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Welcome to Inside Politics.
It wasn’t ideal to have Winston Peters’ trip to Washington DC clash with Christopher Luxon‘s trip to New Delhi, but the diary of United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio dictated timing.
Of course it wasn’t a competition between Peters and Luxon, but it was fascinating to watch the two different styles in quite different circumstances.
Luxon approaches trips like this as though it were the first and biggest and best of any such diplomatic endeavour. To be fair, this one lived up to its hype.
The announcement that free trade talks would start next month was something to celebrate. The media coverage of the trip captured the vibrancy of the country, and Adam Pearse’s description of a game of street cricket with Kapil Dev, Luxon, Ross Taylor, and Ajaz Patel was superb.
Luxon may be disappointed on free trade. Yes, he will get a deal with India this term. Anyone can get an easy deal if they’ve got a deadline to meet.
It’s the standard of the deal that counts. The Indians are the hardest negotiators in the world.
They have strung New Zealand along before, they strung along the other negotiators in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership for years. They have resumed talks with the United Kingdom this year after starting in 2022. They have been negotiating with the European Union forever.
In 2015, I talked to a couple of trade officials in Brussels who were beyond exasperated, having just returned from a round of negotiations with India. The talks are still ongoing.
Suggestions that a deal could be done with New Zealand in 60 days, 90 days, or even before Christmas were apparently just jokes, but alarming jokes.
In one of Luxon’s stand-ups with media, he revealed his sensitivity to criticism.
“I get underestimated and doubted all the time,” Luxon said. “We just chunk on through and carry on through so don’t worry. We focus on outcomes and results.”
No dispute there. If he can get a fast result and a high-quality deal, he will have something to brag about. But talking it up is not the same as delivering it.
In Washington DC, Peters openly acknowledged his softly, softly approach to the new US Administration after meeting Rubio.
It was also a comment that explains why he felt Phil Goff‘s position as High Commissioner to the UK was untenable after he criticised President Donald Trump.
“There’s been a lot of comment by too many people about what it all means,” Peters said. “We have advocated from day one: let the dust settle, let’s find out what it all means. Caution is the name of the game here and I’m pleased we’ve taken that position. We walk into the room having said nothing stupid.”
He gently reminded Rubio that New Zealand removed all its tariffs over 40 years ago and seemed confident New Zealand will largely escape US protectionist measures on April 2 – although we might not escape entirely.
Big Pharma in the US is imploring the US Government to impose tariffs on Australia for its equivalent of NZ’s Pharmac, which it claims is an unfair trade practice.
In my old hometown of Hāwera, a petition was once started by locals to stop the home of writer Ronald Hugh Morrieson being bowled for a KFC. A counter-petition was started to support the KFC. It got way more signatures and the KFC is still there.
The point being that small towns (just like big ones) like fast-food outlets for a treat. So it was no surprise that medical officers of health were criticised by former Health Minister Shane Reti last year for making a submission against McDonald’s setting up in Wānaka.
The sequel is that there has been a hullabaloo this week simply because the national director of the Public Health Service, Dr Nick Chamberlain, reminded public health experts that submissions to councils needed to be vetted by head office.
Outcries of ministerial censorship by new minister Simeon Brown are completely over the top. Any reasonable member of the public would expect them to stick to giving advice on immunisations, smoking, and alcohol, not whether Wānaka should have a McDonald’s. And if they didn’t make stupid submissions, they might not be vetted.
In an unrelated story, the fine outgoing Ombudsman Peter Boshier has pinged Health NZ for its slow response to requests under the Official Information Act, particularly for the lengthy time information sits in the minister’s office, which he calls a “proxy approval process”.
After becoming a convicted criminal over 34 payments to a porn star, it is understandable that Trump is no friend of the judiciary.
But in an unbelievable outburst this week, Trump took to his Truth Social platform to slam District Judge James Boasberg for ordering the suspension of a flight taking 238 deportees to El Salvador: “This judge like many of the Crooked Judges I am forced to appear before should be IMPEACHED,” he wrote.
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts took the rare step of responding publicly: “For more than two centuries, it has been established that impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision. The normal appellate review process exists for that purpose.”
The flight was not suspended, but it is not clear yet whether the White House ignored the court order or whether it came too late.
Plenty of MPs have been travelling during the recess this week other than the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
Education Minister Erica Stanford is in Iceland for an international conference on education and will also go to the UK, Sweden, and Germany. East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick and Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP Cushla Tangaere-Manuel went to Mexico for the Inter-Parliamentary Union conference for women MPs, and Pacific Peoples Minister Reti is in Papua New Guinea for a conference of Pacific education ministers.
“An outraged school principal complained the lunches were the same for 11 days. I had the same lunch for 11 years. Christopher Luxon’s Marmite sandwiches and an apple” – Richard Prebble in his Herald column this week. He and Thomas Coughlan respectively propose solutions for the bedeviled programme.
Who is the Green Party’s police and corrections spokesperson? (Answer below.)
![Health Minister Simeon Brown 'could stop [OIA delays] in an instant'. Photo / Mark Mitchell](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/W4EB4HI2M5CJJGXGDBLIC5ISSM.jpg?auth=c5c0ad9fab9fd833fb94acc08447d1e8c989f0df053c16686045a2eee76c2a2f&width=16&height=11&quality=70&smart=true)
Goes to Health Minister Simeon Brown. Health NZ was singled out by Ombudsman Boshier for slow responses to the Official Information Act, especially the delays involved when “notifying” the minister, which he calls a “proxy approval process”. Brown could stop the practice in an instant.
Goes to Luxon for the personal ebullience he put into his trip to India.
Charter schools: Labour has reconfirmed it would abolish charter schools if elected to power again after comments from MP Ginny Andersen raised questions about her party’s policy.
Peters-Rubio meeting: Foreign Minister Winston Peters said he was “seriously pleased with the outcome” of his first in-person meeting with American counterpart Marco Rubio.
India trade deal: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has hit back at those who doubted his ability to secure a free trade agreement with India but downplayed talk of a 60-day deadline.
Heavenly voters: Act leader David Seymour has cheekily suggested Jesus may have supported his party after announcing plans to stand local government candidates in October.
Gambling rules: Owners of venues with pokie machines want the Government to change a regulation they say is unworkable and potentially dangerous.
OPINION – school lunches: The school lunch programme is a disaster, writes Thomas Coughlan – here’s how we could fix it and whether we should bother.
OPINION – school lunches: School lunches are Parkinson’s Law of triviality, writes Richard Prebble – we worry about them while ignoring the real crisis in education.
OPINION – Investment Summit: The Government’s big play for foreign funding achieved far less than we’re told, writes Simon Wilson.
Power warning: A newly released briefing to Energy Minister Simon Watts warns of the risk of outages during winter peaks and business closures.
Quiz answer: Wellington Central MP Tamatha Paul.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
American pharmaceutical companies want Australia slapped with tariffs.