Gilda. I'm Chelsea Daniels and this is the Front Page, a daily podcast presented by the New Zealand Herald. This week marks one year since the twenty twenty three election. That election saw Labour's historic majority cut in half and started weeks of negotiations between National Act and New Zealand. First, about the shape of the government marking the anniversary. A one used Varian poll shows thirty percent of respondents believe the country isn't better shape than a year ago, while
forty percent think it's worse. That divisive nature has been a cornerstone of this government, but is that having any impact on their policies? And what about the other side of the aisle? Today on the Front Page, Police commentator Ben Thomas joins us to analyze the last year in politics. First off, Ben, one year since the election, what was your reaction at the time to those results?
Well, I was actually the National Party election night celebration for part of that night, and what struck me there was that the early results which showed that you know, suggested National and Act would be able to form a government by themselves, which had been the goal you know,
at the beginning of the campaign. Seemed to be in view, and as the night went on and the vote margin narrowed, but as the sort of libations flowed, I don't think it really sunk in until the next day, and then really fully when the special votes were counted that actually New Zealand First would be needed as well. So, you know, maybe things haven't gone as smoothly as I think two
out of the three coalition parties would have expected. It's seven to fifteen pm on election night, but I think that given the hand that they've been dealt in terms of a genuine three way coalition between three quite different parties, they're holding together pretty well. A year on. I think Winston Peters certainly had his eye on the way the votes were going as election night progressed, and you know, I guess is quite confidence was probably vindicated the next day.
But in a way it sort of set the tone for New Zealand First participation in this government in that it's been significantly less bombastic than New Zealand First is on the campaign trail. You know, it's been very content to play that sort of statesmanlike role that Winston Peters tends to when he is the Deputy Prime Minister as he has been before. And interestingly enough, a lot of the friction into of the sort of outward presenting face of the coalition is actually coming from the Act Party.
Well, of course there are three parties in this coalition. How well do you think National Act in New Zealand First have actually worked together in the past year.
Well, I think that if you were comparing it against how people might have expected they work together, you would say it's been a huge success. And part of that is the way in which they've chosen to work together, which is traditionally in New Zealand with MMP it's kind of forced compromise on government parties. You know, the smaller party might say we want this, in the larger party will say, how about we meet you halfway and have
this here. It's what it's almost like, you know, sort of an hr team building exercise that Christopher Luxon might have had it in New Zealand, the kind of brainstorming session where there are no bad ideas and so if the minor party says something they want something, they say yes, and and then the next party says, well we want this,
and you just kind of add together these promises. So what you get is this huge, bulging agenda of work, some of it slightly contradictory, some of it overlapping, but all the parties, you know, feel like they're getting what they want. And in terms of sticking to those agreements, you know, not necessarily the matter is outside them, but in terms of what is in those pretty big, pretty detailed coalition agreements, I think all the parties will be very happy with the progress that they've made.
Which of the three parties do you think has performed better overall?
Look, I think they've all performed well in terms of making this very unusual, you know, first genuine three party coalition government work. And I think that they all have things that they can show their supporters. I think they've all been allowed to claim credit for different things. If there was a loser out of the coalition so far, you would probably say that to some extent it's National. Still, the broad policy program going forward is one that is
in line with what National campaigned on. I suppose the Prime Minister himself has this situation where he doesn't quite get to kind of lead as you know, the kind of top dog in the same way that we've seen in the past. You know, there very much is this sort of you know, government of equals. You know, he's first amongst equals with David Seymour and Winston Peters, and so he hasn't necessarily been able to stamp the sort
of authority on that role. And you see you see that in the sort of continuing ratings, and there hasn't been a lot of movement in the polls. Ordinarily, a large party would expect that it would go up in government as people kind of got used to it in
that position. Here, you know, there's been ups, downs, overs and unders, but we're basically around about where we were on election made a year ago and so on terms of in terms of what you might normally expect in government, you would say that National has not has not had the same success that it's two other partners have.
Do you reckon there have been any standout ministers in this government so far?
I think like all governments, you know, there will be a number of standout ministers who actually do sort of the bulk of the work, you know, and carry carry a lot of load in terms of those public facing things and those really important portfolios. You could count the standouts. Chris Bishop has been very good, very busy advancing a very clear agenda on infrastructure and housing and RMA reform.
Simeon Brown has been you know, pretty busy, not maybe not quite as sort of innovative, but you know, busy getting the work done. Erica Stanford's been identified as a standout by a lot of people. Some extremely overdue sort of education reforms which seem to be handled pretty deftly right now, and you know, one of those things that really does you know, impact on a lot of voters' lives. You know, they really see it at the coal face.
David Seymour, Look, he's been very effective, as he usually is, a lot of controversy around his Treaty Principles bill, not as much attention on his Ministry of Regulation, which I think might actually end up being one of the more important policy sort of policy additions of this government. You know, it's already sort of getting to work and really could you know, impro improve the quality of regulation which actually does touch a lot of people's lives. Nikola Willis I
think has really grown as a retail politician. You know, her political skills are excellent. She's managed to be a sort of safe pair of hands and a very very trying circumstance, really Finance minister with structural deficits kind of handed down from the last government. You know. Winston Peters again very statesman like, always conducts himself well as Foreign
Affairs Minister Shane Jones, I think is another surprise. Has often been criticized in the past for a bit of a low work rate, you know, except when he's sort of reading the dictionary out loud to people. But you know, he's been extremely busy and really kind of getting things done. The Fast Trek Approval's Bill is really his baby. I think that would have surprised a number of people that the energy that he's come into government with.
The first few months of the coalition government was kind of like a slash and burn of sorts, right, It just felt like they were undoing everything labor done. How has that worked out for them?
Well, you know, that was an easy criticism to make of them. But at the same time, you know, how do you introduce your policies if there are but these new ones that have just been put in place by a previous government. So you know, I think they would see it as just like a kind of controlled burning of the undergrowth. In the bush. You know, that feeds the nutrients into the soil and it creates a climate
where actually there can be new growth. So get rid of the Natural and Built Environments Act, which they disagreed with three Waters, legislation, fair pay agreements, all these things that labor really spent a lot of time, you know, just getting across the line in a legislative sense, but didn't embed in any way into the kind of practical reality of government. And I think the ease with which that was done is something that this government has taken
on board. So they're moving very quickly with a lot of their reforms. And actually, if you can compare you know, what they have, what they've done and completed in one year compared to say the previous government or actually most previous governments, it's been very busy.
Indeed, what are the highlights view in terms of what the act, what the government's actually pushed through.
Look I think in terms of the big, big things affecting New Zealand in the future, which is really where we have to look at. You know, they came in a pretty bad situation, the kind of in that COVID sort of hangover, where inflation was very high. The government government borrowing had really blown out, and you know, policy mistakes that just haven't been addressed in the past were really catching up to us. I think, you know, the changes in the education will be some of the most important.
You know, the kind of novel idea of teaching children to read and do maths as a priority. And then I think, you know, as I said, the ministry of regulation, I think will actually end up being you know, really important. Governments talk about sort of putting in place a business friendly kind of environment, and there are so many little rules and regulations that trip people up, and they've never really been addressed in a serious manner before. It's always
been kind of ad hoc or gimmicky. So I think, I think that's an important reform. Again. Chris Bishop, I think his his work in terms of reforming and in terms of trying to get in place of framework where we can actually you have sustainable and affordable delivery of the infrastructure we need in New Zealand, the things that this government wants to achieve, particularly from the national side, but also act I think it will be a little
longer before we start seeing the results. And those are the things like really setting concrete targets and being smarter about how government money is spent, so everything you know, from getting into the departments and you know, making them rewrite their contractual expectations of third party providers, setting targets for our departments, for bureaucrats to work towards. The Social Investment Model, which you know is an attempt to take kind of big data and use that to really isolate
and get better spending. Those are things that could be extremely significant, but we're not far enough along to really see that they've made a difference yet.
Well, according to the latest one used, Varyan pohl Kiwis believe the country is in a better place than a year ago. Forty think it's worse. What do you make of those results, Well, that's.
Not surprising at all. I mean we've had I think, you know, since October, we've had what three more the periods of negative growth, quarters of negative growth. Announced inflation is a little better under control, but there have been big rates hikes and insurance hikes as well. So you know, people will generally see, you know, how well the country is doing through that lens, rather than through the elegance of a policy solution that has been announced at a
press conference. They'll think about their hip pocket, filling up the car, that sort of thing. And look, you know, I think the government's been pretty honest about that and upfront that that's not something that they can change overnight. No government can. What they can do is put in place the sort of building blocks so that when a recovery happens, you know, people can take advantage of that.
So you know, they will have their fingers crossed that the economy, you know, starts heading up, you know, hope hopefully with interest rate cuts, text cuts and with sort of inflation back in a manageable sort of banned.
When do you reckon the expiration data is when you stop blaming the last government in their books.
Look, if John Key, who's Christopher Luxon's mentor, is to be believed somewhere in the order of seven to eight years, you know, look, I mean there's already a bit of an expiration date on it. Because because of New Zealand First's present in this government, they can never really talk about the twenty seventeen to twenty twenty three labor government. They can only talk about the twenty twenty to twenty twenty three labor government. So you know, a lot of
damage was done in a very short time. If you listen to this government now. But yeah, looks suddenly you get away with it in the first term. People are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
Generally, it's fair to say that the antagonism and backlash towards this government came fairly quickly. You had Maulti dam protesting across the country about a week after the government was actually sworn in. Where do you rank this government in terms of its divisiveness, I guess now, or is that all David Seymour and is Treaty Principle's Bill.
No, look, I mean in terms of the divisiveness issue, particularly to do with the treaty and multi ground relationships. That's a function of that really kind of I guess you call it additive or inclusive coalition agreement style that they have, which is where rather than kind of promising on things piece by piece or issue by issue, they just said, actually, we'll just take everything and combine it together.
So what you ended up with was when these coalition agreements went live, what you saw was just this ray of policies that were to do with Crown Maori relationships and the treaty and generally trying to roll back those kinds of things, everything from ruling out a non existent referendum to change the country's name to Tuna, to the Treaty Principle's Bill. But then you know there's all these other things that you know when you see them written
on the page. You know, if you're Ei, if you're Maldi, you can't help but think, well, this is a bit, this is a bit of an attack. And look it has continued and we will continue the you know, even leaving aside the Treaty Principle's Bill, which is a bit of a red hearing because New Zealand First and National have said there's no way it will go into law. But New Zealand First Security commitment to a review of
a treaty clauses in legislation. Now, those are those are rights that you know that a crew to Maori, and you know that exists now that the government is proposing to sort of you know, narrow down or get rid of. So I think you know, in this sense, in the Crown Maori relationship sense, you know, this is certainly the most regressive government for at least twenty.
Years, and when looking back on the last year in terms of scandals, I guess it's been quite It's been on the lighter side. I mean, you've had ministers like Melissa Lee and Penny Simmons stripped of their portfolios for poor handling of them. You've got lux And paying back his living allowance quite early on after initially asserting that
it was his right. And then there were other kind of contentious bills like the fast Track one that's obviously gone through and reversing the smoke free ban, things like that. But has this government handled these issues quite well? And would you agree that it's been quite light on terms of I would have I would have seen I would have put money on there being more scandals. Given the amount of first time ministers we've got in cabinet, you would.
Normally get your first Yeah, you normally think Locke in the first real scandal that's going to need a resignation is somewhere between a year and eighteen months in. So they're actually trekking pretty well, you know. Yes, certainly some of the newer ministers are perhaps not as deft or as sure footed as some of their more experienced colleagues. But at the same time, yeah, no real smoking guns
that have emerged that you know, kind of career ending. Now, obviously there's a bit of a buffer there, particularly for the smaller party ministers, in the sense that the Prime Minister, as a matter of political reality, can't unilaterally fire them. You know, if you were Penny Simmons and you were Melissa Lee particularly demoted from cabinet, yes, you might feel you're pretty hard done by if you looked over at
Casey Costello for instance. And the fact of the matter there is that Luxon wanted to sort of you know, stampers authority, show that he's the actively managing CE. But he only can do that with his own ministers without sort of causing a bit of an incident.
And looking ahead, we've got two years left of this coalition government until we get to the next election. Can you give us some of your predictions.
Well, look, I think part of the reason that it's worked so well so far and I think this will
probably carry them through to the second year. Through the second year, is that just those agendas that they agreed to because of tough negotiating by New Zealand First and Act, the agenda is so full that it will only be sort of black swan events or really unexpected things that happen where there will be significant disagreements between the parties about what they're they're doing a legislative sense, in a
policy sense that will be in reaction to things. So I actually think that, you know, and you know if you also sort of think that, you know, idle hands make work for the devil. Everyone's very busy, you know, there's a lot to get on with, and I think that that's working in the government's favor as well politically.
You know. Look, I think that they will be in a position where they will be able to show all of their respective supporters some pretty big wins in a year's time, you know, touch would but I think the economy will be performing much better, and that is always a tail wind for a government. So look, I think, as Christopher Luxen might say in a report to his board, there is plenty of upside for this government.
Thanks for joining us, Ben. That's it for this episode of the Front Page. You can read more about today's stories and extensive music at enzeed Herald dot co dot z. The Front Page is produced by Ethan Siles with sound engineer Patti Fox. I'm Chelsea Daniels. Subscribe to the front page on iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts, and tune in tomorrow for another look behind the headlines.