Hannah Tamaki announces the Coalition New Zealand Party alongside Brian Tamaki and taxidermied boars at Destiny Church HQ in Manukau. Photo / Mike Scott
Hannah Tamaki announces the Coalition New Zealand Party alongside Brian Tamaki and taxidermied boars at Destiny Church HQ in Manukau. Photo / Mike Scott
BEEHIVE_DIARIES
Claire Trevett's weekly diaries on the week in politics.
This week features Hannah Tamaki's love of succulent chicken, Finance Minister Grant Robertson's grammar, a repentant Shane Jones and National Party leader Simon Bridges' austerity drive.
MONDAY: Jet-lag for David Parker
Trade Minister David Parker's efforts to push along freetrade talks with the EU were somewhat hindered by travel woes.
On his way from Chile to Paris, a lightning storm stranded his plane on the tarmac in Frankfurt for about two hours.
Trade Minister David Parker. Photo / Mark Mitchell
His connecting flight was subsequently cancelled, although he would have missed it anyway. He did eventually make it to Paris in time for his meetings.
Parker's staffer was not so lucky. He landed in Paris only to get stuck in a taxi drivers' strike, which involved drivers leaving their taxis in the middle of the road.
It took more than three hours to get to the hotel.
The pre-Budget events rolled on for Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Speaking at the INFINZ Awards at the Cordis in Auckland, Robertson told them he had been at the same venue the week before for the Voyager Media Awards.
One attendee reported Robertson had joked: "I was in the same room for the media awards last week. A very similar-looking audience, but less people offering me cocaine in the toilets."
Robertson is yet to deny taking up the cocaine offers, but he did deny the greater crime of using the word "less" instead of "fewer".
"It's one of my things," Robertson tweeted - unlike the debt targets, which the next day Robertson revealed would be shifted from 20 per cent to anywhere between 15 and 25 per cent.
The misquote was subsequently confirmed:
"I was actually in this room on Friday night for the media awards. Very similar looking audience, although fewer people offering me #cocaine in the toilets."
Hannah Tamaki launched her new political party, which is to be called the Coalition New Zealand Party, presumably an attempt to distance it from the old Destiny Party and the Destiny Church she and her husband, Brian Tamaki, launched.
Brian Tamaki had announced it would be "politics with teeth".
It soon became clear why teeth would be required.
Hannah Tamaki was asked about the challenges ahead. She replied: "Just imagine if Colonel Sanders gave up the first time he wanted funding for his recipe. We would not have tasted that succulent chicken."
Jones mends fences with farmers
NZ First MP Shane Jones digging a hole for himself in Whangarei earlier this year. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Last week's diary chronicled Regional Development Minister Shane Jones' description of farmers as "bitching and moaning".
Jones should really have checked his diary before making those comments. He spent the next six days apologising at meetings with farmers.
The most recent was at the Dairy NZ Farmers' Forum in Whangārei, where he served himself a starter of humble pie.
"I want to use this opportunity to redeem myself,'' Jones began.
He then launched into a spiel about his rural background, his "earthy" ways, and how NZ First wanted to be "a voice that carries country values and concerns into Parliament''.
One rural word certainly comes to mind: "bull dust", as NZ First leader Winston Peters likes to phrase it.
FRIDAY: DIY GIFTS
The release of MPs' expenses shows some ministers are taking Robertson's Budget Responsibility Rules seriously, making gifts for visitors from overseas rather than splashing out at the gift shop.
Crown/Māori Relations Minister Kelvin Davis' receipts included about $220 at Spotlight for materials which a staff member used to make 29 sets of poi in her time off.
The bespoke poi were given to a visiting delegation from Canada.
Poi made by Minister Kelvin Davis' staff as gifts for visitors from Canada. Photo / Supplied
National Party leader Simon Bridges has also put himself on an austerity drive – literally.
After getting into just a wee bit of trouble for Crown car costs of $47,000 last year, this quarter his bill was a mere $7711.
That would have been just $3369 if Bridges was not charged at a much higher rate than ministers.
Then again, Bridges seems to have shifted to using ordinary taxis instead. His bill for other ground travel was $10,805 - almost double the $5800 it was in the quarter to the end of last year.
Simon Bridges has turned to alternative forms of transport after his big spend-up on Crown limos. Here he is on shanks' pony in 2017. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The only ministers with lower spending on the cars were the Green Party's Eugenie Sage, Jan Logie and Julie Anne Genter.
