Question Time: National’s Christopher Luxon, Act’s David Seymour tackle PM Chris Hipkins on consultant use

National Party leader Christopher Luxon has challenged Chris Hipkins on the blow out in consultants and contractors in the public sector – but Hipkins got a jab back at him for his own use of consultants.

The ghosts of Hipkinses past were dragged up as Luxon questioned Hipkins on a 2018 statement that Labour would reduce its reliance on expensive consultants and contractors - something Labour had criticised National for when in Opposition.

It sparked an exchange in which Hipkins agreed with Luxon that there should be less use of contractors while also defending the use of them.

Hipkins said it remained the Government’s position that it should be sparing in the use of contractors and consultants: “I do still continue to believe that there is too much use of consultants and contractors to do work that the core public service could do.”

However, he said there were situations when they were needed and said the increase in spending was largely due to government departments updating IT systems, the Covid-19 vaccine rollout and building and construction projects.

Luxon then proceeded to ask him about his memos to government departments telling them to trim their consultancy use and asked why they were being ignored – including whether Transport Minister Michael Wood had ignored his memo when spending $51 million on consultants for a cancelled cycle bridge and $53 million for “a non-existent light rail.”

Hipkins then got his jab in – saying it was clear that not everybody had got the memo and pointing the finger at Luxon’s own past stint as chair of the PM’s Business Advisory Council: “For example, I’m aware the chair of the Prime Minister’s Business Advisory Council spent money employing consultants to write the one substantive report the council managed to come up with.”

But Luxon had his own jab back, pointing to Hipkins’ own use of consultants for the polytechnic reforms.

Act leader David Seymour then poked fun at the Government’s swift u-turn on its draft transport plan after Transport Minister Michael Wood pivoted from saying climate change was the priority on Monday morning to saying the cyclone rebuild was the priority by yesterday afternoon.

Seymour noted that statement had said New Zealanders had to adjust their behaviours in a number of ways to contend with climate change, and asked whether Wood was a case study for that.

“Was Michael Wood strongly promoting that general policy statement at 7am yesterday morning and then jamming it hard into reverse and backing down on the policy by 3pm an example of a New Zealand adjusting his behaviour in a number of ways?”

The sitting of Parliament had begun with a minute’s silence and a waiata for the three former MPs who have died in recent weeks – Georgina Beyer, Paul East and Chester Borrows.

Hipkins then had to formally correct a statement he had made a fortnight ago, when he wrongly claimed that tax as a proportion of the economy was now less than it was in 2017.

There was a laugh when Hipkins was then asked by Luxon whether he stood by all his Government’s statements and actions – and Hipkins replied “yes, except from the ones I’ve corrected.”