We\u2019re speaking in Costello\u2019s office on the third floor of the Beehive, formerly the site of Parliament\u2019s bar. Newly renovated, the offices are among the nicest in the building, replete with beautiful timber and wool-lined walls. <\/p>\n
Costello\u2019s rise in politics has been far from gradual. While not a stranger to political life, the former Hobson\u2019s Pledge spokeswoman was fast-tracked to No 3 on New Zealand First\u2019s list before the 2023 election, almost guaranteeing her a seat in Parliament. <\/p>\n
After coalition negotiations, she became one of her party\u2019s three MPs in Cabinet, taking the ministerial portfolios of Customs and seniors alongside associate ministerial roles in police, health and immigration. <\/p>\n
The Herald spent two days shadowing Costello, sitting in on meetings with various officials and sector stakeholders, observing discussions with staff and witnessing preparation for engagements such as Question Time. <\/p>\n
Casey Costello has risen in prominence since entering politics with New Zealand First. Photo \/ Anna Heath <\/p>\n
The Herald agreed not to report the specific details and conversations of Costello\u2019s meetings to preserve the free and frank advice officials provide. <\/p>\n
Costello\u2019s staff numbers about a dozen, including a person on the front desk, private secretaries who are the bridge between a minister and their agencies, political advisers, a press secretary and a senior private secretary, whose role is vital to the functioning of the minister\u2019s office. <\/p>\n
Costello is known as a thorough reader and prolific with a red pen, to the point where drafted correspondence being sent out publicly under her name often comes with plenty of suggested amendments. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn this office, we\u2019ve always come back to the fact that, well, I\u2019m the one that [could] be unemployed next year when it comes down to it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
While some may see a minister\u2019s work primarily in the House or through the media, a significant amount of time is devoted to responding to letters from the public. <\/p>\n
Dozens are received daily. Upon receipt, they\u2019re referred to the relevant private secretary depending on the policy area the inquiry pertains to, then forwarded to their agency to prepare a response. This is then sent back to the private secretary to be analysed by a minister\u2019s political staff. At that point, it\u2019s either elevated to the minister or sent back to the agency if there are concerns with the response before finally being sent out. <\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough it does seem like an administrative nightmare, it\u2019s actually quite useful \u2026 I\u2019ve had answers to public letters written that haven\u2019t been part of the briefing I\u2019ve ever received \u2026 which shows the value,\u201d Costello says. <\/p>\n
Cabinet minister Casey Costello in her Beehive office. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
Central to Costello\u2019s duties are her responsibilities as a member of the Cabinet, a group of 20 ministers who meet weekly to determine the Government\u2019s policies. <\/p>\n
While Costello\u2019s reports and proposals to Cabinet are the final product, there is a significant amount of legwork done beforehand through one-on-one meetings and in Cabinet committees, which allow more detailed discussion of an issue before it\u2019s taken to Cabinet. An informed staff appears integral to this; using relationships with their counterparts to be able to assess the positions of Cabinet colleagues. <\/p>\n
Costello\u2019s relative inexperience initially made her a target in Cabinet for more experienced members. However, having a party leader in Winston Peters and an experienced staff helped to shield her from pressure tactics. The coalition agreements also meant there were clear policies to advance without the need for prolonged debate. <\/p>\n
Coalition agreement items weren\u2019t always simple to fulfil. As Associate Health Minister, Costello was charged with carrying out the promised repeal of the former Labour Government\u2019s smokefree generation legislation; a move that saw Costello and NZ First facing immense scrutiny and accusations they were motivated by the interests of the tobacco industry. <\/p>\n
For Costello, that was an early lesson in navigating pushback from officials as she pursued promoting vaping and other products as cessation tools. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a classic case in point where every single official said, \u2018You\u2019re going to kill 1800 New Zealanders a year or something \u2026\u2019, it was massive and all of that narrative that came out with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now we fast forward two years on and we\u2019ve now got Australia going, \u2018Oh, s***, we should have looked at what you were doing because we\u2019re in big trouble over here\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was [the officials\u2019] job to say, \u2018this is the position, these are all the reasons that we\u2019re in this position\u2019. It was my job to say, \u2018This is the coalition agreement commitment that says we\u2019re going to change this tack, and we\u2019ve got to work in a different way of doing it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casey Costello with her staff preparing for Question Time in the House. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Costello doesn\u2019t shy away from giving an honest appraisal of briefings she receives, referring to one as \u201cpretty s***\u201d, albeit not in front of officials. <\/p>\n
The relationship between officials and ministers can be complicated to manage and private secretaries, who are representatives of the agencies the minister has responsibilities for and are based in the minister\u2019s office, are central to that relationship functioning. <\/p>\n
They are effectively the bridge between a minister and the agency, managing expectations and communicating with both sides. <\/p>\n
It is sometimes an unenviable position. A minister might use a private secretary as a sacrificial lamb in front of officials if an error is made. They might need to calm an agitated agency that disagrees with a minister\u2019s decision or navigate a minister\u2019s frustration at officials unwilling to progress their ideas. <\/p>\n
Costello points to the Government\u2019s gang patch ban legislation as a lesson in how to view advice from officials. <\/p>\n
\u201cEven when the bill went through, all of the Opposition challengers were quoting advice that was given to the minister to say, \u2018This is a really bad idea\u2019, and now all of the agencies have come out and said, \u2018Oh, actually it works\u2019, so there is that balance in that conversation of sometimes [officials] don\u2019t know everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s their job to present the advice and that\u2019s the minister\u2019s job to say, \u2018Well this is what we\u2019ve signed up to do\u2019, or \u2018This is what the public have told us they want\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Casey Costello says she doesn\u2019t shy away from giving an honest appraisal of briefings from officials at the Beehive. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Part of the struggle originates from the question Costello poses: \u201cWhat is good government and what is good politics?<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes they intersect,\u201d Costello says. <\/p>\n
\u201c[I\u2019m] here because I\u2019ve been elected to represent or deliver on what my party [stands for], which is why the coalition agreement becomes quite an easy mechanism because it\u2019s there in black and white, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to deliver, but there\u2019s stuff you do because it\u2019s good government.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a meeting with Ministry of Health officials, Costello\u2019s desire to reinforce the Government trajectory regarding smoking cessation was clear, requesting a sharper direction of travel that could be communicated to Cabinet while officials indicated they had taken on Costello\u2019s feedback to communicate the harms of smoking alongside other products like vapes. <\/p>\n
Those meetings also provide an opportunity for ministers to discuss with officials observations from recent engagements or visits. <\/p>\n
In meetings with immigration and police officials, Costello raised her recent travel to Hawaii to attend a Pacific-focused United States summit in her capacity as Customs Minister. <\/p>\n
Amid a fluctuating US presence in the Pacific as the nation balances a more inward-looking focus while wary of China\u2019s partnerships in the region, Costello highlighted instances where law enforcement resources in Pacific nations were found lacking. <\/p>\n
To police officials, Costello indicated her interest in utilising the Government\u2019s renewed interest in the region, particularly so under Peters as Foreign Minister, to secure funding for a greater and more effective New Zealand Customs and police presence throughout the Pacific. <\/p>\n
The Herald sat in on several of Minister Costello’s meetings across two days. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
For initiatives not contained within the coalition agreement, Costello says it comes down to the quality of the argument for already constrained funding to be approved. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s where that kind of negotiation part comes in as to how much we can get over the line within the fiscal restraints that we\u2019re operating in and everything comes back to fiscal restraints.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year\u2019s Budget will be tough because there\u2019s still a lot of stuff that everybody wants to deliver in a very tight envelope.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the challenges, Costello maintains acting as a Cabinet minister is an \u201cincredibly privileged position\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you come from an environment where you try to make things work and you\u2019ve got no resource and you\u2019ve got no technical skill and you\u2019ve got no back-up \u2026 I\u2019ve got people running my calendar and people answering my correspondence, so the fact that I\u2019ve got to show up and spend some time in the office \u2026 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s hard work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019re speaking in Costello\u2019s office on the third floor of the Beehive, formerly the site of Parliament\u2019s bar.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[26345,3471,56767,6727,62489,8813,225869,225867,1887,4760,6101,24912,10938,46323,12130,2944,17319,12027,225868,6722,42677,3025,111,43,139,69,6270,2954,384,18154,135,9833,111461,6211,6123,225870,2963],"class_list":["post-442343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-agenda","tag-among","tag-balancing","tag-cabinet","tag-casey","tag-competing","tag-costello","tag-costellos","tag-countrys","tag-firsts","tag-good","tag-govt","tag-herald","tag-influential","tag-inner","tag-inside","tag-interests","tag-learn","tag-legislative","tag-minister","tag-ministers","tag-most","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-office","tag-parties","tag-people","tag-political","tag-politics","tag-setting","tag-shadowed","tag-system","tag-while","tag-workings","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}