“So every single week we’re going to be hearing from new people with new positions. And if you think this is finished just because it’s finished its first reading, you’re sorely mistaken.
“Ultimately, this will all come to nought, but it’s going to be a fascinating look inside New Zealand politics and race relations in this country, so that would be one that I’d definitely be looking out for,” he said.
Another headline event to look out for this year, Walls said, is the transition of power from Winston Peters to David Seymour on May 31.
“It’s going to be a fascinating exercise because we’ve never seen anything like it before. We don’t know whether we go back to Government House and watch them take a new oath or if it just happens at the stroke of midnight,” he said.
Walls also predicted the “most boring Budget we’ve had in a significant amount of time” and anticipated the return of Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, who has been away from Parliament since her cancer diagnosis.
“But the best thing about politics is that we probably will mention these things only in passing at the end of the year because there’ll be other things that come up that we have no idea what they are or what they’ll entail.
“That’s the beauty of politics.”
Local elections 2025
On the other hand, local politicians are preparing for the country to return to the polls later this year to vote for councils and mayors.
Newstalk ZB news director and local government reporter Michael Sergel told The Front Page rates will be a major theme of local elections nationwide.
“Every local council in the country has been hiking rates higher than inflation. Some are raising them by five or six times more than inflation.
“We’ve had Gore, Central Hawke’s Bay, Napier, Upper Hutt, Wairoa, Wellington, Westland, Central Otago, Porirua, and Dunedin all hiking local rates by between 17.5 and 21.4%. These are really high rates rises by anyone’s books.
“There’s no getting around the fact that councils will have to be charging more and actually doing less. And I think the big question will be what they cut and what they don’t cut,” he said.
Along with voting in new representatives, 43 councils will hold referendums on keeping Māori wards.
“We had the two councils that decided not to keep them — Kaipara District and Upper Hutt. And we had quite angry debates there,” Sergel said.
“These votes are going to cost councils millions of dollars and those that support Māori wards say that’s a waste of money because most of the councils overwhelmingly support the Māori wards.”
Sergel predicted the council races to keep an eye on would be the main centres of Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. While no one has declared to run against Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown yet, Wellington’s Tory Whanau is likely to face a number of mayoral challengers, while Sara Templeton is running against incumbent Christchurch Mayor Phil Mauger.
Listen to the full episode to hear more predictions for the political year.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
