Foreign affairs and Fieldays top of the political agenda

Christopher Luxon prepares to walk a diplomatic tightrope.

Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Tuesday, June 11, produced in partnership with Blind Low Vision NZ.

In today’s edition: An independent inquiry will be launched into the alleged misuse of census data, has the government underestimated public sentiment on oil and gas exploration, and another MP is facing questions over accommodation entitlements. But first, PM Luxon prepares to walk a diplomatic tightrope.

A visit at home, and a trip abroad

For all the government’s talk of focusing on key areas like health and education, one of the areas it has undoubtedly emphasised so far is foreign affairs. The prime minister has repeatedly described Winston Peters’ tenure as foreign minister “exceptional”, saying yesterday Peters has travelled abroad more in the first six months than his Labour predecessor Nanaia Mahuta did in three years (Covid MIQ undoubtedly made travel trickier for at least some of her tenure). This week Peters is again abroad, visiting South East Asia, while Luxon is preparing for a trip to Japan next week. Later this week, he’ll welcome one of China’s most senior representatives – premier Li Qiang – to the country for a bilateral meeting along with events in both Wellington and Auckland. 

The China tightrope

At his post-cabinet press conference yesterday, Luxon said the visit by Li was an opportunity to discuss areas of “shared interest” between New Zealand and China. “Our relationship is significant, complex, and resilient,” Luxon said. The Herald’s Thomas Coughlan this morning notes that this is first visit by a Chinese premier to New Zealand in seven years, and Li will face a “very different agenda” to his predecessor – including a government propped up by “two parties that have taken hawkish positions on issues close to China’s heart”. Acknowledging the consistent tightrope walked by prime ministers of all stripes, Luxon said yesterday he would bring up China’s human rights record during the bilateral engagement. “I’ll be raising all areas of difference we have with China,” he said.

The prime minister hasn’t visited China yet, though trade minister Todd McClay has. Nevertheless, the challenges facing the current administration remain similar to those faced by Chris Hipkins when he visited the country last year. The Spinoff’s Toby Manhire wrote about Hipkins’ China challenge last year, and the parallels are clear, with trade and Aukus both on the agenda this week much like they were in 2023. The South China Morning Post has focused on New Zealand’s position on Aukus in its report on Li’s visit. Luxon said he hoped to visit China early next year (if he gets an invite).

Asia a key target for the coalition

Writing for Newsroom after Luxon’s recent visit to South East Asia, Laura Walters said it was a deliberate tactic of the government to intensely focus on foreign affairs. The prime minister told Walters: “We want to be at the table; we have a lot to offer the world. We stand up for some great values… We never want to be brushed off or not relevant.” Luxon has repeatedly, including yesterday, described his government’s foreign policy approach as a “reset”. In an interview with Sky News’s Jack Nyhof last month, Luxon said the Indo-Pacific was where New Zealand’s national interests are “best met”. Perhaps one obvious point of difference between the current and former government’s approach to foreign diplomacy comes in the minister charged with leading it. This 2021 Newsroom report described Mahuta’s approach as focusing on “people, not nations”, while in a long form profile in The Post after last year’s election, the former minister told Thomas Manch that “culture matters”. The Spinoff’s Madeleine Chapman was part of the media delegation to China with Hipkins last year and described how the inclusion of culture via award-winning kapa haka outshone the prime minister. There’s little suggestion the current government views international relations through that same lens. “We’re not going to get rich buying things off one another,” said Luxon on his Instagram last night. “We need to go out there in the world and trade with other countries.”

Closer to home, Fieldays

The other big F on the agenda this week is Fieldays, the annual agricultural showcase that routinely attracts a large number of MPs from across the spectrum. This year will be no different, and Luxon will somehow find time to visit Mystery Creek in the same week he’s parading premier Li around the North Island.

But much like his government’s “reset” in foreign affairs, Luxon has long pitched himself as a friend to the farming community. At Fieldays last year, Luxon (then opposition leader) told me farmers were “the backbone of the New Zealand economy”. And, in what may foreshadow his visit this week, he said: “the answer is not to go cull herds and destroy farming because in doing that we make global greenhouse gas emissions no better and we certainly make New Zealand infinitely poorer.” According to BusinessDesk, the government is poised to reveal its finalised policy on keeping agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme at Fieldays.

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Juggernaut was made with the support of NZ on Air.

Independent inquiry to probe misuse of data claims

An independent inquiry has been ordered into claims that data obtained during the census and Covid vaccination drive was used for political campaigning, reports Andrea Vance in The Post. Vance first broke the story, which centres on Manurewa Marae and Te Pāti Māori, over a week ago. Since then, about a dozen agencies have been called in to look at the allegations. But while Stats NZ is among those already conducting their own inquiries, prime minister Christopher Luxon confirmed last night he had directed the Public Service Commission to conduct an independent investigation. “Public confidence in the response to these allegations is absolutely paramount,” he said. “Agencies shouldn't be left to review these allegations themselves.”

The terms of reference, lead reviewer and timing of the inquiry will be announced later this week. Meanwhile, the MP at the centre of the claims, Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp, has yet to speak publicly. Stuff’s Tova O’Brien makes the case this morning that she should be stood down while the inquiry’s carried out. A new episode of Gone by Lunchtime (recorded before the inquiry was announced) looks at the seriousness of the claims.

Aftermath of decision to renew oil and gas exploration

Newshub’s Demelza Leslie reported last night that climate activists had forced an energy conference in New Plymouth to move online. But resources minister Shane Jones, responsible for the decision to reverse the ban on oil and gas exploration, called the “eco-rabble” protesters hypocritical. "The fact that these protesting barnacles don't want an open dialogue, I think, speaks to the weakness of their argument and fear that I'm winning the hearts and minds of Kiwis over," he said. Legislation to push forward with oil and gas exploration will be introduced to parliament later in the year – I expect to cover the issue more substantively in a future Bulletin.

Writing for Newsroom Pro this morning (paywalled), Marc Daalder argues the government has underestimated the public sentiment on the subject, and the move casts doubt on the coalition’s climate credentials. “The government has yet to take any new actions to reduce emissions and many of the climate-friendly actions National campaigned on have been delayed or watered down,” Daalder writes.

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Click and Collect

• I highly recommend this opinion piece by The Spinoff’s Madeleine Chapman looking at the “allure of money porn” in a cost of living crisis.

• Remember Ihumātao? Stuff looks at what’s been going on there recently.

• Marc Daalder at Newsroom continues his reporting on air quality, with news that research into air pollution at the Niwa is set to be defunded (paywalled).

• As a child of Upper Hutt, I am perhaps more invested than most in the mayoral race (the city has had the same mayor for my entire lifetime). Urban planner and transport adviser Peri Zee has joined the race, reports The Post. Zee recently argued for a move to Upper Hutt in this piece for The Spinoff.

• Another MP – Labour’s Kieran McAnulty – is facing questions over accommodation entitlements, reports Andrea Vance (who is on a huge roll with yarns at the moment).

• Cost of University of Otago's new Christchurch building grows to over $250m.

• Newsroom Pro’s Laura Walters takes a look at documents showing why David Seymour is so keen to cut red tape in early childhood (paywalled).

• Officials want to ensure recycling sent overseas is reused, reports 1News.

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Right now on The Spinoff

From Aoraka to Whanganui, Liam Rātana lists 25 of Aotearoa's best new (old) placenames. Gone by Lunchtime disentangles the claims around census data and Te Pāti Māori. Avi Duckor-Jones reconsiders the stalwart figure of the Southern Man. Bryer Oden writes a love letter to an elusive Kiwi delicacy: the cheese scone. Claire Mabey ranks and reviews Wellington's second-hand bookshops. Here's all the movies and TV new to streaming services this week.

A multi-billion-dollar correction

In yesterday’s Bulletin I mistakenly said that Graeme Hart’s $12.1bn net worth was about 12x the weekend’s $50m Lotto prize. I was of course very wrong, and had been meaning to write that it was 120x… which would also have been wrong as the correct figure is a whopping 240x. Thank you to the more mathematically minded readers that got in touch (and sorry, I guess, to Graeme Hart).

That’s it for The Bulletin today, thanks for reading. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.

Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.

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