The Government has appointed former National Party ministers Simon Bridges, Sir Bill English and Steven Joyce – among others – to important positions impacting transport, social housing and infrastructure. Photo / Michael Craig
The Government has appointed former National Party ministers Simon Bridges, Sir Bill English and Steven Joyce – among others – to important positions impacting transport, social housing and infrastructure. Photo / Michael Craig
Analysis by Derek Cheng
Derek Cheng is a Multimedia Journalist for New Zealand’s Herald. He values holding those in power to account and shining a light on issues kept in the dark.
The Government has appointed several former National Party ministers into key roles in Pharmac, NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi and TAB NZ, as well as several reviews.
Among them are former Prime Minister Sir Bill English, former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett, former Finance Minister Steven Joyce and former National Party leader Simon Bridges.
While hiring former MPs is not new or limited to just one party, it does come with a risk of eroding trust in politicians.
Appointments on merit or a degree of nepotism – or maybe both?
That is the key question whenever a new Government sweeps into power and appoints former MPs or ministers to key positions.
In the case of this Government, plum appointments have been given to former ministers Simon Bridges, PaulaBennett, Steven Joyce, Sir Bill English, Roger Sowry, and David Bennett.
This isn’t new or unusual, as every new administration does it. Consider these appointments under the previous Government: Steve Maharey chairing the boards of Pharmac and ACC, Louisa Wall being appointed as the Pacific Gender Equality Ambassador, Helen Clark’s former chief of staff Heather Simpson reviewing the health system, Sir Michael Cullen chairing the tax working group and Trevor Mallard becoming Ambassador to Ireland.
Former ministers and parliamentary workers have unique knowledge and experience of how the Beehive and wider government works, as well as how it engages with the private sector and overseas entities.
And if they’ve been intricately involved with a party that’s now in government, they probably have a good idea of the intended direction of travel – and wholeheartedly agree with it.
Indeed, Labour leader Chris Hipkins’ main criticism of what he called National’s “jobs for the boys” wasn’t that they weren’t up to those jobs, an accusation that could equally be levelled at Labour. It was that thousands of public servants were losing their jobs at the same time.
The Government has stressed that due process has been followed in all of the appointments of former National Party ministers.
The Public Service Commissioner appoints public sector chief executives, but ministers have ultimate responsibility for appointments to Crown entity boards, reviews and ministerial advisory committees. There are no restrictions on giving these positions to former MPs, although they should be checked to “explore their previous contribution to organisational success”, according to Public Service Commission guidelines.
Associate Health Minister David Seymour during his presentation at Pharmac with the drug funding agency's chairwoman and former Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett. Photo / Mark Mitchell
There are also guidelines around pay: Joyce is making $4000 a day with a total cap of $40,000, while McCully ($2200 a day), English ($2500 a day) and Sowry ($2000 a day) made or are making less.
The danger is that a perception of cronyism – regardless of whether it’s justified – has the potential to erode trust.
Trust levels have bounced around over the last decade, according to the survey results from the now-closed Institute for Policy Studies, at Victoria University: 48% in 2016 to 74% in 2021 – when confidence in the pandemic response was high – to 61% in 2022.
Results between 2020 and 2022 suggest increasing polarisation, with an increase among the groups with very high and very low trust.
Making politically-affiliated appointments might deepen polarisation grooves, says Michael Macaulay, professor of public administration at Victoria University’s School of Government.
“Supporters of the Government won’t care at all and probably think they’re the best people for the job, while opponents will say this is very bad politics,” he told the Herald.
“For people opposing the political system more generally, this will reinforce their belief that it’s all a racket.”
He didn’t think this group was very large, given the “very high” voter turnout in New Zealand (77.5% in 2023, 82.2% in 2020 and 79% in 2017).
“Rather than leading to higher levels of distrust, it will reinforce existing suspicions and assumptions and perceptions. It’s certainly more likely to lead to a higher division between people who trust and people who don’t trust politicians.”
So which former National Party ministers have been hired?
Paula Bennett, chairwoman of Pharmac
Bennett is a former Deputy Prime Minister who spent 15 years in Parliament and held many ministerial portfolios including Social Development, Associate Finance, State Services, Social Housing, Police, Local Government and Tourism.
Since leaving politics in 2020, she has been national director of customer engagement and advisory at Bayleys Realty Group.
“Paula brings a wealth of experience to this role, with extensive experience in governance and organisational change,” Associate Health Minister David Seymour said when he announced her appointment earlier this year.
In a short video on Pharmac’s website, Bennett said it was a role she “really wanted”.
“I got to a stage in life where I just sort of thought, I’ve got a fairly unique set of experiences and skills and I had a burning desire to still do something that was big, significant and mattered a lot to New Zealanders – and, man, is Pharmac that.”
Simon Bridges is a former leader of the National Party and current chairman of NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. Photo / Dean Purcell
Simon Bridges, chairman of NZTA
The former National Party leader and senior Cabinet minister spent 14 years in Parliament after he was first elected in 2008.
Made Transport Minister in 2014, he implemented a roading-intensive policy not unlike what the current Government is currently rolling out. He held several other ministerial portfolios including energy and resources, consumer affairs, economic development, and associate finance.
He retired from politics after Christopher Luxon won the leadership vote in 2022.
Bridges immediately resigned from both positions, but has kept his role as chief executive of the Auckland Business Chamber.
Former Prime Minister Sir Bill English. Photo / Warren Buckland
Sir Bill English – lead reviewer of Kāinga Ora
The former Prime Minister texted Housing Minister Chris Bishop within days of the new Government being sworn in in November last year.
English: Chris will there be a review of KO.
Bishop: We are going to do an independent review into finances, performance, cost, etc. Commence it asap, hopefully get terms of reference and reviewers sorted before Christmas.
English: I could help with that.
Bishop: Excellent lets do that.
Bishop later described this exchange – revealed after an Official Information Act request by Newshub – as “expressing interest” in getting English to lead the review of Kāinga Ora. It wasn’t until after this exchange that a Cabinet committee signed off the appointment.
English spent almost three decades in Parliament, including in the most influential roles as Minister of Finance, Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister. He also drove the changes to social housing policy – with greater involvement with community housing providers – under the previous National-led Government.
This appears to be where the current Government is heading, with Bishop saying he is agnostic about who builds social housing.
But this has led to accusations that the findings of the English-led review (that Kāinga Ora isn’t financially sustainable) were predetermined. The review has also had some pushback, with some arguing Kāinga Ora’s huge debt forecasts were justified given its social housing and urban development programmes.
Murray McCully is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Murray McCully, Steven Joyce, Roger Sowry and David Bennett
Murray McCully is a former Foreign Affairs Minister and a mentor to Education Minister Erica Stanford, who worked for McCully for four years before succeeding him as MP for East Coast Bays.
Stanford chose McCully to lead the ministerial inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s cost blowouts on school property.
“He is my old boss. I couldn’t think of a better person,” Stanford has said.
“He’s excellent. He knows the machinery of government. He’s been working in Northland on major infrastructure projects that have been delivered on time and on budget. I couldn’t think of a better person to lead this inquiry.”
Former Minister of Finance (and known as the Minister of Everything) Steven Joyce is leading a panel advising the Treasury on the design of a new infrastructure agency, which the Government wants to be running by December.
Joyce was a key Cabinet minister from 2008 to 2017 before he left Parliament in 2018. His company Joyce Advisory has since had a number of clients including the University of Waikato, which has paid out more than $1 million for services including providing advice to senior university staff, but not for lobbying or government relations.
Joyce has previously spoken about his interest in more private sector involvement to address the country’s multibillion-dollar infrastructure deficit, which aligns with what the Government wants.
Steven Joyce used to be Minister of Finance, among many other ministerial portfolios. Photo / Mike Scott
Former Minister of Social Welfare Roger Sowry is on the ministerial review team looking into KiwiRail’s interisland ferry service.
In announcing the appointment, State Owned Enterprises Minister Paul Goldsmith said: “Roger Sowry is a professional director with considerable governance expertise. His current and previous director roles span companies in several sectors including technology, health, infrastructure and energy.”
The Herald’s senior political correspondent Audrey Young has said of these appointments: “If they weren’t all so capable, the Government could be accused of cronyism.”
Prime Minister Bill English (right) on a walk with friend Roger Sowry at Zealandia in Wellington. Sowry is a former Minister of Social Welfare. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Former National Party MP and minister David Bennett.
Bennett held a number of ministerial portfolios when English was Prime Minister, including Racing, Veterans’ Affairs, Food Safety, Associate Immigration and Associate Transport. He was an MP from 2005 to 2023.
As Racing Minister, he introduced a bill to charge offshore betting operators for taking bets from people living in New Zealand. The bill was “terminated” at select committee.
Derek Cheng is a senior journalist who started at the Herald in 2004. He has worked several stints in the press gallery team and is a former deputy political editor.
