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Welcome to Inside Politics. In quite shocking news, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has sacked New Zealand’s High Commissioner to the UK, former Labour leader Phil Goff, after he made what have been deemed inappropriate references to US President Donald Trump this week.
Goff made the comments at an event at the Chatham House think-tank in London where Finland’s Foreign Minister, Elina Valtonen, was speaking.
Goff’s question was a comparison to the start of the Second World War and events happening now.
He said he had been re-reading a speech by Winston Churchill, who opposed then-British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signing the Munich Agreement with Germany on the grounds that appeasement with an aggressor would lead to war.
Goff: “He turned to Chamberlain, he said, ‘You had the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour, yet you will have war.’
“President Trump has restored the bust of Churchill to the Oval Office,” said Goff. “But do you think he really understands history?”
It was a frightfully clever question, the sort of question a political science student would have been as pleased to have asked. But in such fragile times, should New Zealand’s High Commissioner really be suggesting that the US President is taking a position of “dishonour”?
He might think it, and that is fair enough. Plenty of people have thought the same thing this past week. But Goff is not a politician and the only people in the New Zealand Government saying such things should be the politicians.
Certainly the Finnish Foreign Minister, a neighbour of Russia and an ally of the US in Nato, was not willing to go where Goff had invited her to go.
Goff may not have realised that the event was being recorded for wider publication. The very term “Chatham House” usually denotes a restriction on publication or attribution of any comments made within an event. Certainly it is inconceivable that Goff would have made the comments had he been posted to Washington DC rather than London. But he should not have made them anywhere.
It was a momentary lapse in judgment and he has paid a heavy but justifiable price in the circumstances.
By all accounts, Peters’ response was not a line-call. It was swift and unequivocal.
Peters is in the very nascent stages of developing a relationship with the new Trump Administration. Goff let down Peters and himself.
In the past week, Donald Trump has hosted UK PM Keir Starmer in the Oval Office, received an invitation for a state visit from King Charles, had a public bust-up with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, suspended military aid and intelligence to Ukraine, received a make-up letter from Zelenskyy praising his strong leadership and offering to sign a minerals deal with the US, and talked about scheduling peace talks with Russia.
Trump’s former deputy national security adviser Matt Pottinger told Sky yesterday that the minerals deal would bind the US to Ukraine and effectively become the security “backstop” that Ukraine is looking for. Trump himself had said before the bust-up: “It’s a backstop you could say. I don’t think anybody is gonna play around if we’re there with a lot of workers.”
Christopher Luxon this week reiterated New Zealand’s willingness to join a peace-keeping force in Ukraine, as has Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
King Charles looks set to be playing a bigger role in the crisis than perhaps his mother would have.
Health Minister Simeon Brown went after unions this week in a way not seen since Rob Muldoon’s day.
It started on Monday when he accused the new national secretary of the Public Service Association of being a failed Labour Party candidate who had lost a formerly safe Labour seat. He was talking about Fleur Fitzsimons, who was Labour’s 2023 candidate for the Rongotai seat vacated by former MP Paul Eagle, which was won by Julie Anne Genter of the Green Party (see ‘By the Way’ below for Rongotai developments).
The reason for the attack? On the very day Brown was planning to announce his first substantive new measures in health – designed to improve access to primary healthcare – the PSA released a survey it had conducted in January based on observations of members in the health sector titled ‘Health Care in Crisis’.
The Government measures are the first major moves that have been completed and announced by Brown: they are designed to increase the number of GPs, relieve pressure on hospital emergency departments, introduce a 24-hour telehealth service and increase the number of nurse practitioners.
Brown repeated his attack on the “failed Labour candidate” several times in Parliament, particularly when Labour health spokeswoman Ayesha Verrall stood up for Fitzsimons. He was on the side of the patients and she was on the side of the unions, he said.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis reinforced the attack, saying: “There is a myth propagated by the New Zealand Public Service Association and others that health funding is being reduced. Nothing could be further from the truth. Billions of dollars of additional funding are going into health to help ensure Kiwis have more access to the care they need where they need it.”
Note: Fitzsimons has responded today by saying that from day one, the minister has tried to paint the PSA as the enemy of his reforms as a tactic to distract from damaging cuts to the health system. The timing of the report was coincidental because it took time to collate. Asked why the PSA did not welcome this week’s health initiatives, she said the PSA was not the predominant union in that workforce “and in the context of harsh cuts we do not welcome it”.
Adrian Orr’s exit as Reserve Bank Governor has been badly handled. He had to have played some part in its timing, although he may not be the only one at fault. But to resign on the eve of a glittering conference in Wellington for reserve bank aficionados which he was opening is beyond bad behaviour. As deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan suggests, a big fight with Nicola Willis over funding of the bank may be behind it. Orr may have decided it was better to say nothing about why he went than tossing a bazooka at the Government. But whoever’s at fault, it is nonetheless an undignified exit.
The ongoing food fight over the quality of school lunches has suddenly given Christopher Luxon a chance to identify with ordinary Kiwis who were raised on stale Marmite sandwiches, soft apples and, for a real treat, a small packet of raisins. Butter chicken and lasagne had never been heard of.
The vehemence with which the failings of the new lunch system have been prosecuted by the Opposition suggests they believe there is wide acceptance that the state should be funding a hot school meal each day. There isn’t. We are not Britain. Yes, David Seymour’s decision to replace a localised system that was working well with a centralised system has created real problems. But if the problems persist, the likely outcome will not be to return to the localised system, but to cold lunches.
The issue has exposed tension between Seymour and Education Minister Erica Stanford. As the more senior member of the Government, Seymour appears to see himself as answerable to the Prime Minister, not to any please-explain meetings with Stanford.
• Fleur Fitzsimons' new role as national secretary of the Public Service Association has been taken to mean she will not be contesting Rongotai again for Labour – and that means the selection of a new Labour candidate. Word has it that Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney is likely to be among those seeking selection for the candidacy.
• It’s an ill wind... Andrew Bayly’s resignation as a minister not only elevated Coromandel MP Scott Simpson back into a ministerial role, but also saw the elevation of Kaikōura MP Stuart Smith to Simpson’s previous job of chief National whip. Smith, first elected in 2014, was moved aside a few weeks ago as chair of the finance and expenditure committee to make way for Upper Harbour MP and first-termer Cameron Brewer, but Smith’s spell in Siberia was short-lived thanks to the domino effect of Bayly’s demise.
• Labour leader Chris Hipkins tells the Herald he still enjoys making his kids' lunch, which comprises a bento box of compartments into which he puts any combination of the following: chopped fruit, chopped veges, peanut butter sandwiches, yoghurt, biscuit or cake, Vita Gummies, dried fruit and beetroot balls.
“Why, if he’s so committed to patient outcomes, won’t he respond seriously to a report that documents delays in rehab for stroke patients, malnourished cancer patients and untreated babies left with cleft palates because of his Government’s cuts?” – Labour’s Ayesha Verrall to Health Minister Simeon Brown about a PSA report.
Brown responds: “If she’s talking about the PSA union’s report... I’ll tell you what: the PSA union member, who is clearly leading that organisation, who failed to win her seat... all she’s trying to do is get a high list ranking at the next election.”
Who have been the last four Reserve Bank Governors in the independent era? (Answer below.)
Goes to Adrian Orr – not for resigning as Reserve Bank Governor after seven years, but for his role in mismanaging the resignation; and to Richard Prebble – not for resigning from the Waitangi Tribunal after just four months, but for accepting the appointment in the first place.
Goes to Mongolia for the originality of its gift last week to Foreign Minister Winston Peters – a horse named Stamina which will stay in Mongolia. We’ll be watching the next MP’s pecuniary assets register.
Analysis - Orr resignation: The epidemic of public sector seppuku claimed its highest-profile victim on Wednesday with the resignation of Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr, writes Thomas Coughlan.
Health training: Health Minister Simeon Brown has announced $55 million in funding for nurse training and education initiatives.
KiwiRail cuts: KiwiRail has reduced its headcount by 227 people and signalled further job cuts this year as part of a bid to “get match fit”.
Prebble resignation: Richard Prebble has resigned from the Waitangi Tribunal, following his controversial appointment in October last year.
Opinion - school lunches: As the school lunches schemozzle entered its fifth week, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon released a solution: let them eat Marmite sandwiches and an apple, writes Claire Trevett.
Ministerial conflict: Newly appointed Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Scott Simpson has recused himself from decisions concerning grocery regulation because a family member owns a supermarket.
Language row: Speaker Gerry Brownlee says he doesn’t want to hear any more concerns about the use of “Aotearoa” in the House.
Term limit: Officials have delivered a scathing assessment of the Government’s proposal for an extended parliamentary term.
US-NZ relationship: PM Christopher Luxon says the US remains a “reliable” partner and he trusts President Donald Trump in the wake of Trump’s Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Royal diplomacy: As he welcomed the leaders of Ukraine and Canada to his country estate this week, King Charles III was sending a message to the world.
Quiz answer: Adrian Orr, Graeme Wheeler, Alan Bollard and Don Brash.
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Peters paved things over with Hyundai by reminding them of New Zealand's wartime aid.