Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at a post-Cabinet press conference at the Beehive on Monday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins at a post-Cabinet press conference at the Beehive on Monday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Editorial
EDITORIAL:
After the shocks of a change in the country’s leadership and weather disasters, politics has settled into reality-biting attack-dog mode with the two main parties straining for advantage.
Visits to areas trying to return to normal after extreme storms have been replaced by Beehive desk work for Prime MinisterChris Hipkins and his ministers dealing with the aftermath.
The Government has both extraordinary challenges and ordinary political dilemmas snapping at its heels. There are long-term goals and news cycles to fight, with the election seven months away.
One story this week combined the two: the Government’s refocus of transport priorities following Cyclone Gabrielle.
Transport makes up 17 per cent of New Zealand’s emissions and, at 91 per cent, road transport provides the lion’s share. The cyclone showed how important road links are for isolated communities. This week when asked about climate change, Hipkins said: “resilience is going to probably be the top priority”.
How the country juggles both emissions mitigation and meeting its obligations while also trying to adapt better to climate is the toughest of the Government’s long-term challenges.
But the “bread and butter” economic problems are also sticking around, a primary teachers’ strike over pay is set for next week, and there have been political headaches such as the debate over public service impartiality, which the Government appeared to have swiftly quashed only for it to escape and expand.
For instance, it highlighted health wait times at emergency departments by questioning a positive trend in official data, which Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) admitted was inaccurate.
National’s raids have brought it attention after a barren few weeks.
Leader Christopher Luxon is trying to make consultants and a linked policy on childcare vote-winning issues. National and other parties have pushed for a select committee inquiry into banking profits at a time when people are struggling. The Government prefers a study into the banks, while both National and the Greens say that would take longer.
Christopher Luxon delivers a State of the Nation address from Auckland. Photo / Alex Burton
Luxon had been under pressure to produce more, to give voters a better idea of what the main governing alternative amounts to. National is criticising the Government’s past decision-making where it can and tying Hipkins into it.
National’s childcare scheme, while clearly a pitch to middle New Zealand, could also be in part an attempt to soften perceptions of Luxon after opinion polls exposed a likeability gap in Hipkins’ favour.
And if a lagging leader can’t become more appealing, another tactic is to try to make that person’s opponent less so. Hipkins was a key Cabinet minister under Jacinda Ardern and has an extensive record for National to chip away at. This week Hipkins tussled with National over his time as police minister.
On the big issues and policy areas - climate recovery, health, families, economy, cost-of-living, crime - the two major parties are wrestling on the same ground.
The wrangling over consultants and banking profits highlights an interesting difference.
Labour likes to deal with major issues cautiously, by the book, setting up inquiries, reviews, and task forces, inevitably involving advice and experts.
National, unburdened while not in power, sees an opening with the public’s assumed dislike of the high-earning advisory class, and people’s impatience to see problems fixed more quickly.
On the banks, Hipkins said: “Clearly if we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it properly ... A market study [is] one of the options we’re considering.“ He added: “It would give us a base on which to make good, evidence-based decisions”.
Luxon’s view was: “New Zealanders deserve some answers frankly to what are quite urgent questions around some of the issues around competition ... Let’s do a short, sharp, quick study ... and if there’s a need for us to then go on to do a Commerce Commission study we can do it after that.“
Being careful risks inertia, being urgent risks sloppiness. Some things are obvious enough to be dealt with promptly, others have to be thought through, with potential consequences considered.
A tale of traffic lights bizarrely being placed in a cycleway on Tamaki Drive is not just symbolic of New Zealand’s conflicted approach and attitudes to dealing with a long-term problem like climate change. It also works as a parable about the cul-de-sac thinking that can arise in seeking a short-term solution.
Many people hope the Government has some durable fixes in mind for climate mitigation and adaptation rather than temporary glue.
It has its work cut out keeping its eye on the bread and butter - and the big picture - issues at the same time.
