Hypothetical or not, Hipkins is ruling out NZ First
Winston Peters has already said he has no interest in working with a 'separatist' Labour government. Now the prime minister says the feeling is mutual.
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Monday, August 28, by Catherine McGregor. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: Greens release plan for street level urban light rail; Ukrainians escaping war to be offered residency in New Zealand; and what happened to Wellington – Live? But first, the PM rules Winston out, and lays down the gauntlet to Luxon.
NZ First leader Winston Peters and PM Chris Hipkins (Photos: Getty Images)
Hipkins makes it official
It’s the political equivalent of “You can’t fire me, I quit!” Prime minister Chris Hipkins has ruled out working with NZ First – which is just as well, as Winston Peters has already said the same thing regarding Labour. It was last November that Peters first claimed that Labour’s “lying” over its “separatist” agenda meant there’d be no repeat of the 2017 post-election negotiations, a position he’s restated regularly since. Yesterday a noticeably more combative Hipkins said the feeling was mutual: “Winston Peters and New Zealand First are a force for instability and chaos, and that’s the last thing the country needs right now,” he said. Pointing to NZ First’s increasing flirtation with hot-button social issues like trans rights and the “freedom” movement, Hipkins said it had become “a party more interested in toilets than the issues that really matter”. In response, Peters said Labour had become a “cabal that pandered to the woke”.
Luxon plays the ‘hypothetical’ card, again
With a Labour-NZ First relationship a no-go, the ball is now firmly in National’s court. Leader Christopher Luxon has refused to discuss whether he’d work with Winston, dismissing the possibility as a “hypothetical” not worth examining. That’s clearly a dodge. As many have pointed out, election campaigns are all about hypothesising that your party will win, and that you’ll be in a strong enough position to turn your policy pledges into law. Want to get even more metaphysical? “Everything that hasn't happened yet is a hypothetical; that's where we live most of our lives”, as Morning Report’s Guyon Espiner said to Luxon earlier this month.
How the NZ First issue could lead to a hung parliament
So what happens if Luxon does bite the bullet and rules out working with NZ First after the election? If, as the polls suggest, National and Act are able to form a governing majority – absolutely nothing. But should NZ First hold the balance of power on election night, having already been ruled out by both possible coalitions, then things will get very interesting indeed, writes Interest.co.nz’s Dan Brunskill. “Hung parliaments are rare in multi-party systems but are still possible,” he notes. “In that scenario, the party leaders would have to reckon with the political fallout of sending voters back to the polls for a fresh election — or breaking a campaign promise.”
Does Luxon have a discipline problem?
The Winston question is not the only thing Luxon needs to worry about, writes Andrea Vance for the Sunday Star-Times (paywalled). The careers of Sam Uffindell, Barbara Kuriger and Tim van de Molen are “dead” yet all three have failed to smell “the distinct whiff of their rotting political corpses”. They should have been sidelined, Vance says, but instead Luxon has allowed them to take up space in safe National seats. Luxon’s unwillingness to “sideline the duds'' is a worrying sign, indicating a lack of discipline that will come back to bite him if (as seems likely) his government includes a sizable contingent of “zealots championing Christian identity politics”, Vance believes. Luxon may get lucky and avoid having to deal with Winston Peters, but a bunch of almost as troublesome MPs could be waiting in the wings.
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Greens release plan for street level light rail in major cities
The Green Party wants to convert Auckland’s tunnelled light rail scheme into a street level project, claiming the money saved would allow it to fund similar projects in Wellington and Christchurch. Co-leader James Shaw says street level rail would take another two years to build, but save an estimated $5.6 billion over the “mind-bogglingly expensive tunnels currently proposed”. Under the Greens’ plan, rail from Britomart to the airport would be operational by 2032, while in Wellington, Island Bay to the railway station would be up and running by 2029. “In Christchurch, the full network would be operational by 2032. It would run from Church Corner to Papanui via the city centre, then towards Hornby and Belfast in phase two,” Amberleigh Jack reports for Stuff. The Greens are also proposing a $750m Urban Nature Fund to protect towns and cities from flooding, part of their Climate-Safe Communities plan.
What happened to Wellington - Live?
Lilia Alexander started the Wellington - Live Facebook page in 2015 as a way to communicate urgent updates when the city was flooding. It grew quickly, and by 2021 had more than 200,000 followers and commercial partners around the region who wanted to promote their events. Wellington - Live was a shining example of what community pages could be. But since its sale in 2021, one ex-contractor for Wellington - Live has filed a claim against the new owner Graham Bloxham at the disputes tribunal for unpaid fees, competition winners say they’re still waiting to receive their prizes and followers have complained of misinformation being posted on the hugely popular community page. Janhavi Gosavi investigates in this long read for The Spinoff.
Ukrainians escaping war to be offered residency
Ukrainians who came to New Zealand following Russia’s invasion will be given a path to residency, immigration minister Andrew Little has announced. Around 1500 Ukrainians have been granted a Special Ukraine Visa since the two-year visa was introduced in March last year, though only 340 visa holders are currently in the country. The new residence pathway has an application deadline of March 15 next year, the same day that applications for the Special Ukraine Visa close. For Ukraine visa holders who want to become permanent residents, the criteria will be lower than for the normal residency process, reports Stuff’s Glenn McConnell. There will be a $1200 residency application fee, and applicants will be required to undergo an identity and character test, but there will be no language or sponsorship requirements.
Click and Collect
MBIE is investigating allegations that foreign bus drivers in Wellington are being underpaid and made to clean buses (The Post, paywalled).
The Stagehouse, a new venue inside Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal, will launch this Friday with a pre-breakfast dance party (The Press, paywalled).
Russia has confirmed the death of Yevgeny Prigozhin in last week’s plane crash.
Spinoff writers pick the highlights from a bumper season for valedictory speeches in the House. Charlotte Muru-Lanning recounts 10 days of eating mush, mush and more mush post-dental-extraction. Anna Rawhiti-Connell bemoans the state of the NZ sandwich industry, post Wishbone collapse. Madeleine Chapman shares the upsetting news that Rita Ora isn’t aware of her husband’s ethnicity. And Alex Casey attends a Shrek Rave.
Sporting snippets
Fifa has suspended Spain's soccer chief Luis Rubiales for three months as it investigates his kiss on the lips of star player Jenni Hermoso.
Lydia Ko has shot the worst-ever round of her LPGA Tour career, posting a 10-over 82 in the third round of the CPKC Women’s Open in Vancouver,
‘We need people to look beneath their anger’
I highly recommend this piece in the Guardian by Anna Rankin about innerBoy, the mental health app created by complete legends Sarah and Matt Brown of ‘She is Not Your Rehab’ fame. It’s designed to help those at risk of committing domestic violence, and takes a trauma-informed approach focusing on understanding the user’s life experiences and background, rather than simply relying on traditional anger management techniques. “It opened my eyes,” says one user of innerBoy, “it’s changed my life forever.”
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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