Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has an inner circle he has known for years and trusts implicitly. Photo / Mark Mitchell
ANALYSIS
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is relying on advice from the experts to respond to the current disaster but there is an inner circle of people he depends on every day, and almost all of them have one thing in common.
Most of them worked in the Beehive at some point during the Fifth Labour government 1999–2008 when Helen Clark was prime minister and Heather Simpson was chief of staff.
The inner circle is a group of staff and colleagues without whom Hipkins, or any leader, cannot operate. They are like his work family. He has known them for years and trusts them implicitly.
Hipkins himself worked in the Beehive as a political adviser to former Education Minister Trevor Mallard. And six of the nine in his inner circle also worked there at some stage during that government’s terms.
Others, such as chief press secretary Andrew Campbell, were active in student politics about the same time that Hipkins was, Campbell at Otago University and Hipkins at Victoria.
Not all friends are part of the inner circle. Hipkins is an old friend of Health Minister Ayesha Verrall from student days but as a relative political novice, he is not likely to be taking advice from her.
The inner circle is different to the informal kitchen Cabinet of ministers.
The kitchen Cabinet is usually a senior team of about five ministers who may be brought in from time to time to thrash around an issue.
It comprises Hipkins, Deputy PM Carmel Sepuloni, deputy Labour leader Kelvis Davis, Finance Minister Grant Robertson, and Minister of Housing, Energy, and Infrastructure Megan Woods.
With the current weather disasters, Auckland minister Michael Wood and Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty are likely to be added often.
Jacinda Ardern’s chief of staff, Raj Nahna, left last week but his deputy, Holly Donald, is staying on to help with the ongoing transition to a new chief of staff.
ANDREW KIRTON
Chief of staff
Andrew Kirton answered the call from Hipkins to head his office. Kirton gave up his job as a consultant in the trans-Tasman firm Anacta Consulting, which specialised in campaigns, strategy and government relations, to head Hipkins’ political staff.
He is probably more outgoing than his predecessor, Raj Nahna, but has a very short time to adjust to one of the most important jobs in politics.
A former general secretary of the Labour Party from 2016-18, he managed Labour’s 2017 election campaign. He left that job to become Air New Zealand’s government relations manager.
Born in Taumarunui, he is married to Labour list MP and lawyer Camilla Belich who is expected to seek the nomination for Ardern’s Mt Albert seat. He was previously head of public affairs for Heathrow Airport. He studied commerce at Lincoln and got involved in student politics. He was president of the NZ University Students Association in 2004 and then co-president with Belich in 2005.
He spent a few years working in the Beehive in the last term of the Fifth Labour Government for Winnie Laban and Helen Clark.
GRANT ROBERTSON
Minister of Finance
Grant Robertson will be Hipkins’ most valuable minister now and right up to the election, having been at the heart of responses to previous crises.
As Finance Minister, he knows what sort of assistance should go where and he should be involved in the now-pressing case for a managed retreat scheme for properties vulnerable to climate change.
Hipkins and Robertson have always been close allies and together organised to secure Andrew Little’s resignation in favour of Jacinda Ardern.
The consummate political operator, Robertson could also be the ears and eyes for Hipkins in the caucus and the party.
As Deputy PM to Ardern, Robertson had the unofficial right of first refusal to replace her but eschewed the job in favour of Hipkins, telling the Weekend Herald: “If you’ve got a shred of doubt in your mind about whether you want to do it, you shouldn’t do it. That’s basically what the decision came down to.”
JACQUE BERNSTEIN
Senior private secretary to the Prime Minister
Jacque Bernstein has worked with Chris Hipkins for the past five years and is highly trusted to organise his work life. She is dependable, loyal, competent and with a breadth of experience in Government.
She started work in the Beehive in 2004 when Trevor Mallard was Minister of Education and Hipkins was a political adviser to him. She ended up working on Helen Clark’s personal staff in the last term of her Government.
She then worked at Government House managing events under three different Governors-General (Satyanand, Mateparae and Reddy) before returning to the Beehive in 2017 when Labour took office.
CARMEL SEPULONI
Deputy Prime Minister
The mutual respect between Carmel Sepuloni and Chris Hipkins grew during the response to Covid-19. They were not what you’d call close before that, or even now. They complement each other.
She and Hipkins had always been on opposing sides of defining leadership contests when Labour was in Opposition, she for David Cunliffe and Andrew Little, and he for Grant Robertson and Jacinda Ardern.
To begin with, she wasn’t a great success as a minister. But once she stopped turning every Question Time into war, she settled into the job. She learned to handle criticism about welfare adeptly from the Left and Right, and rose to the enormous challenges as Social Development Minister during the Covid-19 crisis. A capable and safe pair of hands.
DAVID CHOAT
Senior political adviser
David Choat has been a ministerial adviser to Hipkins since 2017 when Hipkins became Education Minister.
He is a policy wonk and specialises in education and the public sector and knows how to get things done. He has been a policy manager at the Ministry of Education but had previous experience as a policy adviser, including with Steve Maharey who was Education Minister in the Helen Clark government. He was chief policy adviser to Phil Goff in Opposition.
He was on the Capital & Coast District Health Board for six years. He is the partner of Fleur Fitzsimons, the former Wellington City Councillor and the favourite to replace Paul Eagle as MP for Rongotai.
ANDREW CAMPBELL
Chief press secretary
Andrew Campbell was an integral part of Jacinda Ardern’s team as chief press secretary and responsibility for communications strategy. He has played an integral role in Hipkins’ smooth transition to Prime Minister.
Campbell worked closely with Hipkins through much of the Covid-19 crisis and has existing strong relationships with media so was a natural choice. He heads a media team of five, the same number as Ardern had, and provides a leadership role for all other press secretaries in the Beehive.
Campbell was a former chief strategist and communications director for the Greens and has previously worked for the Finsec union, NZEI and for the NZ Rugby Union.
MEGAN WOODS
Megan Woods has always been an important member of the Government and part of the kitchen Cabinet but after the current crises, she will be more important than ever, as Minister of Housing, Energy, and Infrastructure.
She and Hipkins were both the fix-it ministers under Jacinda Ardern. She will be an essential part of Hipkins’ top team within Cabinet – not to mention chair of the Labour re-election campaign in 2023.
She is one of two apprentices to Grant Robertson in her role as Associate Finance Minister, the other being Michael Wood.
RICHARD TROW
Deputy chief press secretary
Richard Trow has worked with Hipkins as press secretary since 2017 when Labour went into Government. He worked for Damien O’Connor and Phil Goff in the Helen Clark government and then worked with Goff when he became Labour leader in Opposition for three years.
The PM’s media team helps to organise the PM’s media contact, including the myriad of standups and press conferences each week, helps to keep the PM abreast of relevant news issues, and helps to develop messages, press statements and speeches.
One of Trow’s colleagues, former reporter Gia Garrick, worked for Hipkins when he was Education Minister, then shifted to Jacinda Ardern’s media team, only to find herself again working with Hipkins. Hipkins’ other two press secretaries are Zach Vickery and Charlotte Gendall.
DAVID TALBOT
Pollster in chief
David Talbot is the director and co-founder of Talbot Mills, the company which undertakes polling for Labour and Chris Hipkins. The other co-founder is Stephen Mills, a former adviser to David Lange, who ran UMR. David Talbot personally managed the research programme for Jacinda Ardern and now Chris Hipkins, doing both quantitative polling and qualitative focus group work and talking frequently. He ran Labour’s 2014 campaign under David Cunliffe.
Talbot Mills is part of the Anacta Group, which new chief of staff Andrew Kirton was part of.
Like Chris Hipkins, Grant Robertson, Jacinda Ardern, and Andrew Kirton he was a young Labour activist and worked in the Beehive during the term of the fifth Labour government, for Pete Hodgson and Marian Hobbs.
While Talbot and Mills have deep roots with Labour, they have professional integrity and have many non-partisan clients.
Expectations tempered around return to surplus in 2027/28.