Episode description
Three prime ministers, four ministerial scandals, one general election and a three-way coalition: New Zealand's political landscape has been well and truly shaken up in 2023. In this week's Focus on Politics, Political Reporter Katie Scotcher takes a look back on what was a turbulent year at Parliament and on the campaign trail.
"What we have achieved together, I think, is historic" - Christopher Luxon
Three prime ministers, four ministerial scandals, one general election and a three-way coalition: New Zealand's political landscape has been well and truly shaken up in 2023.
Listen to the full podcast
Jacinda Ardern was thinking about work at the beginning of the year as most New Zealanders were taking the time to relax over their summer break. Her resignation announcement in January shocked New Zealanders out of their summer slumber and sent Labour on the hunt for a new leader.
With the most obvious successor Grant Robertson taking himself out of the race, Chris Hipkins was tipped as next most likely. The self-described "boy from the Hutt" soon became New Zealand's 41st prime minister.
His honeymoon period was short-lived, however, with the arrival of a series of summer storms including flooding in Auckland and Northland, and Cyclone Gabrielle, leaving a path of destruction across the upper North Island: towns cut off and uncontactable, critical infrastructure and thousands of homes damaged, hundreds of people displaced.
Fifteen people dead, including a two-year-old. Many communities are still recovering.
It was Hipkins' first challenge as prime minister, leading the country through disaster - but the general election set for 14 October was also looming.
Then-prime minister Chris Hipkins takes a helicopter to cyclone-hit Wairoa.
No government has replaced a prime minister in an election year and gone on to win, so in hopes of defying history he rolled out the policy incinerator, exhausting the phrase "bread and butter" as he sought to eliminate what he saw as Labour's political liabilities and focus on the cost of living crisis.
There were other liabilities lying in wait however, as a series of scandals went on to rock the left in just a few short months.
Stuart Nash, in an extraordinary own goal, lost his beloved Police portfolio after stating on air he had once encouraged the police commissioner to appeal a court decision. He assured Hipkins he had made no other mistakes, so was promptly sacked from Cabinet after it was revealed two weeks later he'd once emailed confidential information to donors. …