christopher Luxon or the coalition Government of taking it easy over the two-week recess. Luxon himself has been like the Energiser Bunny, but took time out on Monday for an interview with me on his leadership style. With so many other people talking about his leadership, I thought it was time we heard his views. He has lots of views about it, having studied leadership for many years, and, funnily enough, he had been comparing notes with Scott Robertson about it after last week’s All Blacks test.
“They’re jobs where everyone’s a critic, and actually, your job as the leader is to say, ‘stay calm, let’s not catastrophise when things are tough, let’s not go cock-a-hoop and get arrogant when things are going well’,” Luxon said.
“Just stay consistent and even-tempered and calm and see through the noise and stay focused on the prize that you’re trying to get to.”
After the interview, Luxon joined minister Chris Penk to announce dramatic changes to rules around earthquake-prone buildings. Penk has been impressive as Building and Construction Minister, getting tonnes of work done and communicating them well. In my mid-term review in April, I ranked him top-equal with Chris Bishop and Judith Collins. The Mood of the Boardroom CEOs rated him highly last week too, ranking Penk in their top 10.
Another MP who has been busy is Matt Doocey, New Zealand’s first Mental Health Minister. He spent six years in Opposition preparing for the role, and is responsible for $2.8 billion of ring-fenced funding. He has spent part of the recess running a rural health roadshow with NZ First’s Mark Patterson. Public meetings were held in Hāwera and Te Kūiti last week and Greymouth and Thames this week.
Last year, Doocey got Cabinet to agree to a set of five mental-health targets, and yesterday was the first full year in which they have been reported. They are reported area by area according to the 20 old District Health Board districts. There is quite a spread between districts and between targets.
The three main ones are:
• Access to specialist mental health and addiction services within three weeks of referral – target 80%, national result 80.3%, with only eight out of 20 meeting the target;
• Accessing primary mental health and addiction services through the access and choice programme within one week – target 80%, national result 83.8%, with 14 regions meeting the target;
• Mental health-related attendances at emergency departments admitted, discharged or transferred within six hours – target 95%, national result 69.4%, with only one of 20 health areas, South Canterbury, meeting the target.
Doocey told me yesterday he was “not a target fundamentalist”, but he finds the information valuable when he meets with executive regional directors to talk about the results and their action plans to improve them. He also gets more granular breakdowns on rural figures, age groups and ethnicity as part of the target data.
“That has been a game-changer in the discussions I am having with officials,” he said.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora produced charts for each of the targets, but I’ve reworked them below showing the average for the three targets in each of the 20 districts, with Wellington services clearly lagging badly and South Canterbury doing best.
The debate over New Zealand’s stance on Palestinian statehood is important, but not nearly as important as the proposal for peace currently being considered by Hamas. Hamas has been given the choice of ending the war in Gaza on someone else’s terms or being obliterated by the Israeli military. It is a lopsided offer on terms that Palestinians appear to have had no role in devising.
It is not how peace deals have been done in the past or should be devised. Nonetheless, the choice should be simple. Not only does Donald Trump’s peace proposal have the backing of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey – which is extraordinary enough – it is highly likely to have the backing of the shattered, desperate and hungry Palestinian survivors in Gaza, which has been ravaged by Israel since the Hamas massacre two years ago (the anniversary is next Tuesday).
The proposal throws up a thousand unanswered questions because of its lack of detail. It leans towards Palestinian self-determination, but Israel would not have backed the proposal if it had unequivocally affirmed a two-state solution. The proposal doesn’t reject one either, despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting it will never happen. It is said by some to be in Netanyahu’s political interests for Hamas to reject the offer so he can keep the war going and remain in power.
The proposal involves Trump himself and international players in a future board governance role. It doesn’t specify who would be on the Palestinian committee running Gaza, or the international force that would deploy there to train Palestinian police. There are no timelines either. But negotiating over the details could take years.
There will be people all over the globe who would want to hold out for a better deal with stronger undertakings and guarantees.
But they would make the perfect the enemy of the possible.
There are no guarantees in this proposal, except the certainty that a second chance won’t come quickly and the plight of Palestinians in Gaza, and probably the West Bank, will worsen.
• Fathers and sons: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon took his friend and mentor, former Prime Minister Sir John Key, as his plus-one to the last two All Black tests, against the Springboks in Wellington and the Wallabies last weekend at Eden Park. Last Saturday was a father-son outing, with the pair joined by Luxon’s son, William Luxon, and Key’s son, Max Key.
• New MPs: Oriini Kaipara, who won the Tāmaki Makaurau byelection for Te Pati Māori, will be sworn in as a new MP next Thursday and will make her maiden speech later that day. Mike Davidson will be sworn in as a new Green Party list MP on October 14, following the resignation of Benjamin Doyle.
• RIP: Lally Weymouth, who died this week, aged 82, is not a name many people will recognise, but she came from a legendary family in Washington, the Grahams, who published the Washington Post. Her mother, Katharine Graham, played an important role in approving the reportage of Watergate that forced the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Weymouth roamed the world interviewing leaders, many of them dictators, including Muammar Gaddafi and Saddam Hussein. I met her in 2019 when she was in Wellington to interview Dame Jacinda Ardern. We were both bumped down the diary that day because Ardern was dealing with the resignation of party president Nigel Haworth. Weymouth may have altered the course of history. According to the New York Times' obituary, in 2011 she invited then TV personality Donald Trump to the annual White House correspondents’ dinner. It was then, some say, that he decided to run for President after being roasted by President Barack Obama in his speech.
“Bipartisanship must be more than a political slogan.” – Christopher Luxon in his letter to Chris Hipkins asking Labour to commit to allowing gas exploration for 10 years.
“It’s clear this is a political stunt rather than a genuine attempt at building bipartisan consensus.” – Chris Hipkins after finding out about the letter from media.
Who is the Green Party spokesman on energy? (Answer at the bottom of this article.)
Goes to the Ministry for Primary Industries. Changes to animal welfare rules for pig farming, as announced by Act’s Andrew Hoggard yesterday, are welcome, especially limiting the use of mating stalls to three hours instead of seven days, but the new rules won’t take effect for another 10 years – and that’s after five years of consultation.
Goes to Labour’s Phil Twyford and Rachel Boyack and the Greens’ Teanau Tuiono for spending the recess on a fact-finding mission into what is happening under the military dictatorship in Myanmar.
PM’s leadership: Christopher Luxon assesses his own leadership amid mounting criticism
Energy reforms: New Zealand First’s Shane Jones appears to bite tongue over Government’s power announcement
Energy reforms: Government reveals actions on energy sector after review
Secret files: Inside Wellington’s secret mayoral desk documents accidentally sold at dump
Gas exploration: PM Christopher Luxon urges Labour leader Chris Hipkins to commit to offshore gas exploration
Quake rules: Earthquake-prone building system changes revealed, Auckland among the biggest impacted
Inside info: What makes a good minister? Exiting MBIE head Carolyn Tremain is an expert
Jones v EPA: CEO Allan Freeth on minister’s ‘threatening’ comments in fast-track feud
Health shift: Cabinet agrees Pharmac and Health NZ will share medical device procurement
Opinion – Palestine call: How Winston Peters could have gone further on Palestine –Audrey Young
Palestine call: Government fears recognising Palestinian statehood would fuel conflict
Quiz answer: Scott Willis, a first-term list MP.
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