The buck stops with Luxon after messy first week back at Parliament

Thursday, 1 February 2024

Chris Hipkins says the prime minister 'absolutely' should be seeking assurances from NZ First ministers that they haven't received any donations from the tobacco lobby.

ANALYSIS: After a torrid first week back in the office, the prime minister would be forgiven for wishing he hadn’t made a point of hauling his MPs back from the beach a couple of weeks early.

Not one but two ministerial faux pas including a humiliating correction from the police minister to the House (there was a prime ministerial correction too), a random reshuffle in an attempt to eschew responsibility for ACT’s contentious Treaty agenda and a failure to demand clarity from ministers over donations.

Welcome back Christopher Luxon.

The Government’s only been in place a little over two months and already the coalition is showing signs of friction.

Mark Mitchell forced to correct the official Parliament record.

The police problem

The mega ministerial fail over police promises is the biggie.

The coalition agreement between National and NZ First is clear: “Commit to training no fewer than 500 new frontline police within the first two years.”

And yet Police Minister Mark Mitchell suddenly started telling media and parliament this week that the goal was actually to add those new police over three years not two - two was simply too hard given the parlous state of recruitment and retention.

Winston Peters confirmed his chief of staff spoke to the PM’s to reaffirm their shared promise.

Comments he’s since had to formally correct on Parliament’s record.

When Labour started calling out the coalition for this broken promise so early in its tenure, NZ First was quick to get on the blower with National.

Winston Peters confirming his chief of staff spoke to Luxon’s chief of staff on Tuesday night.

Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters back on the same page.

First thing Wednesday morning Luxon was telling media that Mitchell “mixed messages a little bit” and could have expressed himself better.

Peters calls it “a mistake in the communication, I’ll put it down to that”.

Knowing what we know of the coalition dynamics - the ‘experience’ Peters so often lorded over Luxon’s ‘inexperience’ on the campaign - it’s unsurprising the prime minister was defensive when asked if NZ First had hauled National over the coals and forced the major party to set the record straight.

The police minister says the prime minister didn’t throw him under the bus.

Luxon denies the tail is wagging the dog or that Peters is the boss of him.

It’s worth noting though that Luxon didn’t call Mitchell out when the minister first made the comments to media on Monday morning nor when Mitchell reiterated the now-misleading comments in Parliament while Luxon was sitting right in front of him.

The stability of the country hinges on the stability of the Government and the coalition leaders therein.

It was only after that call with NZ First that Luxon moved to hurl Mitchell under the bus and reaffirm the original coalition commitment.

There’s further murkiness over a coalition meeting, reported by Newsroom, that took place in December where the parties met and pushed out the timeframe.

Mitchell admits the meeting took place but denies they reached an agreement to extend the deadline.

Mitchell has refuted any suggestion that NZ First is setting unattainable targets for him and his department but likewise isn’t willing to stake his job on it, refusing to tender his resignation as police minister if he doesn’t meet the ambitious two year target.

Casey Costello goes head to head with Labour over freezing tobacco tax hikes.

Why does any of this matter?

First of all it mattered a great deal when the Labour/NZ First coalition semantically gerrymandered a similar target set in 2017 when it shifted the criteria to not take attrition into account. The same standards apply to governments of any stripe.

Second, governments live and die by the promises they make and their ability to deliver on them. Any changes to the coalition deals - be they surreptitious, conspired, accidental, reneged upon, fixed or whatever - matter enormously.

Third, the very stability of the country hinges on the stability of our government - key to that are the dynamics of the coalition and those that lead it.

Luxon should be very worried if Ayesha Verrall is being leaked to by the Ministry of Health.

Here it's worth a brief mention of the prime minister’s other week one headaches.

The curious case of Casey Costello

NZ First MP Shane Jones, pictured with lobbyist Apriana Dawson, director of external relations at Philip Morris International, at the swearing in of government ministers.

The NZ First MP and associate health minister responsible for all the contentious smoking stuff.

Initially she told RNZ she didn’t ask for advice from health officials about freezing excise tax increases on cigarettes despite Ministry of Health documents suggesting otherwise.

There’s been much biffo in the house over this with Opposition leader Chris Hipkins v Luxon and Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall v Costello.

Luxon is basically calling it a rookie mistake from a new MP which requires some gentle coaching to get back on track whereas Costello’s suggesting the advice came in as part of a scattergun, catch-all request to officials.

The actual health advice - handed out to media by Verrall on Wednesday - shows it was more specific than that.

Costello’s still not ruling out further exploring the tobacco price freeze which would effectively make ciggies cheaper.

The problems for Luxon with all of this are three-fold: a) he doesn’t appear to be across what his NZ First ministers are up to b) the health ministry appears to be leaking to Labour and c) the ongoing disquiet, valid or perceived, around NZ First and its connections to the tobacco lobby.

Durrie donors?

Shane Jones is refusing to say whether he’s received donations from big tobacco after The Post revealed a lobbyist attended his ministerial swearing in ceremony.

When asked by Stuff if he was seeking clarity from his NZ First ministers about whether they’ve received donations from the tobacco lobby, the Prime Minister said, “I haven’t asked those questions” because “well, it’s just not relevant”.

Hipkins thinks it is relevant and remiss of Luxon not to ask because the public deserves transparency, “if they see a government policy they disagree with and see donations that they think might have influenced that policy in some way, the public can form their own judgements about that”.

Responsibility roundabout

After being asked far too many pesky questions about the Treaty at Rātana, Luxon swiftly shuffled the cabinet deck and dealt David Seymour responsibility for answering the questions instead as the new minister responsible for the Treaty Principles Bill.

Asked by Stuff why he didn’t do that from the outset, if it was inexperience or a lack of foresight about how contentious the bill would be, Luxon disagreed saying, “not at all, it's just simply a fact that we have been working incredibly hard”. He says it was about making thoughtful choices about which ministers should get which further responsibilities.

Add it all up

It’s been a helluva first week back at school and already the coalition sandpit is in full, messy swing.

As Luxon said to Stuff this week, he knows the buck stops with him so despite his coalition partners leaving fingerprints all over these snafus, ultimately it’s on him.

Political inexperience is at play here too but, being charitable, no one has ever experienced managing the opening gambit of an unprecedented three-way coalition in Aotearoa so kia kaha prime minister for that.