Parliament was in recess, so it was a quieter week for the Chrises, one that saw both focus on health.
Luxon resumed his “Get NZ Back on Track” series of meetings – swinging from Kerikeri to Taupō to Dunedin. He released some health-related policy: a shinynew medical school to churn out more doctors (eventually) and funding for Dunedin Hospital.
Hipkins and Health Minister Ayesha Verrall announced moves to standardise eligibility for cataract surgery across the country and plans for the worker shortages in health - a combination of immigration, more spaces for nurse training, and trying to get ex-midwives and other health workers back into their fields.
However, Hipkins gets his nose ahead by virtue of Verrall’s strong week - and something that didn’t happen: no minister quit or was sacked.*
Take a bow, Chris Hipkins – you are Chris of the Week.
*(We note this was true as of Friday, if it has changed since then, Luxon gets the prize).
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins with the minister who won him Chris of the Week: Health Minister Ayesha Verrall. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Return of the Forest and the Sun Tapestry to the Beehive
The scaffolding went up in the Beehive this week to re-install the original tapestry that adorned the Beehive reception area but has been absent since it was taken down in the early 2000s and handed over to Te Papa.
Workers reinstall the Forest and the Sun tapestry in the Beehive reception. Photo / Thomas Coughlan
The vast tapestry The Forest and the Sun, designed by Guy Ngan and woven by Joan Calvert, Dorothea Turner and Jean Ngan was first hung in 1977 – Queen Elizabeth II stood in front of it to open the newly built Beehive in February that year.
Courtney Johnston, chief executive of Te Papa, tweeted with excitement about the homecoming, adding that when it was cleaned for an exhibit at the Dowse Art Museum in 2019, decades of cigarette smoke and dust were painstakingly hand-patted out of it.
The air is cleaner these days – the politics not necessarily so much.
Walkabout perils
Nicola Willis took her boss Christopher Luxon all the way out to Tawa – a whole 15km from Parliament – where Luxon once again greeted journalists with his standard spiel, saying it was great to see they had made their way out of the beltway and could finally see what real people thought.
What he didn’t know was that the journalist he was speaking to lived in Tawa and mixed with its real people every day, including catching the train with them into Parliament rather than a Crown limo. Nor did he anticipate that those real people would tell Luxon what they thought of him: that despite all his efforts, he needed to get out more because people didn’t know him.
A hard day’s night for Chris Hipkins
Hipkins had a plethora of picks at his disposal when asked to pick a Beatles theme song on Magic Talk this week. Hipkins said his father played a Beatles mixtape (Google it, millennials and zoomers) in the car on road trips when he was a child. The ones that resonated most with him now included Let It Be: “it speaks to a lot of things really, one of which is you can’t control everything in life. Sometimes you’ve just got to go with what’s happening.” Very deep.
He went on to admit A Hard Day’s Night had been particularly relevant for him at times since taking over as PM – and With a Little Help from My Friends. He did not point out that some of those same friends – in the form of ministers - had at times been the cause of all those hard day’s nights.
The media drongos and Shane Jones
The great debate hosted by Leo Molloy on the moot “that all media are drongos” showed at least one political candidate was aware of his chances on election day.
Shane Jones with the media. Photo / Michael Cunningham
NZ First’s Northland candidate Shane Jones enjoys dealing with the media more than most, so was having none of it when his team captain Wayne Brown told him the strategy was to criticise the media, even though they were arguing against the moot.
He told Brown it was an election year “and I’m trying to climb Mt Everest with one jandal” so he would be keeping the media sweet, thank you very much.
We note his boss Winston Peters would have followed Brown’s instructions much more happily.
