National gets read the riot act
Friday, 24 April 2026
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OPINION: We will never fully know what went on inside the National Party caucus room for almost three hours this week. We may get snippets, suggestive allusions, even a passage in a memoir at some point in a few years. But if you weren’t one of the 48 MPs* in that room you will never be truly sure of just how “cathartic” (in the words of Dan Bidois ) it really was. Even Christopher Luxon himself won’t know the number of votes that went for or against him in his confidence motion - as Nicola Willis later explained, by convention National Party caucus votes are secret, and only the scrutineers know the exact numbers.
But it is probably safe to assume there were some stern words about the importance of party discipline and confidentiality.
There certainly were stern words at a separate meeting going on at the same time. The Post understands that the weekly press secretary meeting that happens at around the same time as caucus featured a strong warning from the Prime Minister’s Office that any press secretaries caught leaking to the media would face serious reprisals amounting to the end of their career in politics - and that they would be found out. The problem for this kind of hard-line stance is obvious: the job of a press secretary is to talk to journalists, all day every day, and that job is made much easier if you don’t feel you have to run every phone call by your boss.
Where to from here? As I laid out in my Wednesday column, Luxon still faces three big questions following his daring move on Tuesday. The largest one relates to the polling. We won’t see any public polling for a while now, but if Luxon can’t stop his party’s slide into the 20s he could have the same issues all over again.
Labour do the inevitable
Luxon may have a bit more of a spring in his step next week following the confidence vote and Labour’s decision to back his free trade agreement (FTA) with India.
In your correspondent's opinion, Labour was always going to support the FTA eventually. It was never going to hand National a huge excuse for why the economy is so sluggish, and it is not in the party’s modern DNA to really back NZ First’s position on immigration. Chris Hipkins cleverly waited until the middle of a busy sitting week to announce the news, knowing it would barely rate among the top three political stories of the week.
Postponing Christmas
ACT pulled a bit of a blinder on National in recent months, stealing one of its highly-rated candidates James Christmas to stand in the Tāmaki electorate, which departing deputy leader Brooke van Velden won from National at the last election. The Post has good reason to believe that Van Velden’s announcement was intentionally held over until National had made its selection for the Tāmaki seat - likely going for a weaker candidate than it would have, had it known the seat was about to open up.
Fuel crisis bulletin
As the fuel crisis continues this newsletter will feature a small selection of The Post’s best coverage of the issue.
The big story of the week was Kuwait invoking force majeure on fuel deliveries to New Zealand, leaving the country in 'watch and wait' mode as Gulf producers cut output. On the political side, the government missed its own deadline for announcing a fuel security deal, with Luxon having set the target himself. The Government’s advice on the fuel relief package was released this week, and reveals they considered a far broader package of $350 to everyone making less than $100k. The everyday business cost is becoming clearer too - a Wellington bakery owner says tripling diesel costs may be enough to close her business. If you want to follow the supply picture closely, our live ship tracker is being updated as vessels arrive. And in opinion, here’s a piece on how New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific islands are particularly exposed to jet fuel shortages.
Finally, Nicola Willis gave an update on the financial picture today- showcasing the Treasury’s worst case scenario (6.6% unemployment) while noting this would probably not happen now.
Kudos of the week
Carlos Cheung. Cheung did what none of his National Party ministerial colleagues were able to this week, and called Shane Jones’ comments about the India FTA unleashing a “butter-chicken tsunami” racist. And he didn’t have to be pressed on it either - the National backbencher and MP for the very diverse and very marginal Mt Roskill seat volunteered to journalists on Wednesday that his community was upset with “racist comments from ministers”. (Shane Jones says he will not be cancelled over the comments and he has a right to campaign against “surges of immigration” that infrastructure can’t contain.)
Question time psycho-drama of the week
The House had a point-of-order-fest during Question Time on Wednesday over a very familiar theme - just how much ministers could use patsy questions to criticise the last Government (or a hypothetical third term Labour Government) rather than talk about their own actions. Speaker Gerry Brownlee is a bit more of a stickler on this but it all got overshadowed when Chris Hipkins suggested that Nicola Willis- who had just loudly laughed - might need “medical attention”. Hipkins was adamant that his comment referred to the sound Willis had made. But many read it almost immediately as a comment about Willis’ weight. (Willis has noticeably lost weight of late, as fellow Minister Shane Jones more explicitly noted in an insult on Thursday, which he then rapidly apologised for).
Hipkins and Willis were both walking out of the House at similar times and Hipkins did not take the chance to apologise, instead saying he would be happy to if she was really offended. He did apologise by text later on Wednesday night.
Quote of the week
'I don’t have a death wish”- Chris Bishop explains the Government’s likely-decision to not uplift petrol taxes by 12c a litre on January 1, as it was planning ahead of the crisis. David Seymour thinks they should do so anyway, as my colleague Nick James revealed this week.
Worst room booking of the week
The Green Party held its “State of the Planet” speech in a lovely airy atrium in Wellington on Sunday, making big serious points about New Zealand distancing itself from the US and from fossil fuels. But it was hard to keep the serious tone going given only a curtain and a few metres separated the co-leaders from the back of the Glou Glou cafe/wine bar, where a hen’s do was having a very loud and very fun time.
Number of the week
Five - the number of MPs Christopher Luxon suggested were “moaning” to Mike Hosking on Monday. Hosking went on to name the five MPs he had heard about the next day - all five ( Joseph Mooney, Andrew Bayly, Barbara Kuriger, Tim van de Molen, and Sam Uffindell ) have denied leaking, and Mooney is going to the Media Council over it.
Comings and goings
Roeland Todd, who has been working in Parliament since 1995 and has been the Speaker’s Assistant since 1999, is retiring in a few months. Todd is a true human repository of esoteric but sometimes urgently-needed Parliamentary knowledge, and will leave a huge hole in the Speaker’s Office.
RNZ’s Parliamentary reporting team has added a new reporter - Lauren Crimp.
Once again we have a whole gaggle of new selections. Labour have selected Fisher Wang for Rotorua, Matt Brachi for Port Waikato, and Kingi Kiriona for Hauraki Waikato. That last one will be a big race to watch - as Kiriona goes up against Te Pāti Māori’s Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke.
NZ First has selected Southland Federated Farmers President Jason Herrick for Southland.
The week ahead
It’s another sitting week! Todd McClay will be in India to sign the FTA overnight Monday. The fuel crisis will continue to set the frame around politics. And as we get closer to May many will start to focus on the Budget.
*Stuart Smith wasn’t there.