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 as coalition talks progress in Wellington. The basic principle of negotiations- to focus on areas of agreement and to park areas of disagreement - doesn’t always work if there is disagreement on the basics.
The challenge for the three parties required to form the next New Zealand government - National, Act and NZ First - is when to exercise their veto over the other parties’ policies, with a sense of fairness.
Each party requires the support of the other two to progress any of their policy, if parliamentary approval for spending is required. But they also need to be cognisant of their respective election results. Remember that National got 38.08 per cent and a mandate to implement the centrepiece of its election policy, its tax cuts. Act got only 8.64 per cent and New Zealand First 6.08 per cent.
Both Act and New Zealand First joined the chorus of scepticism about how the tax cuts were going to be funded. But that can only be proven or disproven by their implementation. National was 100 per cent certain of its costings during the campaign and should be able to test that policy promise. National leader Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters, if he wants to be Foreign Minister, have an artificial deadline in needing to get things signed and sealed by Tuesday if they want to make the Apec summit hosted by Joe Biden in San Francisco by Thursday. That is likely to add impetus to getting an agreement by Sunday, an announcement by Monday, and swearing-in on Tuesday - in an ideal world.
It has been a topsy-turvy week for Chris Hipkins, who has earned his stripes as the most flexible Labour leader in recent years. After announcing he had been endorsed again as leader, he suggested there would be nothing unusual in Labour revisiting the wealth tax policy he had previously ruled out as Prime Minister, or the capital gains tax policy his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, had ruled out. “Everything comes back onto the table and that includes a discussion around taxes, so in 2026, our tax policy could look quite different,” he told reporters on Tuesday. He must be aching from those somersaults.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins with newly elected deputy Carmel Sepuloni. Photo / Mark Mitchell
“We had a three-week delay as a consequence of that [enrolments on election day] and I wish the media would focus on who caused that delay” - Winston Peters tells reporters to look at what dragged out the release of official election results.
What electorates are getting these new National MPs: Dana Kirkpatrick, James Meager and Rima Nakhle? (Answer below.)
Brickbat
NZ First's Shane Jones. Photo / Michael Cunningham
Goes to New Zealand First’s Shane Jones for over-sharing with the media waiting for coalition updates. We don’t need to know you’ve just been to Farmers or that you’ve just bought some new underwear.
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.
