A coalition that people voted for

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

It’s no surprise the new National-led coalition Government is facing heavy criticism on a number of fronts. It represents an abrupt about-turn in many policy areas, in method and in language compared with the previous Labour Government.

Having failed to deliver the transformational change it promised, in no small part due to pandemic challenges and a first-term handbrake in the form of NZ First, voters have sent Labour to the Opposition benches in favour of one of New Zealand’s most right-wing Governments. Various sector representatives complaining about wrong-headed regulatory overhauls will, for many people, just remind them what they voted against.

Curmudgeonly pronouncements by deputy prime minister Winston Peters have similarly been treated as a major headwind for the new Government. They will hopefully dissipate after he has sent enough of a message to new supporters that helped NZ First’s return to Parliament, and as he gets on with his foreign affairs role.

In another example of the Peters’ effect, in announcing the Opposition line-up on Thursday, Chris Hipkins said the foreign affairs portfolio went to David Parker in part because of his good relations with Peters.

That was after accusing the new Government of “dancing dangerously close to endorsing conspiracy theories”, in that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon did not condemn Peters’ attacks this week on media independence, including false claims of bribes. Hipkins and his health spokeswoman Dr Ayesha Verrall also expressed concern that one of the Government’s first priorities was to raise concerns about the World Health Organisation — an NZ First policy.

Peters gave his first major speech as Foreign Affairs Minister at the United States Business Summit in Auckland on Thursday, where he said the “time for drift” in foreign policy was over and suggested the Government was open to closer ties with the Aukus security partnership between Australia, the UK and the US.

Aukus involves nuclear-powered (but not nuclear-armed) submarines for Australia. Pillar 2 of the pact is about sharing non-nuclear technology and the US has hinted there could be an opening for New Zealand in this; the previous Government was non-committal, suggesting our Five Eyes arrangement with these countries and Canada already allowed a significant amount of sharing.

“It’s something in which the Australians will look acutely at us on to see if we’re going to step up. We’ve got to do more and pay more to be respected,” Peters said in a Q&A session afterwards, adding that he had already had a serious discussion on Aukus with Judith Collins, Minister of Defence and the country’s spy agencies.