GDP figures out this week showed 0.8% growth for the first quarter of 2025
The latest Ipsos Issues Monitor revealed Kiwis still think the cost of living is the most important issue facing the country.
The survey also found Labour was seen to be more capable than National on cost of living measures
Jacinda Ardern might have been feeling a bit of pride if she were watching from afar as her former Labour colleagues scrutinised the Government this week.
While it’s highly likely Ardern has long given up caring about Parliament select committees and is instead basking in the globalattention from her new book, it’s possible she clocked how some Labour MPs were following in her example in cussing out Act leader David Seymour.
During the scrutiny of Seymour’s Regulation Ministry spend, Deborah Russell couldn’t hide her disdain for his opening remarks, muttering “for f**** sake” under her breath.
She might have got away with it if it wasn’t for Seymour goading Russell to repeat herself, which – to her credit – she did before apologising.
Labour MP Deborah Russell had to apologise for swearing under her breath at David Seymour during a select committee hearing. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Duncan Webb soon doubled down, accusing Seymour of “making s*** up”, before he too said sorry.
Webb clearly wasn’t too apologetic. It wasn’t long before the interaction was clipped up and published on his social media pages.
Unsurprisingly, Seymour was also quick to post an article about Russell’s comments to his own Instagram account and later told reporters he would “make a great video on the behaviour of Labour Party MPs”.
Of course, Ardern famously called Seymour an “arrogant prick” in the House after the Act leader showed off his well-crafted ability to get a rise out of someone.
Outbursts from Russell and Webb weren’t even the first moments of political theatre from that select committee.
Green MP Francisco Hernandez came wheeling a trolley of boxes covered in yellow tape, an attempt to show off the bureaucracy Seymour’s ministry, designed to scrap bad regulation, had created.
The Green MP's trolley had to be left outside. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He posed for the cameras and boldly stated how ineffective the ministry was as Seymour’s officials stood awkwardly a few metres away, some grinning at each other as Hernandez described them as “back-office bureaucrats”.
Unfortunately, the trolley wasn’t allowed in and was left stranded outside.
However, it was enough to put together a handy video for the socials, which allowed him another opportunity to rally opposition against Seymour’s Regulatory Standards Bill.
These theatrics summed up much of what was seen during a scrutiny week that delivered many moments of clickable conflict but was light on revelations about the Government’s Budget.
However, such an approach didn’t belong solely with the Opposition.
Seymour might have thought he’d won scrutiny week’s award for best s***-stirrer until Resources Minister Shane Jones entered wearing a Make NZ Great Again hat, declaring with his usual biblical bluster that former Labour Energy Minister Megan Woods must apologise at the “altar of truth” over the oil and gas exploration ban.
Woods, who’s no stranger to the political game, saw right through Jones’ strategy: “I just would have liked the minister to come to the select committee room and answer some questions and be across his portfolio rather than practising lines in front of the mirror in his costume.”
Resources Minister Shane Jones came prepared for his select committee. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Labour had clearly learned from its previous scrutiny week experiences, doing more preparation and telling MPs to consider how they delivered questions so it could be effective on social media.
While it’s worth noting playing to one’s base in a select committee is perfectly legitimate and not new, it does risk compromising the purpose of scrutiny week.
Karen Chhour’s select committee as Minister for Children was a good example, where fiery exchanges between Chhour and MPs Willow-Jean Prime, Helen White and Mariameno Kapa-Kingi only worked to hinder a productive question-and-answer process.
A more stern chairperson than National MP Joseph Mooney might have threatened the MPs with stronger consequences, such was the extent to which they spoke over both Chhour and Mooney.
There was a fair amount of indignation from Government MPs, who would roll their eyes and scoff at this kind of behaviour, despite many offering up embarrassingly soft questions that equally undermine the scrutiny process.
Funnily enough, it was a seemingly innocent patsy question from National’s Dana Kirkpatrick to Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith that prompted one of the more consequential remarks of the week about the Government’s opposition to settlements that dispute the Crown’s sovereignty.
The clause doing just that is a feature of the ongoing negotiations with East Coast iwi Te Whānau-ā-Apanui and Goldsmith’s comments have ruffled feathers – particularly in Northland, where Ngāpuhi resides as the country’s largest iwi that is yet to settle with the Crown.
Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith's comments have caused a stir. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Some of the frustrations felt during scrutiny week only add to the debate about what proper scrutiny looks like and whether the public is best served by a regime that can allow and reward theatrics and delay tactics.
The antics from scrutiny week would have been far from Christopher Luxon’s mind as he continues a series of high-profile international engagements, concluding his visit to China before setting his sights on Europe, with meetings in Brussels and attending the Nato summit in The Hague.
The same goes for Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who spent the week in Denmark and Ireland talking finance and energy policy.
Had Hipkins been in New Zealand, there’s little doubt he would have been all too happy to point to the latest Ipsos Issues Monitor survey that found Kiwis think Labour is more capable than National of managing the cost of living.
The survey began the day after Budget 25, so even with the Government’s cost-relief policies front-of-mind, New Zealanders felt a party that lost the 2023 election due in part to a painful cost of living was still better than National.
It’s little wonder, then, that Finance Minister Nicola Willis welcomed with gusto GDP figures out this week that showed 0.8% growth in the first quarter of 2025, describing it as “happy news on a happy day”.
Kiwis' focus is squarely on the cost of living. Cartoon / Daron Parton
She lauded it as an “astounding overperformance” against forecasts, including from the Reserve Bank, which had predicted 0.4%. Willis even invoked transtasman rivalry, bragging New Zealand’s growth was four times that of Australia.
Convincing people their back-pocket pain is easing is proving a tough sell – and won’t be made any simpler by the current global trade disputes and the “missiles flying across the Middle East” that Willis acknowledges could hurt New Zealand’s economy.
Willis claimed she hadn’t yet looked at the survey after it was published on Thursday. Those working towards another National-led Government in 2026 might be hoping she gives it a read.
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
