Barry Soper vs PM Jacinda Ardern over her radio slots. Video / Mark Mitchell
The week delivered a third casualty in the showdown between the PM and Mike Hosking, and the Beehive Diaries uncovers a rare (and fleeting) exhibition of modesty by Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Tuesday: Alas, poor Barry - she does not know you well
After news broke that Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern had pulled out of her regular slot on the Mike Hosking Breakfast, Newstalk ZB's veteran political editor Barry Soper wrote a column noting Ardern kept much more of a distance from the media more than other Prime Ministers had, making it hard to get to know each other.
Newstalk ZB political editor Barry Soper. Or was that Brian? Photo / Greg Bowker
The next day Ardern proved Soper's point - calling him "Brian" at one point during an exchange about her decision to end a long tradition of Prime Minister's going on ZB's breakfast show.
Tuesday: National Party review lands, Bridges puts head in sand
National's former Simon Bridges can hardly be expected to wear the blame for the 2020 campaign, but he is nonetheless taking a denialist approach to the National Party review into the election result disaster.
On Friday, Beehive Diaries learned Bridges has arranged "Drinks with Simon" in his Tauranga electorate next Monday night.
It just happens to be the same night and time that National Party members in his own Central North Island region have been summoned to a meeting in Cambridge to get a summary of the review's findings and recommendations with one of the review panel.
MPs are usually expected to attend such meetings but Bridges' excuse was that he arranged the drinks before the meeting was organised, and had told some students about it at the new Waikato University campus in Tauranga during orientation week, so did not want to let them down.
It is understood Bridges is also yet to read the review himself: it is locked in a room in Parliament for MPs to peruse should they wish.
But when suspicion about leakers is rife, sometimes ignorance is indeed bliss.
Wednesday: Duck, Mr Speaker:
Wednesday started with the National Party's occasional effort to hurl Speaker Trevor Mallard out of his job through a motion of no confidence. It was promptly rejected by Labour's side.
Act MP Nicole McKee stood soon after to talk about delays in processing gun licenses while the "roar" and duck shooting season loomed: "One really would have to question whether this Government is only concerned with protecting the mallards of this country!" she declared.
Speaker Trevor Mallard: not at all fed up with duck shooting season jokes. Photo / Mark Mitchell
She looked rather fearfully at the Mallard in front of her, who has built up something of an immunity to duck jokes in the lead-up to duck-shooting season.
He replied: "It's all right. It first happened to me in 1983. I'm used to it."
An excited new MP Terisa Ngobi had her first member's bill drawn from the ballot, a proposal to allow for paid leave for parents to attend parent-teacher interviews.
Ngobi put her fortune down to fellow MP Louisa Wall, saying some of Wall's luck must have rubbed off on her.
Wall has had a run of success with the game of chance that is the member's bill ballot.
Wall's biggest triumph was the law change to legalise gay marriage. Her latest bill passed its first reading on Wednesday, and allows for "safe zones" (no-protest areas) around abortion clinics.
Louisa Wall with Jacinda Ardern after the gay marriage bill passes in Parliament in 2013. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But according the Parliamentary Library, the luckiest MP of all time is former Act leader Rodney Hide who had eight member's bills drawn between 2000 and 2006.
Two other MPs had bills drawn this week: National MP Todd Muller's is aimed at boosting consumer protection over the labelling of sunscreens, and National MP Matt Doocey's would increase the maximum sentence for killing a police dog from two years to five years.
Friday: The fleeting modesty of Grant Robertson
Finance Minister Grant Robertson was rather proud of himself for taking the photo used on the cover of the Budget Policy Statement this year, boasting about it loudly to his audience and the media.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson with the photo he did not want credit for, until he did. Photo / Mark Mitchell
But an Official information Act (OIA) request has revealed something of a u-turn by Robertson about his masterpiece.
The papers show a flurry of excitement when officials learned the cover was to be Robertson's photo. "HOW GOOD DOES THIS LOOK??" one Treasury staffer wrote.
There was, however, one small note: "[Robertson] would prefer not to be credited for it." Nor was the location of the landscape to be stated.
Five days later, his flush of modesty had clearly passed. "I took the photo!" Robertson announced when he produced the document. "It is of Waikawau Bay on the Coromandel Peninsula."
