Like all leaders, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will make mistakes but he also has teams of advisers, political and neutral, to help him to minimise them and to make the best decisions.
He also meets with a group of National MPs every Tuesday night to thrash out the issues of the day, looming problems and how to set the political agenda.
In most governments they are called the “kitchen Cabinet” but, in deference to coalition partners Act and NZ First, National avoids the term, lest it gives an impression there is a small select group running the country.
Luxon has been involved in politics for less than his kitchen Cabinet and less than most of his advisers. While he clearly has political instincts, his radar may not be well-tuned.
Luxon effectively admitted an error in claiming a $52,000-a-year accommodation allowance while eschewing Premier House, and paid it back as soon as it was publicised. In hindsight, one of his political advisers should have warned him of the political risk in doing so. Perhaps they did and he decided to take the risk because it was an entitlement.
Perhaps it was one of those sensitive issues he took to his friend, mentor and former Prime Minister Sir John Key and decided to ignore. Or perhaps he never considered seeking the input of others on the decision.
But as anyone who has had experience in Government will tell you, having good staff is paramount. An able minister without good staff will be ineffective. A hopeless minister with a good team is likely to be able to accomplish more.
Luxon had the advantage of forming a tight team in Opposition after becoming National leader just over three years ago and who transferred to the Prime Minister’s Office after the election. Some of the best are hand-me-downs from the Key-English years.
Luxon also has the advantage of getting non-political policy advice from the country’s brightest public servants who comprise the Policy Advisory Group within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
It is easy to forget how meteoric the rise of Nicola Willis has been because nothing quite compares to that of leader Luxon. But she has been in Parliament since only 2018 and, propelled by circumstance and ambition, rose to the Finance role when Simon Bridges quit Parliament, and as deputy leader is Luxon’s closest political colleague.
She cut her political teeth as an adviser to John Key from 2006 to 2011 before going to work for Fonterra in a government relations role. Her biggest challenge will be how to deliver $14 billion of tax cuts over four years in the May Budget without plunging the public service into an era of austerity.
Chris Bishop and Willis are National’s equivalent to the political partnership of Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson. They were buddies before entering politics and while he was arguably more experienced, she leap-frogged him in seniority but they remain close. They are the unapologetic and unofficial leaders of the party’s liberal wing.
Bishop is very influential in both policy and strategy. He has a huge workload with key roles in the party itself, the Parliament and the Government. He ran the 2023 election campaign, is Leader of the House overseeing the Government’s legislative programme and will oversee the radical and ambitious infrastructure plans of the new Government. He is known for shooting from the hip, delivering his views with no frills. Of course, the fast-track consenting process will approve projects that have been declined, he said in a recent TVNZ interview; that’s the point. If the public doesn’t like it, it can vote out the Government.
Perhaps surprisingly, Paul Goldsmith is one of Luxon’s closest political advisers. He is the great survivor of National’s dark days in Opposition. His comeback is not quite of Joseph Parker proportions because he never rose to his heights in the first place. But after a dreadful run as National’s finance spokesman in 2020, he yo-yo-ed in rankings. He is now National’s No 4 and holds the hefty Justice portfolio, which will be overseeing most Treaty-related reviews. He is probably the most economically dry of National’s ministers but is socially liberal and is a clear thinker. He was a minister in the Key-English Government.
Simeon Brown is afflicted by an eternally youthful appearance that belies his importance in the Government. He impressed Luxon in Opposition because he went from ninth-ranked to fifth-ranked and a firm part of the inner circle of senior MPs. Basically, he made an impact in every portfolio he was given in terms of policy and prosecuting the politics of the issue. With Transport, Local Government and Auckland Issues as ministerial portfolios, he has a huge responsibility in the region that makes or breaks governments. Brown is also a social conservative and in that regard, is an alternative voice to many of the urban liberals in Cabinet - although that distinction is yet to play out in the Government’s first few months.
Cameron Burrows is not what you might expect in a chief of staff. He is permanently cheerful and gives no sense of being the guy who carries a big stick on behalf of the PM. But he is top dog in a unit of four that are Luxon’s closest advisers and interact with him most. Burrows was a Treasury official until being seconded to the office of the then Finance Minister Bill English, and then joined John Key’s office as his chief policy adviser. He worked for the Electricity Retailers Association before being recruited to become Luxon’s chief of staff in Opposition. As chief of staff, he must be across not only what is happening in every Government office but also aware of what is happening in the parliamentary wing of the party. As well, he oversees Coalition relationships with the PM.
Julie Ash is deputy chief of staff to Burrows and they worked together under Key and English. She was a National Party press secretary for six years, two of which were as chief press secretary to the PM. Way back she was a reporter at the Dominion Post, and more recently was a media adviser at the Ministry of Education. She rejoined the National team shortly before Luxon became leader in Opposition and helped to find staff for ministerial offices in the new Government. She is experienced, smart and cool under pressure.
Burrows and Ash work as a unit with the media team, Hamish Rutherford, the chief press secretary, and Jasmine Higginson, the deputy chief press secretary. Rutherford was previously the Herald’s respected Wellington business editor and before that head of Stuff’s business bureau in the capital and has had Press Gallery experience. He was known as an assertive reporter who rarely did things quietly. There were questions over how he would handle the more nuanced role of media relations, especially in government. But so far, so good. He also has a leadership role overseeing comms and runs a press secretary meeting of all coalition press secretaries every Monday morning. He is backed up by Jasmine Higginson. She tends more towards forward planning and strategy. She had experience in National as a ministerial private secretary and press secretary from 2014 to 2017 and for a while in Opposition in 2018. She also spent three years as a media manager at Waka Kotahi (NZTA) then returned soon after Luxon became leader.
It seems anomalous to refer to someone in their 20s as “senior” but that is the title of young Joe Ascroft, the senior economic adviser to the Prime Minister. He is the young gun in the Prime Minister’s office, and is said to be great with numbers, politics, writing and most things he puts his mind to. He was with Luxon in Opposition and before that was doing his PhD in Economics at Auckland University. His thesis focused on the economic viability of natural gas hydrate extraction, adaptive modelling on price and volatility relationships in energy markets, and firm-focused extraction decision-making. After graduating in economics from Otago, and before the PhD, he worked as an economist, researching and writing for the Taxpayers’ Union.
Sarah Boyle has the longest institutional memory of advisers in the Prime Minister’s Office. She started work in the select committee office in 1989. She worked for Roger Sowry in 1996 when he became Social Welfare Minister and remained a political adviser from then, through Opposition and Government. She is valuable to Luxon but to all ministerial offices who want advice on anything from policy to procedures, to the Official Information Act. She has a particular interest in foreign affairs and accompanied the PM on the Asean summit in Melbourne recently.
Economist Matt Burgess has been around for a while as well, having been a senior economic adviser to Bill English when English was Finance Minister. He has previously been an economist at the New Zealand Initiative, a right-wing think tank, chief executive of the former online predictions market iPredict. His current beat is resource management, energy and the ETS and he has been working closely with Chris Bishop.
Another adviser, Gareth Hollins, is more of a generalist. His title is lead adviser and he runs a meeting every Friday for the Beehive’s political advisers in ministerial offices. He often briefs the PM for the House. He worked with Nikki Kaye when she was deputy leader in 2020 then stayed with the party when she left. He was promoted to head of research and policy advice in Opposition.
Christopher Luxon relies heavily on a group of politically neutral public servants, key among them the secretary of cabinet, Rachel Hayward. She is part of a high-achieving family: her sister Janine Hayward is a professor of political studies at Otago University and another sister, Bronwyn Hayward, is a professor of political science and international relations at Canterbury University.
Rachel Hayward is the one you see sitting to the left of the PM in the formal Cabinet photos. Among other roles, she is the enforcer of the rules. Cabinet operates according to conventions and she is the one who makes sure the PM and ministers are following them.
It was her office that kept prodding former minister Michael Wood unsuccessfully to declare his shareholdings. Ministers consult her office about potential conflicts of interests. And it is her office that manages the flow of information for the Cabinet and the eight Cabinet committees where the most vigorous debate on proposals occurs.
The Cabinet Office is a unit within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet that is headed by Rebecca Kitteridge. Kitteridge used to have Hayward’s job before she left to head the SIS spy agency. She is actually deputy public service commissioner at the Public Service Commission but took over DPMC in an acting capacity while Brook Barrington was on leave. He resigned in January and a permanent appointment is yet to be made.
One of the most important units within DPMC is the elite policy advisory group (PAG), a group of 12 which is headed by Janine Smith, a bit of a superstar in the public service. She was a deputy secretary in the Ministry for the Environment and one of the lead officials when the Labour Government was passing the hideously complex Natural and Built Environment Act 2023. In her new role as deputy chief executive of policy at DPMC, she has been helping the new Government on its 100-day plan – including repeal of the same act.
Another of Luxon’s most important advisers is Mark Talbot, his foreign affairs adviser with DPMC and the policy advisory group. Every PM has one and MFAT always puts up their brightest mid-career diplomats for the role. Talbot has to be able to give free and frank advice to the PM, which may even involve putting MFAT’s advice in a broader context. In an era of growing rivalry between China and the US, it is a hugely responsible role. Talbot has headed the Southeast Asia division in MFAT, been involved in Apec, and had postings in Canberra and Tonga.
Every Prime Minister needs a small and trusted group of friends and family who can give them support and feedback. Christopher Luxon and wife Amanda Luxon have a close-knit family. He told the Herald last year he talks every day to his adult kids Olivia and William. He is also a phone call away from former Prime Minister and mentor Sir John Key who is free and frank with advice. Another of Luxon’s closest friends is Cam Wallace, the former chief revenue office at Air New Zealand where Luxon was CEO. He sees less of him now that Wallace has moved to Australia as head of Qantas International but they remain good friends. Luxon also seeks counsel from Mark Wilson, a British-based New Zealander who is hooked into international markets. He was former CEO of Avida insurance and is on the board of BlackRock.
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. She was political editor from 2003 to 2021.
Expectations tempered around return to surplus in 2027/28.