Underestimated National MP Simeon Brown gets his chance to shine with raft of big portfolios - Audrey Young

OPINION:

This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s subscriber-only Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Welcome to the Politics Briefing. The past few days have highlighted the importance of Simeon Brown to the new Government, as Minister for Auckland, Transport Minister and Local Government Minister. He also has the Energy portfolio and is National’s fifth-ranked MP.

He was often mocked and underestimated by opponents when he was in Opposition, but clearly Prime Minister Christopher Luxon would not have given him such a cluster of big portfolios without faith in his abilities. He appears to be having some success in navigating the tricky relationship with Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown. He took over the Pakuranga electorate from Maurice Williamson in 2014.

Brown is a details person and a policy wonk. He has a clear grasp of politics, although he is yet to be tested properly. Last week he identified some of the Government’s transport priorities in Auckland. Yesterday he outlined National’s laissez-faire alternative to Labour’s Three Waters management regime - incidentally announcing a so-called technical advisory group to advise himself and the Department of Internal Affairs on the reforms (he would probably have called them “consultants” in Opposition).

Committee clash

Finance Minister Nicola Willis sparred with former Finance Minister Grant Robertson at the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee yesterday. Robertson suggested the so-called mini-Budget in December was four press statements and a table outlining savings.

She snapped back: “The last Government did quite an extraordinary effort at releasing lots of pages of guff but I can’t recall an instance in which you delivered $7.5 billion worth of savings, so I’ll be judged on the substance, not the number of pages.”

Vaimoana Mase, the Herald’s Pasifika editor for the Talanoa section, has filed her diary of last week’s Pacific Mission by Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Pacific Peoples’ Minister Shane Reti - often referred to as Shane Jones by Peters.

Unlikely allies

Meanwhile, in a highly unusual move, former adversaries Helen Clark and Don Brash have teamed up to write a joint piece for today’s Herald to accuse Winston Peters and Judith Collins of abandoning New Zealand’s independent foreign policy and moving towards a China “containment” policy -  the NZ-Australia communique was certainly replete with tut-tutting about China.

Clark and Brash wrote: “A few days ago, New Zealand’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence, after just a few hours’ conversation with their Australian counterparts and absolutely no advance warning to the New Zealand public, appeared to abandon our independent foreign policy in favour of unqualified support for America’s ‘China containment policy’.”

Quote unquote

“This is... an absolutely appalling waste of money and we are going to be turning the money tap off with the [Government policy statement on transport]” - Simeon Brown on Newstalk ZB on the proliferation of raised pedestrian crossings.

Micro quiz

Pakuranga (the electorate of Simeon Brown) gained fame in the 1970s through a TV ad featuring a “typical Pakuranga housewife” promoting a particular product. What was the product? (Answer below.)

Brickbat

Finance Minister Nicola Willis. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Goes to Nicola Willis for delaying the Budget Policy Statement (and announcements of new spending allowances) to March 27. The previous two BP statements following a change of Government (2009 and 2018) were released in December.

Bouquet

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Goes to PM Christopher Luxon for his deft handling of the current Israel-Hamas conflict at Monday’s press conference. On top of a complex brief.

Latest political news and views

Three Waters: Ratepayers will be hit harder in the pocket under the coalition Government’s plan to repeal and replace controversial Three Waters reforms, Labour says.

Train cancellations: Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown is hauling transport bosses into his office to explain ongoing train disruptions.

Israel-Hamas war: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the Government is extremely concerned about Israel’s actions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah and has conveyed its position to Israel.

Polls: Act and its leader David Seymour appear to have reaped the dividends of a heated Waitangi Day period, rocketing up to 13.7 per cent in the latest Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll.

EV charges: The Green Party says EV drivers are being ripped off, as data reveals they will pay more to use the roads than people driving fossil fuel cars.

Harbour crossing: Transport Minister Simeon Brown has outlined the Government’s position on a second Auckland harbour crossing.

Pacific Mission: Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Pacific People’s Minister Dr Shane Reti have wrapped up their first Pacific Mission together.

Lobbying: The identities of people allowed to freely come and go from Parliament have been made secret by Speaker Gerry Brownlee.

Opinion - Treaty bill: Act leader David Seymour pushed PM Christopher Luxon too far over the Treaty Principles Bill - and Luxon punched back, writes Claire Trevett.

Opinion - Auckland issues: It’s summertime in the Super City and the stupidity seems boundless, writes Simon Wilson.

Opinion - foreign policy: Without any advance warning to the public, NZ’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence appear to have abandoned our independent foreign policy, write Helen Clark and Don Brash.

Quiz answer: Vim, a powdery cleaning product.

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.

For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.