Child poverty statistics intensify battle over welfare reform; devastated MPs mourn Efeso Collins - Audrey Young

OPINION

This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s subscriber-only Premium Politics newsletter. To sign up, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Welcome to the Politics Briefing. The response to worsening child poverty statistics yesterday reinforced that the subject is set to become an ongoing battleground for the Coalition Government. The deterioration is down to inflation and the cost of living crisis. That much is agreed.

But the long lag time is problematic in terms of political accountability. Yesterday’s figures from Stats NZ were for the 2022-2023 year under Labour’s watch. The figures released in 2025 will be for the 2023-2024 year, most of which will also cover Labour’s term of Government. It won’t be until 2026 that the stats will cover a period for which the Coalition will be fully responsible, 2024-2025. Social Development Minister Louise Upston has used the latest data to justify her Government’s policies, saying “it’s clear a new approach is needed”. Child-focused groups, NGOs, academics and Labour say her policies, especially the policy to lower benefit increases, are set to exacerbate the poverty statistics.

MPs mourn a friend and colleague

Green MP Efeso Collins' chair at Parliament after his sudden death in Auckland on Wednesday. Photo / Hagen Hopkins

It has been a traumatic week for MPs. Many were sitting on select committees when the news came through that Green MP Efeso Collins had collapsed and not long afterwards that he had died. Committees were immediately suspended. When MPs gathered in the debating chamber a few hours later, the devastation was evident not just in the tributes that followed but in the personal support that MPs across the House were giving each other, especially support to the Greens. Collins touched so many of them in such a short time. He was a giant of a leader in South Auckland, albeit a gentle one. Parliament’s great loss is in not knowing how he could have harnessed that special style of leadership in Wellington.

Meanwhile, I’ve been watching the maiden speeches of new MPs since December - and Efeso’s death has put the remaining two on hold. Among today’s stories (see below) is a piece setting out who each of the new MPs are, what they said, and what my personal highlights were.

Quote unquote

“... this might sound really, really radical, but we went to the election with a campaign promise, Aucklanders overwhelmingly voted for the coalition Government, and we’re delivering it” - Transport Minister Simeon Brown replies to a question from Labour about why the Government is moving fast to abolish the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax.

Micro quiz

Former Speaker Sir Basil Arthur died in office in 1985. Who replaced him in a byelection as the MP for Timaru? (Answer below.)

Brickbat

Labour's Ginny Andersen. Photo / Mike Scott

No contest. It goes to Labour MP Ginny Anderson for the uproar she created over careless allegations against Police Minister Mark Mitchell about his previous work as a security contractor in war zones, all from a chat on Newstalk ZB. Completely avoidable.

Bouquet

Labour leader Chris Hipkins introduces new finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The winner of the week is Barbara Edmonds, who was named Labour’s new finance spokeswoman after just over three years in Parliament, plus she’s a mother of eight. A “star” maybe, but “superwoman” may be more apt.

Latest political news and views

Child poverty: Data released by Statistics NZ today shows more children were living in poverty in the year to June 2023 compared with the year to June 2022.

Efeso Collins: Simon Wilson pays tribute to Green MP Efeso Collins - “a politician of heart and soul” - who died suddenly on Wednesday.

Efeso Collins: The empty chair of Green MP Efeso Collins was draped in a siapo and his desk garlanded with a lei when Parliament met to mourn the MP yesterday afternoon.

New MPs: Audrey Young picks the top 10 maiden speeches from Parliament’s class of 2023 - and explains why late Green MP Efeso Collins’ was so special.

Transport costs: National’s transport projects could end up costing more than twice as much as the party said they would, leaving a potential fiscal hole of $24 billion.

Mitchell allegations: Police Minister Mark Mitchell has responded to allegations from Labour’s Ginny Andersen that he was “paid to kill people” while working as a security contractor in Iraq.

Mitchell allegations: Former Labour leader David Shearer believes Ginny Andersen’s claims about Mark Mitchell’s past as a private security contractor are “divorced from reality”.

Barbara Edmonds: The MP stepping into Grant Robertson’s finance shoes was born in Auckland to Samoan immigrants, has eight kids and is an advocate for affordable housing, workers’ rights, healthcare and education.

Analysis - Robertson resignation: Grant Robertson’s value to the Labour Party is unquestionable, writes Derek Cheng. His legacy as a Finance Minister isn’t quite so clear-cut.

Smoking tax: Associate Health Minister Casey Costello has apologised to Parliament and explained answers she gave regarding advice she received about smoking policy.

Ministry leak: The Ministry of Health says a staff member it claims leaked information about tobacco tax to the media is no longer employed by the ministry.

Over-tourism: About $16.5 million will have been spent by June on what to do about over-tourism in Milford Sound, but Tourism Minister Matt Doocey says some of the work is “incoherent”.

Quiz answer: National MP Maurice McTigue.

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.

For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.