One of the most crucial appointments any political leader will make is that of chief of staff.
In most cases, that person becomes the most trusted political adviser to the leader, anticipates problems, exercises judgments on behalf of the leader and helps to form and maintain coalitions.
Names such as Heather Simpson (who worked for Helen Clark), Wayne Eagleson (John Key), Rob Eaddy (Jim Bolger and Peter Dunne), Raj Nahna (Jacinda Ardern) and Jon Johansson (Winston Peters) have been well-known in the political beltway when they held such politically powerful positions.
But while their work is often at the heart of government, they usually keep out of the headlines. Behind the scenes of the current negotiations to form a government, National leader Christopher Luxon, Act leader David Seymour and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters are depending on the work of trusted staff.
Seymour has worked alongside his chief of staff, Andrew Ketels, for many years. Luxon recruited Cameron Burrows two years ago when he took over the National leadership. Winston Peters has been out of Parliament for the past three years but one of his former MPs, Darroch Ball, has been heavily involved in the party’s comeback and is tipped to become the next chief of staff if not filling some other senior role.
Burrows has the biggest job. He is working with Luxon on a dual set of negotiations and once that is complete, will head to the Ninth Floor of the Beehive for one of the toughest jobs in the country, as the Prime Minister’s chief of staff.
Yesterday, it was reported New Zealand First and Act have made their first contact in coalition negotiations, with a meeting between Ketels and Ball.
You could perhaps say Burrows experienced Stockholm Syndrome. He had been working as an analyst at Treasury for seven years when he was hand-picked by his employers in 2012 to spend some time in the office of the Finance Minister at the time, Bill English. He ended up joining English’s permanent staff.
Secondees to ministerial offices are usually highly-rated public servants, sometimes promising young talent. Burrows was that. He had started in Treasury after getting a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) in economics from Otago University. After a stint in London with the Audit Commission he rejoined Treasury. As well as being smart, Burrows also had the advantage of being a nice guy and calm under pressure.
The job as secondee allowed Burrows, now aged 40, to see politics close-up at the heart of government. It requires the adviser to serve the demands of both the minister and their agency, who don’t always have the same agendas. It would have been a very good training ground for his later role as chief of staff.
Burrows’ secondment to English’s office lasted a couple of years until the 2014 election, in which National was re-elected. But after a brief break, Burrows was back in the English office, making the transition from a public servant to a press secretary, a political appointment.
He stayed with English for almost two years then moved to John Key’s office as chief policy adviser a few months before Key resigned and English stepped up to the Prime Minister’s role.
When National went into Opposition after the 2017 election, Burrows stayed with English. He stayed on for another eight months when Simon Bridges became National leader.
He eventually opted for a job in the private sector, as chief executive of the Electricity Retailers’ Association of New Zealand. After three years, he was recruited back to politics to become the chief of staff of newly elected National leader Christopher Luxon.
The pair did not know each other but he came highly recommended by John Key and Bill English.
As well as the high-powered jobs he has held, his broader work experience has included paper boy, petrol station attendant, cleaner, supermarket worker and working in a call centre.
He is said to be addicted to Diet Coke.
Andrew Ketels has worked alongside David Seymour for six years through bad times and good and is simpatico with his boss politically.
He is considered a deep thinker and a true libertarian but quite an introvert.
He went to work for Act after the 2017 election which, for the third election in a row, returned only one MP, Seymour as MP for Epsom. In the next election, Act got 10 MPs and in the recent election 11 MPs, its best-ever result. But when it had only one, and a small team, the work was varied and shared. Ketels did his share of policy research and development, and House strategy and tactics.
Ketels had worked in Parliament for National ministers before joining the Act team in 2017 but according to Seymour, speaking to The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire, he had been a member of Act for five years before that.
Ketels had been a ministerial adviser to Maggie Barry and then an adviser to Louise Upston in 2017 when she was Minister of Corrections. National polled highest in 2017 but was rejected by New Zealand First in favour of Labour as a coalition partner and went into Opposition.
Like Cameron Burrows, Ketels started in the Beehive as a public servant. His LinkedIn profile says he had previously been an immigration officer and analyst within the Department of Labour, before being posted as the immigration private secretary in the ministerial office of the Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson and then Nikki Kaye.
Ketels featured in a Woman’s Day feature earlier this year on his gregarious partner, Newshub political editor Jenna Lynch. She gets a hard time on social media about her having a politically-aligned partner but told the magazine: “I think any suggestion that he can influence anything I do is just laughable because he can’t. Andrew can’t even make me do the dishes!”
Ketels took time off last year to be a stay-at-home father for their baby son.
They have a dog named Winston, which they got during the 2017 election negotiations.
The chances are that even if you don’t know who Darroch Ball is, you’ve seen him in the television shots featuring Winston Peters over the past three years.
He has been almost a regular presence with Peters during the campaign, acting as driver, minder, campaign organiser, backroom operator and probably occasionally, dogsbody.
He is quite an intense and serious person. “I’m not a fake person; I don’t smile because I think I should,” he once told the Herald.
Ball was a New Zealand First MP from 2014 until 2020 and while he had a lower profile than his Cabinet colleagues in those final three years, he achieved a reasonable amount.
In a 2020 article headlined “NZ First’s man of mystery”, the Herald outlined his influence in his portfolio areas at the time, law and order and social services.
Included in that was stopping the repeal of the Three Strikes legislation by Labour, which was subsequently repealed when NZ First was voted out, and opposing pill testing at festivals, which was also passed when NZ First was voted out.
Former NZ First colleague Tracey Martin said then that his influence in the caucus was down to him doing his homework and focusing on detail in party discussions.
“His voice is no louder than anybody else’s but he comes fully prepared,” she said.
He got a degree in biological science at the University of Auckland then moved to Palmerston North and worked in Army logistics. He worked with at-risk youth and taught science at secondary school before being elected to Parliament.
In 2020, when the party was tipped out of office, the president resigned and he immediately became interim party president to keep the ship afloat until the party convention the following year. He also got more involved for a time with the Sensible Sentencing Trust.
Expectations tempered around return to surplus in 2027/28.