Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
OPINION
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Welcome to the Politics Briefing, a week in which we had a Very Important visitor from China, the economic vs environment showdown reached a peak, the Government flocked to Fieldays with offerings for the farmers, and a poll showed the Budget hadn’t delivered much payoff.
Premier Li Qiang’s visit to New Zealand put the spotlight on one of this country’s most important – and most complicated – relationships. Deputy political editor Thomas Coughlan followed the proceedings here.
Many commentators have noted the always tricky – and getting trickier – balance of the China relationship. Judging from the press conference afterwards, Luxon stuck to the Golden Rule for keeping that balance – which is to be predictable about what issues he flags concerns about and how he does it.
Luxon even spelled it out, noting “New Zealand will continue to engage predictably and consistently with China, including on issues where we disagree.”
He said he had raised issues important to New Zealand and its values, “including human rights and foreign interference”. Human rights issues have long been on the list of concerns, but New Zealand is not usually so overt about raising the foreign interference item. Luxon could hardly shirk from it, given recently New Zealand joined other countries in a blaming-in-unison exercise of pointing the finger at China for spying on Parliament in 2021. Those countries will also be watching.
Li was also predictable and consistent: repeating China’s message that it accepts the countries will have differences of opinion on issues, combined with a warning not to interfere in its domestic affairs.
Li also had Aukus on his list of concerns – China has been open about its concerns about the security and military agreement as New Zealand considers taking part in Pillar 2. Li will also be aware Luxon is off to Japan on Sunday, another country looking at Aukus.
The main showdown of the week, however, was playing out as the coalition Government’s economic push came up against environmentalist backlash.
It started at the weekend with a massive protest march against the Government’s moves affecting the environment, including the fast-track legislation.
With his usual relish for throwing fuel on a fire, the very next day NZ First’s Shane Jones cheerily announced he was about to put in legislation to repeal the ban on offshore oil and gas mining as well as other changes to bolster the mining industry.
The day after that, the nation’s farmers – and politicians – started flocking to the annual Fieldays.
Fieldays is the season for political parties to strut their stuff for the farming sector – and after six years of the former Labour Government offering up environmental and emissions reductions side-dishes, this year’s offerings were from National, Act and NZ First delivering the equivalent of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the farmers.
They had to deliver, given all three had pushed hard for the rural vote. National and its MPs had its campaign slogan on high repeat on its social media all week: “We are backing farmers.”
First up, the Government announced it was scrapping the entry of agriculture into the emissions trading scheme – as well as the He Waka Eke Noa attempt to broker an agreement on the pricing of agricultural emissions.
Then came an inquiry into rural banking, and then a regulatory review to make it quicker for new agricultural and horticultural products to be approved. Then Act’s Brooke van Velden announced another overhaul of health and safety laws – asking if they had become too stringent.
The soundtrack to all of this was the constant stream of submitters at the select committee on the fast-track consenting legislation throughout the week.
The majority didn’t like it. Some did but wanted to be sure of checks and balances. Then there was mining company Straterra, which said elements of the opposition to it were nothing more than “hysteria”.
The Government (other than Jones) would not be quite so blunt about it but take a similar view.
Luxon has remained adamant the Government will be able to hit the climate change goals it has signed up to as he and his coalition partners try to explain their moves as a common-sense approach. They have argued for some time that continued oil and gas extraction makes sense until the transition away from fossil fuels is further along, given the alternative is importing coal.
National has also long been reluctant about putting farmers under serious obligations to pay for emissions – at least until other countries have done so.
The argument is that it would be more for show than substance, and would put New Zealand farmers at an unfair disadvantage in a competitive sector with little impact on emissions. The critics say it will dent our credibility on climate change – and the marketability of New Zealand products overseas as consumers are sensitive to the back story to their food.
It was always going to result in strong opposition, and that will continue for some time.
Meanwhile, a Taxpayers’ Union Curia poll showed the Government had not exactly secured a post-Budget boost from its offerings, perhaps because of the focus on the failure to fund the cancer treatments National had promised.
It will not have escaped cancer advocates that National did deliver on another election promise this week – in the form of $4 billion over three years to tend to potholes.
Brown started the week by announcing the NZTA funding for his Strike Force Potholes, and on Thursday he rolled out the plan to wind back speed limit reductions (with exceptions outside schools and in other places where it might be unsafe).
He also announced the Government would move to 110kmh on some roads and even suss out shifting to 120kmh on some.
“Blanket restrictions forced on communities from Wellington didn’t just make it harder for people to get where they wanted quickly and safely, they drained the joy from life as people were forced to follow rules they knew made no sense” - David Seymour has a flash of sympathy for the 30kmh-afflicted drivers of Wellington as he comments on the impact of speed limit reductions. He was silent on the impact public sector cuts were having on their joy-ometer.
It was the first visit from a China Premier since 2017, but the so-called “press conference” was no such thing. The two leaders gave brief statements and left. No questions from the media were allowed and instead Luxon did his own standup afterward. Usually for high-level visits, at least two or three questions are allowed from both the domestic media and the travelling media. Back in 2017, former Premier Li Keqiang took some questions – fielding one about claims China was dumping steel. Not this time. We hope the New Zealand officials at least tried to put a democratic hue on proceedings.
Goes to select committee staff at Parliament, currently coping with long days of submissions on a raft of major law changes, including the fast track bill, Māori wards, the Samoan citizenship bill, gang legislation and the first of the water reforms. Not to mention next week’s inaugural ‘Scrutiny Week’, which will see select committees rolling all week while ministers take questions on their Budget appropriations.
Kāinga Ora: Thomas Coughlan outlines the billion-dollar problems with Kāinga Ora and why plans to fix them might backfire.
Farming ‘red tape’: Regulation Minister David Seymour has announced a review of the way new farming and horticulture products are approved.
Farm emissions: The Government has stopped agriculture from being included in the Emissions Trading Scheme and disestablished climate change initiative He Waka Eke Noa.
Pay freeze plan: Ministry of Health workers have pushed back against proposals to freeze pay increases, describing them as “demoralising and manipulative”.
For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.
Jason Te Brake, Peter Newbold, Chris Russell, Jo Luxton, Mike Petersen.