This year the Herald’s award-winning newsroom produced a range of first-class journalism, including investigating the state of our mental health in the Great Minds series, how NZ can rebuild stronger post-Covid with The New New Zealand and how to minimise the impact of living in an Inflation Nation.
We also tackled our literacy crisis in our Reading Block series, while dogged investigative reporting by Kate McNamara resulted in an investigation into the awarding of contracts to businesses associated with family members of Cabinet minister Nanaia Mahuta.
This summer we’re bringing back some of the best-read Premium articles of 2022. Today we take a look at some of the highlights from Senior Political Correspondent Audrey Young.
Best of the bunch - the top 10 new MPs
It is often said that Leader of the Opposition is the hardest job in politics but that is not quite true.
Being a new MP is a hard place from which to make an impact, especially for Government MPs. Of the bumper crop of 42 new MPs in 2020, 23 were Labour, five were National, nine were from Act, three were from the Greens and two were from the Māori Party.
Backbench Government MPs are expected to let ministers make an impact and if they show an interest in an issue, are often given the dubious honour of asking patsy questions to the minister.
It is easier if the backbench MP has an electorate, or has a natural constituency, or has had a controversial bill drawn from the ballot. But it can be difficult for a first-term Government MP to make an impact without creating waves. Much of their work is done in select committees and/or within their own parties.
Audrey Young looks at the best of the rookie MPs in the class of 2020.
NZ First leader Winston Peters on the party’s resurrection
Winston Peters has changed markedly since he lost power in 2020 and not just in his new upbeat mood.
For the first time since MMP began, the former Deputy Prime Minister and New Zealand First leader has emphatically ruled out working with a major party.
He has hinted at it in the past. But he has not unequivocally ruled out a major party, until now.
“No one gets to lie to me twice,” he says.
“We are not going to go with the Labour Party, this present Labour Party crowd, because they can’t be trusted.
“You don’t get a second time to lie to me, or my party and they did.”
The buoyant Peters says NZ First is back - and this time they’re coming for Labour’s core voters.
Christopher Luxon’s first year as leader
It is part of party leader Christopher Luxon’s mission to put National’s house in order - to take it from its pitiful state of self-destructive infighting a year ago to a cohesive alternative government.
Labour may be worried by Luxon’s current polling success but they are not panicking yet. Unsurprisingly, their private polling shows that the biggest worry voters have about him is his inexperience.
That is likely to become even more apparent in the pressure of an election campaign when his grasp of policy and political instincts may not be as honed as Jacinda Ardern’s.
Luxon’s rise in politics would perhaps feel more extraordinary except for the fact that it was virtually pre-ordained and predicted before he had even sought selection to stand for National in the 2020 election.
With a year to go before the next election and polls suggesting Luxon could become the next Prime Minister, Audrey Young talks to the National leader about his preparation for the role.
Rating the Cabinet - which ministers are up and which are down?
It has been an unsatisfactory year for the Government and for some ministers in particular.
Only one of Jacinda Ardern’s 26 ministers scored 9 out of 10 in the Herald’s regular Cabinet Report Card and two senior ministers are among those who have rated only five.
The ratings are out of 10 and reflect a judgment by Audrey Young about three factors: How effective the minister has been in delivering the Government’s policy; how effective the minister has been in representing the Government to the public; and how valued the minister is to the Government.
Jim Bolger’s co-governance challenge to PM
Former Prime Minister Jim Bolger is challenging current Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to provide clarity about the Government’s intention with co-governance policy.
And Bolger’s former Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations Minister, Sir Douglas Graham, says the principle of partnership under the Treaty has gone a lot further than was meant in the 1987 Lands decision in the Court of Appeal.
However, both former National politicians, in separate interviews with the Herald, expressed grave concerns about Act’s bottom-line policy of having a referendum to define the principles of the Treaty.
With co-governance and the Treaty of Waitangi set to become a lightning rod in election year, Audrey Young sat down with the two former change leaders to talk about what’s happening now.