Coalition Government scores three wins in two days as Labour swings and misses - Audrey Young

OPINION

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

Welcome to the Politics Briefing. It’s only Tuesday and already the Government is making a big impact this week - Christopher Luxon on reviving public service targets, David Seymour today with his plan to address abysmal school attendance rates and Winston Peters in his hard-hitting UN speech on Gaza. All three have struck a chord.

Luxon revealed nine new public service targets to reach by 2030, which is a long way off. However, he also said that he would be chairing the Cabinet Strategy Committee monitoring them and the Government would report against them every quarter. It will be clear to see what progress is being made in each target, across education, health, law and order, housing and social welfare.

Labour’s constant opposition to targets is plain dumb and erodes its credibility. It is an example of what it said it would not do - bark at every passing car. Few people would argue there is something inherently wrong in setting a target. And an examination of what went into the 2012-2017 target programme would find it was not just a publicity exercise.

Labour’s Barbara Edmonds said she did not necessarily disagree with the targets and agreed that wait times for patients and student achievement should improve. What worried her was the absence of a plan to reach the targets and potentially unintended consequences. But it would be in Labour’s interests to leave the opposition to such reasonable policy to the Greens.

Labour needs to learn when it is better to say nothing - and that should be on policies for which there is likely to be popular support and for which there is no disagreement in principle.

Act leader and Associate Education Minister Seymour set out the first phase of the plan to improve school attendance rates and the results will be tangibly measured. Let’s see if anyone is silly enough to oppose it.

Foreign Minister Peters delivered a carefully crafted speech to the United Nations this morning on the awful situation in Gaza. It did not mark a change in policy by New Zealand, but it marked a decided shift in tone - one that was highly critical of Israel’s dismal efforts to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Meanwhile, the verdict is in on whether Luxon should be a Prime Manager or a Prime Minister: two big Herald on Sunday columnists, Liam Dann and Heather du Plessis-Allan, say he should play to his strengths and be the CEO that people voted for.

Quote unquote

“I think it would be very fair to say I would be very uncomfortable if I got offered a big pay rise now. That would make me really, really, really uncomfortable” - Finance Minister Nicola Willis on Newstalk ZB yesterday.

Micro quiz

The Government’s first emissions budget period covers the four years from 2022 to 2025 and sets out the emissions permitted in megatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. After that, how long is each emissions budget period? (Answer below.)

Brickbat

Queensland has revved up its campaign to poach Kiwi cops. Photo / Bevan Conley

Goes to the Queensland Government for its cops-on-a-beach advertising campaign to draw New Zealand police across the Tasman. Just galling.

Bouquet

Act's David Seymour. Photo / Michael Craig

Goes to Act leader David Seymour for his plan to tackle school attendance rates, starting with the publication of weekly data from term two. About time.

Latest political news and views

School truancy: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Associate Education Minister David Seymour have announced a crackdown on school truancy.

Public service targets: Christopher Luxon has unveiled nine new public service targets that he wants delivered by 2030.

Public service cuts: Labour MP Barbara Edmonds shared a moving cancer anecdote as she warned of unintended consequences from public service cuts.

Gaza speech: Foreign Minister Winston Peters has delivered a hard-hitting speech to the United Nations about the war in Gaza.

MP pay: The independent body tasked with setting MPs’ pay is just weeks away from deciding if politicians will get a pay rise for the first time in six years.

Benefits: Social Development Minister Louise Upston says the Government’s $2 billion-plus annual accommodation supplement spend may not be “fair or sustainable”.

Methane emissions: Independent experts will review methane targets this year before advising the Government what NZ’s domestic 2050 methane target should be.

Public service cuts: Staff at the Ministry for the Environment have been told redundancies are “likely”.

Social media v politics: An Instagram straitjacket on political recommendations is triggering concern over a “chilling effect on politics” - and democracy - in New Zealand.

Wallace knighthood: Emails released by the PM’s Office show there was concern about why disgraced arts patron James Wallace was able to keep his knighthood long after he was convicted.

Opinion: Opponents want to compare Finance Minister Nicola Willis to Ruth Richardson. She is quite different, writes Thomas Coughlan.

Opinion: Christopher Luxon should ignore the howls of protest from the left and double down on being the Prime Manager of NZ, writes Heather du Plessis-Allan.

Opinion: It’s time for Christopher Luxon to call time on the negativity coming from his Government and lean into his natural management style, writes Liam Dann.

Quiz answer: Five years

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.