Beehive Diaries: National MP Erica Stanford tries to find out if Act leader David Seymour wants her job, a Budget whoopsie and did Chris Luxon or Hipkins win Budget week
Chris Hipkins speaks on steps the Government is taking, including new funding, to reduce youth crime.
National’s Erica Stanford on manoeuvres
The prospect of having a smaller party as a big part of a future government is clearly making some MPs nervous they will lose their portfolios – or even Cabinet places – to make room for the smaller party’s ministers.
Word reached Beehive Diaries fromKumeū about a public meeting hosted by Act leader David Seymour. One of those attending said he was a friend of National’s education spokesperson Erica Stanford. He then said Stanford had just texted him with a question to put to Seymour.
He read out the question – which asked whether Seymour was hoping to be education minister if National and Act won the election, and, if so, why given Stanford was clearly passionate about the job and highly competent.
Stanford confirmed the text, saying she was just having some fun – and agreed with Beehive Diaries that Seymour probably had higher ambitions than education minister.
Chris of the Week - who did we choose and who did ChatGPT choose?
Christopher Luxon started the week with his pre-Budget speech and a plan to issue “tax receipts” to all taxpayers each year, including a breakdown on what those taxes were spent on.
It seems a bit like something a National government would deem a “nice to have” (waste of money) had Labour come up with it. In fact, a former National government did just that in 1998 when they vetoed an Act proposal for a similar thing.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and National leader Christopher Luxon square off over the Budget.
Hipkins started the week by debuting his “coalition of cuts” line about National and Act – his best line yet. It was a perfect response to National’s “coalition of chaos” description of a centre-left grouping. He ended it by delivering his first Budget as Prime Minister – doing a little bit for the cost of living without resorting to an election-year splurge.
By a unanimous vote of the NZ Herald Gallery team, Hipkins is the Chris of the Week.
In a nod to National’s proposal of having its taxpayer receipts composed by AI, Beehive Diaries also invited ChatGPT to choose a Chris of the Week. It also picked Hipkins:
“Reason: This Chris brings a sense of humour and whimsy to the table with his childlike appearance and enjoyment of sausage rolls. His unconventional style and playful personality make him an interesting and engaging choice for Chris of the Week.”
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins and Deputy Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni can claim some ownership of the Budget. Illustration / Rod Emmerson
Budget whoopsie
The change in prime minister from Jacinda Ardern to Chris Hipkins caught out the good folk who manage the Budget website. When the 2pm embargo lifted and the website went live with this year’s Budget, the top of the page with a message from the Prime Minister still featured the photo of Ardern - although the words below it had Hipkins’ name. The reason given was that it was the cached version of the page from 2022, so those who had been on the page before got Ardern until they refreshed it to get Hipkins.
Alas, National MP Simeon Brown spotted it, took a screenshot and tweeted it, sparking a mad rush to try to fix it.
Auckland Chamber head Simon Bridges interviewed his old caucus colleague National leader Christopher Luxon after a pre-Budget speech on Monday, a day after the Newshub Reid Research poll showed Luxon’s popularity was less than stellar.
Bridges resisted commenting on that – he knows the pain all too well. But he couldn’t resist popping in a few political questions, including whether Luxon was open to governing with “one wily old coyote from the north” - NZ First leader Winston Peters.
That would be the same old wily coyote from the north who Bridges ruled out as a governing partner when he was leader in 2020.
