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Christopher Luxon wants to get on with it (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)
Christopher Luxon wants to get on with it (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

The BulletinOctober 26, 2023

Luxon keen on sense of momentum as coalition talks go on and others step into void

Christopher Luxon wants to get on with it (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)
Christopher Luxon wants to get on with it (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)
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Christopher Luxon wants to get on with it when parliament resumes. In the interim, National’s potential coalition partners are filling the vacuum created by the wait for special votes and negotiations continue, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

Christopher Luxon wants parliament to wrap up later and start earlier

Incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon wants to shorten the parliamentary closedown period over the summer. “There was work to do”, he said. When asked if everyone was aware of his desire to run longer and start earlier, Luxon told RNZ, “Well no disrespect but that’s what happens for the rest of the country, New Zealanders…work up till Christmas, they take Christmas break and then they get back into it in the new year.” It’s in keeping with other comments that suggest Luxon wants to bring his business background to the business of governing and the promised momentum embodied in National’s campaign slogan to “get this country back on track”. Side note: this is a fascinating read from The Post’s Mike White on the thinking and team behind that slogan.

Schedule for 2023 doesn’t have a lot of squeeze

Last year, parliament’s final sitting day of the year was December 14. The first cabinet meeting of the year was scheduled for January 25. Traditionally the political year is deemed to start with the Rātana celebrations in late January, and the first sitting day in 2023 was February 14. As the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan notes, the last sitting day of this year is Thursday, December 21. In practice, the House will adjourn on the Wednesday. “Parliament doesn’t sit on Fridays or over the weekend. Unless Luxon wants to change that, it is hard to see how he could squeeze additional sitting time out of parliament this year, beyond forcing the House to adjourn on Thursday, rather than Wednesday,” he writes. Last year, Labour and National MPs called for shorter sitting days to allow “members to spend more quality time with their families” and the Act party proposed that parliament sit for four days a week for 23 weeks a year instead of three days a week for 30 weeks to reduce air travel emissions.

Questions about tax cut timeframe from Act

As coalition talks continue with little comments being made about them by all parties concerned, and we wait for the special vote count, there is something of a vacuum, but as Ben Thomas writes this morning, cogs will be in motion in Wellington as recruitment of new staffers ramps up. In the absence of coalition news, Act’s David Seymour has questioned National’s time frame for delivering tax cuts, and National’s Mark Mitchell has provided some insight into how the party’s promised “gang crackdown” might work. Mitchell says the party may ban gang facial tattoos if its planned ban on gang patches does not work and cited an Australian law where “gang members have to wake up in the morning, and they have to apply foundation to cover offensive tattoos.”

Peters claims about knowledge of mosque attacks deemed ‘inaccurate’

Yesterday, those sitting through the harrowing, blow-by-blow details of the lead-up to the Christchurch mosque attacks at the coronial inquest heard from the parliamentary staffer who called 111 after receiving the terrorist’s manifesto by email. It is well documented that the call was made two minutes after receiving the email and that the email was received just minutes before the attacks started. It contained no details as to the location of the planned attacks. This information was conveyed by then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern in a press conference the day after the attacks. Last night, NZ First leader Winston Peters tweeted claims that yesterday was the first we’d heard of this information. A spokesperson for the prime minister’s office said last night that the tweet from Peters was “completely inaccurate” and “Mr Peters should remove the tweet and post a correction”. Peters continued his condemnation on Twitter, saying, “Not once were we transparently informed of this information” and “To excuse it because it was known at a ‘public press conference’ the next day, instead of information that should’ve been shared with the deputy prime minister and coalition partner the day before, is as bizarre as it is biased.”

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Keep going!
Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor Mosque) imam Gamal Fouda. (Image: Supplied)
Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor Mosque) imam Gamal Fouda. (Image: Supplied)

The BulletinOctober 25, 2023

Largest coronial inquest in New Zealand history begins

Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor Mosque) imam Gamal Fouda. (Image: Supplied)
Masjid An-Nur (Al Noor Mosque) imam Gamal Fouda. (Image: Supplied)
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As the coronial inquest into the 2019 terrorist attacks gets underway, a promised national security overhaul remains incomplete, writes Anna Rawhiti-Connell in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.

‘Transition from darkness to light’

As today’s editorial in the Herald (paywalled) surmises, the world is a very different place “from the autumn afternoon in 2019 when 51 people were massacred and 40 others wounded at two Christchurch mosques.” It has been over four years since the terrorist attacks of March 2019. For members of the victim’s families, the injured, others who were at the mosques on the day and the community at large, the process of getting answers to crucial questions only began yesterday, as the largest coronial inquest in New Zealand history began. Stewart Sowman-Lund explains its significance, the long road to the inquest and what will be investigated. As deputy chief coroner Brigitte Windley said yesterday as proceedings opened, people were “often surprised to learn that there are matters related to March 15 still under inquiry” and explained that “a coronial inquiry is a dual focus on the past and on the future”. “I ask that we bring the memories of the 51 lives that were lost to this court so that we may give them a voice, so that we can transition from darkness to light, so that we may emerge with a better understanding of the facts and the truth is revealed by the evidence that we get,” she said.

Second inquest to investigate firearms licensing and role of online platforms

This is the first of two inquests and as Sowman-Lund explains, will investigate ten key issues. Yesterday afternoon segments of footage from the terrorist’s live stream were played. Footage from the day of the attacks continues to resurface on Twitter. The second inquest will consider any outstanding issues, including whether the firearms licensing process that allowed the terrorist to access his weapon can be “causally connected” to the attacks and whether social media and online platforms played a material role in his radicalisation.

Andrew Little’s one regret

In an interview with The Post, departing MP Andrew Little cites not completing the overhaul of New Zealand’s national security system as his one regret. That overhaul included the creation of a new national security agency that was promised after the terror attacks. Little was minister responsible for responding to the Royal Commission to the mosque attacks, and he says he did the “spade work”, but his bosses responsible for the national security system, Dame Jacinda Ardern and then Chris Hipkins, were justifiably tied up with issues of greater priority. The Muslim community has repeatedly expressed frustration about the delays and a lack of the promised communication and transparency.

Overhaul of national security and 52 other laws in limbo

The future of the national security system overhaul now lies in the hands of the incoming government. By convention, the prime minister holds the National Security and Intelligence portfolio. There are also 52 laws currently in a state of limbo following the election. The Labour government set a fast pace in trying to get new laws through parliament in its last months in power, but not everything has made it through. Natasha Wilson, a public law specialist at Buddle Findlay, outlines the bills in question and what may happen to them once the business of government starts up again.