Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
OPINION
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Welcome to the Politics Briefing, a week in which Labour listened its way around Auckland, Housing Minister Chris Bishop delivered his Six Commandments on Housing to councils, and Auckland mayor Wayne Brown had equally blunt messages for both National and Labour.
Next week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is heading to Washington DC to take part in the Nato Summit.
I’ll be travelling over to watch Luxon’s diplomatic legwork at an intriguing time in both US and European politics, with elections aplenty underway or looming.
Ukraine and Russia will dominate the official programme, but it will be a good opportunity for Luxon to press the flesh of the other leaders – including perhaps a newly hatched British PM, Sir Keir Starmer, after what seems certain to be a landslide victory.
Luxon has a strong interest in United States politics, so will also be keen to meet with US politicians – Republican and Democrat – to get the vibe there, especially after that debate between former president Donald Trump and President Joe Biden.
There will without doubt be a fair bit of chatter in private among them all about what the potential return of Trump might mean for Nato and the other countries – but Luxon will have to be diplomatic about his views on how that contest might shape up. Earlier in the week, he got in early practice with the standard line that he would work in New Zealand’s best interests with whoever the US served up.
Back at home, a few weeks after saying at Labour’s regional conference in Wellington that Auckland fell out of love with Labour first and hardest between 2020 and 2023, Labour leader Chris Hipkins and his MPs were in Auckland trying to convince its citizens they were worthy of another look.
Yes, Labour is still in the post-loss stage known as the year of listening. It means that wherever Hipkins goes, he tells people he is listening.
Too often politicians only listen to those they want to hear from.
The guest speaker at the Labour caucus retreat was not exactly a Labour luvvie. It was Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. Brown’s message to the assembled MPs was reportedly – and unsurprisingly – “blunt”.
Labour’s MPs might not have liked all of what Brown had to say – but Aucklanders liked what Brown had to say (and how he said it) enough to make him the mayor, so they might want to listen.
In wooing Auckland, Hipkins has two disadvantages. First, he is not an Aucklander, whereas his political rivals Christopher Luxon, David Seymour and Winston Peters are (with a bit of Northland mixed in for the latter). That was highlighted whenever Hipkins talked about “visiting” Auckland.
Hipkins is also closely associated with the second reason he gave for Labour losing the election: Covid-19.
Wayne Brown also had some blunt words for the Government when it came to both increasing speed limits and housing: “butt out”.
In responding to Chris Bishop’s requirements for councils to plan to free up land for housing and provide denser housing on key transport routes, he said: “I don’t want more instructions from Wellington on how our city is developed.”
Auckland Council then rejected Transport Minister Simeon Brown’s move to remove speed limit reductions in the city.
However, Bishop’s housing announcement did please the Act party, which is more than could be said for National’s decision on the Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, which would require social media giants to negotiate with local news media for the use of content.
Act took its turn playing agree-to-disagree roulette after Broadcasting Minister Paul Goldsmith announced National would support Labour’s bill, with some amendments.
National will now have to get support from the Opposition to get the bill passed.
The NZ Herald’s media guru, Shayne Currie, covered the ins and outs of what that might mean here – in the same week Newshub turned off its cameras.
Luxon had kicked off the week launching the Government’s next “action plan” – chock-full of moves on law and order as National goes about trying to ensure Police Minister Mark Mitchell does not come up against his election promise to resign if New Zealanders didn’t feel safer on his watch.
And with his Emergency Management hat on, Mitchell went back to Wairoa to announce a quick review would be done on the management of the Wairoa River bar after Wairoa mayor Craig Little accused the regional council of delaying too long in getting diggers in to open the bar ahead of the rain last week. One of the big jobs there will be trying to smooth the ongoing acrimony between the Wairoa District Council and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council over that issue.
Keep an eye out over the weekend for a moving and very open interview with Act MP Mark Cameron, who spoke to the Herald’s deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan about the recent death of his son.
“We will ... simplify the definition of ‘rapid transit’ to avoid further boring and interminable debates about what counts as ‘rapid transit’”. It wasn’t in the election manifesto, but we applaud Chris Bishop as he embarks on the Sisyphean task of knocking off boring and interminable debates about things.
Newshub’s Parliamentary Press Gallery teams through the ages. Politicians alternated between loving them and loathing them, but they delivered an edge and unpredictability that unnerved a succession of political leaders and kept the rest of us on our toes. It is to his credit that at their last post-Cabinet press conference on Monday, the Prime Minister delivered a tribute and farewell.
The Government for confused messaging around how its proposed military-style boot camps for young offenders will be run – and by whom.
Q3 ‘action plan’: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has unveiled the Government’s quarterly action plan, saying law and order is the focus.
NZDF planes: A majority of New Zealanders want the Government to buy new Defence Force planes, according to new Talbot Mills polling data.
Housing overhaul: Housing Minister Chris Bishop has unveiled the Government’s plan to “flood the market” with land for development in a bid to end New Zealand’s housing crisis.
School testing: The Government has announced the introduction of standardised testing in primary schools across New Zealand.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
Expectations tempered around return to surplus in 2027/28.