You are an MP all of the time, including the time before you became an MP.
Those cowardly keyboard warriors who spend their time jumping to conclusions – and hammering the mainstream media for not jumping to the same conclusions – know that not every photo of a queer person kissing a child is something to be alarmed about.
They should know that queer people have children too.
Those keyboard warriors should know that just because mainstream news outlets have not published a story, it does not mean that they have not asked questions or been working on it.
It may well be that a story is of such importance and sensitivity that it is being considered by the lawyers.
Sometimes decisions not to cover stories are made not to protect the subject of the story or to protect a political party, but because of journalistic ethics.
The voting public will know by now that the culture wars that are tearing the United States apart, that were fuelled during the Covid lockdown, are a growing part of parliamentary politics.
The public will certainly know that the Green Party of James Shaw is a distant memory. It used to be a party that could appeal equally to the hippies in the Aro Valley and the housewives of Remuera.
Now it is hard to know who they want to appeal to. +Read more
Senior minister Chris Bishop: “A superman in terms of workload and achievement.” Photo / Mark Mitchell
While today’s half-term cabinet report card highlights three ministers who are doing particularly well at present, the bottom members of the class are not there at all because they’ve lost their jobs.
The top three are senior ministers Chris Bishop and Judith Collins and junior minister Chris Penk, all extremely busy ministers who are exuding confidence and competence in how they handle their portfolios.
The non-appearances are from Melissa Lee and Andrew Bayly.
Melissa Lee departed as a minister in January in Christopher Luxon’s big reshuffle, the most important feature of which was to replace Shane Reti with Simeon Brown as Health Minister, and to promote first-term MP James Meager as a minister.
The demotion of Lee and of Reti showed Luxon to be just as much the smiling assassin as his mentor, Sir John Key, had been in office and demonstrated a willingness to cauterise a problem early, before it turned septic.
Luxon has scored eight out of 10, the same as his score last year.
The ratings are my judgment about each minister’s success in carrying out their ministerial functions. The ratings are subjective and are based on their public dealing and effectiveness at delivering policy.
Most ministers have moved up or down only by one, except Judith Collins and Chris Penk, who have both moved up two to nine points.
Chris Bishop is the only minister to have kept his rating of nine from last year. Erica Stanford and Simeon Brown are both still highly rated but have dropped one point to eight.
No ministers have scored below five this time, but three scored five: Matt Doocey, Penny Simmonds and Nicola Grigg. They will need to find ways between now and the election to justify their reappointment in any second-term Government. The one thing in their favour is that all are from the South Island and two are women: neither category is in abundance in the Coalition. +Read more
Back in July, PM Christopher Luxon changed his media routine. Photo / Mark Mitchell
If the Prime Minister being booed at the netball championship on Sunday is worrying him, he is doing a good job of hiding it. But there are other signs he is worried his Government is struggling to get its messages through.
Christopher Luxon has changed his media routine. He is now beginning to front up on Sundays with a minister or group of ministers for an announcement.
Two weekends ago, it was for a fairly flimsy announcement with Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis committing to starting in the next six months 15 infrastructure projects worth $6 billion – projects already committed to – or, as Bernard Hickey called it, “performative politics in high viz”.
This past weekend, after a week of unparalleled focus on the emblematic issue of the price of butter and what the Government cannot do about it, there was an announcement by Luxon with Buildings and Construction Minister Chris Penk about what the Government can do to lower building costs in New Zealand.
On Monday afternoon, at the post-cabinet press conference, Luxon will often have a policy announcement. But with two already notched up by then, Luxon and Willis over 10 minutes recited a list of measures taken aimed at addressing the cost of living, including tax relief a year ago and the family boost subsidy for early childhood education.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins had an immediate and witty response.
“I think we should start calling them Fisher and Paykel because they’ve got more spin than a front-load washing machine.”
But it pays to remember Luxon is talking to the voters, not to Hipkins or the Press Gallery. +Read more
Green Party co-leader Chloe Swarbrick speaks during a House debate on Palestine in August. Photo / Screengrab via Parliament TV
It should have been a week focused on Palestine, but instead, Chlöe Swarbrick’s action ensured the focus turned to her. In Parliament’s snap debate on Tuesday about whether the Government should recognise Palestinian statehood, she made a brilliant speech – one of her best – right until the last few seconds.
That’s when she made comments about MPs getting a spine because the Government has not picked up a sanctions bill on Palestine. The Speaker took offence and Swarbrick refused to withdraw and apologise. It was the same the next day, and then she refused to leave the House until she was voted out. More on that later.
Chlöe Swarbrick became a distraction from the debate on Palestine during a crucial week in which Israel stepped up bombardments of Gaza City and New Zealand began debating a huge issue. But outrageously, she made it about whether being asked twice to apologise was unprecedented.
It wouldn’t be so ironic if she hadn’t used her speech to the Greens’ AGM on Sunday to rail against politics that is “designed to outrage”.
“It gets headlines. It gets cut-through. It sucks up the oxygen and depletes the energy necessary to focus on the bigger picture. It benefits the multi-multi-multi-millionaire and billionaires, and their puppet politicians. All of this is designed to deflect, distract and divide,” she said.
Of course, she was talking about other politicians, not herself. In her self-centred world, it is only others that deflect, distract and divide. +Read more
“Growing discussion about Christopher Luxon being rolled as Prime Minister has one effect: it makes it sound as though it is more likely than it necessarily is.” Photo / Mark Mitchell
Growing discussion about Christopher Luxon being rolled as Prime Minister has one effect: it makes it sound as though it is more likely than it necessarily is.
Rolling a Prime Minister is an extremely rare event in New Zealand politics.
It has happened once in the past 50 years, in 1997 when Jim Bolger was rolled by Dame Jenny Shipley, after seven years as Prime Minister.
It has not happened to a first-term Prime Minister.
It became a familiar feature of the political landscape in Australia and Britain, where Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull were ousted in Australia by their own caucus, and similarly Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss in Britain.
In New Zealand, the messy leadership contests are traditionally held in Opposition, not while a party is in Government.
The threshold for rolling a Prime Minister should be – and is – a lot higher than that of an Opposition leader, because its effects are disruptive on the operations of Government itself.
Because of that, the risks of it backfiring are higher.
It is seen as a Government caring more about itself than the citizens it is supposed to serve.
It could also undermine the very basis on which the Government was formed – to offer stability in the face of punishing economic headwinds.
There has to be a compelling reason. So has the threshold been met for Luxon?
Not yet. The polls point to a close result at next year’s election, but “might lose” is hardly a compelling reason to get rid of a Prime Minister.
National is in a grey zone at present, in which its polling is not dire enough to justify getting rid of a Prime Minister, but it is uncertain enough to warrant speculation about the leadership. And a lot of speculation can become destabilising. +Read more