Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.
OPINION
This is a transcript of the
Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.
OPINION
This is a transcript of the Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click here, select Premium Politics Briefing and save your preferences. For a step-by-step guide, click here.
Welcome to the Politics Briefing. It has been amazing to watch the send-off for King Tūheitia over the past week and the anointment this morning of his successor, his young daughter, Ngāwai hono i te po. She will begin her reign with a deep well of goodwill that has been on show in the past week during her father’s farewell.
Tūheitia was aged 51 when he was named to lead the Kīngitanga. She is just 27, for the past few years is said to have been groomed for the role and she speaks te reo. He was a surprise choice and a reluctant monarch to begin with. He didn’t seem very comfortable, especially expressing strong political views and it wasn’t clear whether they were his or those of his advisers. In the last few years and this year in particular, he found his comfort zone, his voice and his purpose, as the kotahitanga king.
And he proved an even stronger unifying force in death than he was in life.
After the pilgrimage of thousands of mourners to Tūrangawaewae, it seems a long time ago since Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stood before King Tuheita’s casket and recounted in a quivering voice why he’ll miss him.It was Luxon’s political inexperience that helped to propel the King to the heights of his power. No experienced politician would have agreed to the sheer breadth of policies eroding Māori gains as Luxon did after last year’s election. History will judge it as a political blunder of some magnitude. It has led to a new era of kotahitanga among Māori and where that leads is unknown.
Luxon may have felt he had an ally in the King because he was grounded and calm in difficult times. But Tūheitia’s message from his first unity hui this year was simple and strong: “The best protest we can do right now is be Māori. Be who we are, live our values, speak our reo and care for our mokopuna, our awa, our maunga, just be Māori. Māori all day, every day. We are here, we are strong.”It will be an exciting prospect to see how Queen Ngāwai hono i te po develops her own style of leadership but she has plenty of time. Who she chooses as her closest advisers are likely to have a direct impact on the quality of her leadership. Continuity in the short-term at least may be advisable.
It will be an exciting prospect to see how Queen Ngāwai hono i te po develops her own style of leadership but she has plenty of time. Who she chooses as her closest advisers are likely to have a direct impact on the quality of her leadership. Continuity in the short-term at least may be advisable.
It was just as well that New Zealand First Cabinet Minister Shane Jones finally showed some willingness to be disciplined by the Attorney-General over his criticism of the judiciary. They turned out in force to Tūrangawaewae yesterday at the tangihanga’s final pōwhiri, which Jones led off. One of the lighter moments was an interruption of the lengthy speech by Supreme Court judge Justice Joe Williams by what sounded like a karanga designed to shut him down. He feigned offence, folded his arms and turned his back on the hosts.
The coverage of the week’s events by the media has been exemplary, and perhaps fittingly by many women journalists, such as Maiki Sherman, Annabelle Lee-Mather, Yvonne Tahana and the Herald’s own Julia Gabel who played a leading role in our recent Whenua series. It’s so easy to focus on the annoying things in news coverage and to blame the messenger for the message. Sometimes the messenger deserves a big pat on the back.
It was good to see Labour’s former Police Minister Ginny Andersen back down and admit that she got it wrong last week over whether cops of the beat have increased or decreased since the election. Jamie Ensor who has joined the Herald’s press gallery team from Newshub reports on the backdown. Deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan has written a backgrounder on another set of figures that expose the difference between Simeon Brown’s plans for transport spending and the planned revenue streams.
”Hūmārika is a word learned from my grandmother and it means there’s a certain dignity in silence.” - Cabinet minister Shane Jones shares some of the best advice he has never taken.
Christopher Luxon has been travelling in Asia this week. Which two countries did he visit?
Goes to Cabinet collectively for raising the international visitor levy from $35 to $100, and that’s after a 60% increase on the cost of visitor visas. NZ needs to attract tourists, not create new barriers to them.
Goes to Rahui Papa, Kiingitanga spokesman, and Ngira Simmonds, King Tūheitia’s chief of staff, who have been the brilliant public faces and interpreters of the Kīngitanga this past week. As Papa said yesterday: “We are not that scary.”
Farewell Kīngi Tūheitia: Mourners gathered at Tūrangawaewae to farewell Kīngi Tūheitia, a monarch remembered for his ability to bring people together.
A ‘clear message’: Shane Jones will focus his rhetoric on policy rather than personality after he said Judith Collins “sought to school me” following comments he made about the judiciary.
Capital gains tax: Outgoing Treasury chief executive Dr Caralee McLeish says New Zealand needs a capital gains tax and slimmer superannuation payments.
Quiz answer: Malaysia and South Korea.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
Carolyn Cooper warns that untreated hearing loss increases the risk of dementia.