Labour leader Hipkins began the debate, declaring the Government was in \u201ccomplete disarray\u201d and had been occupied \u201cfighting about their own jobs\u201d instead of addressing key issues like the cost of living and unemployment. <\/p>\n
National leader Christopher Luxon announcing the result of the party’s caucus vote. Stanford is standing behind Luxon. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
He questioned how Luxon\u2019s claim his caucus was united could be true if hours later, Penk was sacked, and why some MPs, including Stanford, didn\u2019t express confidence in Luxon\u2019s leadership until after the meeting. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is going to believe that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hipkins honed in on Stanford, who faced speculation she was a leadership contender as well as Chris Bishop, by joking that it was \u201cpure coincidence\u201d her staff had gathered ahead of the caucus vote being revealed. <\/p>\n
He concluded by listing comments from Luxon in recent years, including in 2023 saying New Zealand was a \u201cwet, whiny, inward-looking country\u201d and more recently when he apologised after saying small businesses held a negative view and had a parent-child relationship with the Government. <\/p>\n
Hipkins also claimed Luxon had told Auckland business leaders that his backbenchers were \u201cno better than a bunch of Air New Zealand middle managers\u201d. The Herald has approached Luxon\u2019s office for a response. <\/p>\n
\u201cListening to Christopher Luxon, you can\u2019t help but think he hates this country and everybody in it,\u201d Hipkins said. <\/p>\n
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wasn’t fazed by Paul Goldsmith missing the defence meeting. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
National\u2019s response was led by senior MP and campaign chairman Simeon Brown, who claimed Hipkins\u2019 speech had been a chance to prove he could speak for 10 minutes without mentioning tax. <\/p>\n
Brown skated over the topic of the debate, saying last week\u2019s events had been \u201cwell-traversed\u201d, Penk\u2019s position as a minister had been \u201cuntenable\u201d and his portfolios had been reallocated, using only two of his 10-minute slot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the end of the matter, thank you very much.\u201d<\/p>\n
MPs from across the House were also able to have their say during the debate. <\/p>\n
Act MP Simon Court used his time to laud Penk\u2019s legacy as a minister and a local MP, adding that Penk\u2019s withdrawal from Auckland\u2019s Kaipara ki Mahurangi seat enabled voters to elect \u201cParliament\u2019s only civil engineer\u201d: himself, as he is standing for Act in the electorate. <\/p>\n
Labour MP Kieran McAnulty was equally complimentary of Penk as he dismissed Luxon\u2019s comments that Penk had challenged him alone. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was a stalking horse and everyone knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n
An outsider from National told the Herald on Wednesday Penk had been working on behalf of Stanford, a claim Stanford denies. <\/p>\n
Despite many MPs stating their support for Luxon as leader as they arrived in Wellington on Tuesday, Stanford chose not to respond to questions at both the Auckland and Wellington airports whether she supported Luxon.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, she said she backed Luxon \u201c100%\u201d and claimed she had said so \u201ca million times\u201d. Stanford said she didn\u2019t address questions at Wellington Airport because she was stressed by what she described as a \u201cfrenzied media mob\u201d at Wellington Airport. <\/p>\n
Media witnessed members of Stanford\u2019s staff were among those waiting in Parliament\u2019s Banquet Hall, which hosted Luxon\u2019s press conference announcing the result of the confidence vote. <\/p>\n
Erica Stanford denies she was involved in a leadership challenge to roll Christopher Luxon as National leader. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell <\/p>\n
Stanford earlier today said she had discovered yesterday some of her \u201cdepartmental staff\u201d had had a \u201cnosey-in\u201d while on a lunch break. Stanford stressed they worked as part of her education and immigration teams and were not political staff. <\/p>\n
\u201cThey should not have done that, that was unfortunate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a conversation with them about that … I just told them that it was likely that reporters were going to ask me or the Prime Minister why my departmental staff were milling around.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stanford, the MP for Auckland\u2019s East Coast Bays electorate, strongly denied any of her supporters had travelled to Wellington ahead of the caucus meeting and said any report claiming that would be \u201ccompletely false\u201d. <\/p>\n
Stanford also dismissed questions about whether she had discussed a leadership challenge with finance spokeswoman and deputy leader Nicola Willis, who also condemned the suggestion as \u201cfantasy stuff\u201d. <\/p>\n
Luxon has insisted he is confident neither Stanford nor Bishop were involved in Penk launching a leadership challenge. <\/p>\n
Speaking to Herald NOW this morning, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters doubted Penk was the only one involved. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in politics for a long time but for the first time I saw a one-man coup … if you can believe that,\u201d Peters said, laughing.<\/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":"Labour leader Hipkins began the debate, declaring the Government was in \u201ccomplete disarray\u201d and had been occupied \u201cfighting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275305,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38534,3276,16426,2562,3381,81547,2841,4101,83330,266,282080,13480,78,16427,6722,111,43,139,69,90,24637,98905,415,162431,1961,3382],"class_list":["post-572374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-argue","tag-chris","tag-christopher","tag-claims","tag-complete","tag-condemns","tag-country","tag-debate","tag-disarray","tag-government","tag-hates","tag-hipkins","tag-in","tag-luxon","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-parliament","tag-penk","tag-prime","tag-sacking","tag-this","tag-using"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572374","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=572374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}