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Mood of the Boardroom: CEOs rate Christopher Luxon’s Cabinet

NZ Herald

2 Oct, 2024 04:00 PM6 mins to read

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Education Minister Erica Stanford gets a big tick from CEOs. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

Erica Stanford is the Cabinet standout as far as leading CEOs and chairs are concerned.

In the 2024 Mood of the Boardroom rankings of the executive, she scored 4.01/5 on a scale where 1=less impressive and 5=most impressive.

Stanford holds both the education and immigration portfolios. A

Some 37% of survey respondents marked her performance “most impressive”.

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Stanford is not a member of the Prime Minister’s “kitchen Cabinet” but is deeply respected by him.

Simeon Brown who holds a suite of portfolios — Energy, Local Government, Transport and Auckland — came in next, rating 3.89/5.

Labelled “golden balls” by caucus colleagues — both as a reflection of his relative youth and workload — Brown is highly rated by Luxon.

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CEOs rated Nicola Willis (Finance, Public Service and Social Investment) at 3.88/5 equal with Chris Bishop (Housing, Infrastructure, RMA Reform, Sport and Recreation).

Finance Minister Nicola Willis. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Other ministers with a heavy workload to rank highly include Judith Collins (Attorney-General, Defence, Digitising Government; Science, Innovation and Technology and Space) and Winston Peters (Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Affairs and Racing).

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was ranked 6th. Mark Mitchell, Brooke van Velden and Todd McClay rounded out the top 10.

McClay had a major success last week in cementing a trade deal with the UAE — the first on his watch.

Despite the relatively high rankings for Cabinet’s top 10 there are reservations.

“I worry they are not focusing on the biggest issues for New Zealand’s future prosperity by getting distracted by stuff that won’t shift the dial and disenfranchising talented experienced directors from taking up positions,” a legal firm boss said.

“Examples such as the disestablishment of two boards — the appointment of Lester Levy to run HealthNZ and the treatment of KiwiRail — made made no sense.”

An energy CEO noted it was early days, but just a few Cabinet ministers were lifting a lot currently.

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“Very limited executive experience within this group and that is evident in early engagements.”

Uno Loco’s Blair Glubb noted there appeared to be three distinct and disconnected agendas largely driven by industry and lobby groups.

“Divisiveness as a vote driver should not be a core part of coalition policy.”

A leading director said David Seymour has become too extreme in his views and is “losing support from many of those who may have voted for him in his electorate”. “This divisive approach needs to end.”

Freightways’ Mark Cairns said: “I guess it is a vagary of MMP, but it seems odd to me that the Minister of Commerce is a Minister outside Cabinet.”

Government reforms

CEOs rated the forthcoming infrastructure reforms, such as creating a National Infrastructure Agency and developing a 30-year project pipeline, as the most important of a suite of reform measures rating them at 4.4/5.

Not surprisingly, given its importance to business and the top-ranking CEOs have accorded Minister Erica Stanford, the importance of the education reforms were rated at 4.24/5. The high-profile clampdown on gangs and crime rated at 4.14/5.

How other reforms rated: Focus on building international connections (4.12/5); repeal of Labour’s RMA legislation, and the introduction of the fast-track consenting regime (4.07/5); public sector reforms (3.92/5); changes to foreign investment settings (3.88/5), transport reforms such as congestion charging (3.78/5); appointment of a Commissioner to lead Health NZ reforms (3.77/5); moves to accommodate genetic engineering (3.62/5); the repeal of Three Waters and replacement with ‘Local Water Done Well’ (3.6/5); reform of the Holidays Ac (3.4/5); changes to greenhouse gas policy settings (3.21/5); disestablishment of the Māori Health Authority (3.09/5), Māori related policy shifts (2.94/5) and the repeal of NZ’s smokefree laws (1.97/5).

Many of these policies were focused on repealing measures put in place by the prior Labour Government. “Reading this list of ‘The Great Unwind’ you realise how long the coalition has been looking in the rear vision mirror,” NZ Windfarms director Craig Stobo said.

Chris Quin, boss of Foodstuffs North Island, says business has welcomed moves on infrastructure, transport, planning and industrial relations reforms as well as the drive to cut waste from the public sector.

“It is critical to hear more about a longer-term economic growth strategy to revive the country’s sense of optimism and confidence.”

“The HealthNZ reforms are fundamental for our future; however, Lester Levy’s is not a solo leadership journey,” KiwiRail’s Peter Reidy says.

Several respondents noted the absence of meaningful climate change measures which, along with biodiversity loss, are two of our largest challenges, Jarden’s Silvana Schenone said.

“I would be delighted to see policies that help achieve the goal of making New Zealand the place for people to live and develop professionally as opposed to the place to grow up and retire, while living most of your working life and paying taxes offshore.”

Others noted repealing the smokefree law was a mistake which created confused signalling.

Māori-related policy shifts were also divisive and distracting.

The consensus was that, a year from now, the Government needs to post achievements of its own and an improving economy.