Labour’s Chris Hipkins says New Zealand deserves better than a deputy PM who behaves ‘like a drunk uncle at a wedding’, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here.
Co-governance and Nazism share a similar impulse, says Peters
On Saturday, New Zealand’s most mercurial politician returned from a short trip to Asia, where he held a series of serious, high-level meetings in his role as foreign minister. On Sunday, he was back in rabble-rouser mode, delivering his state of the nation speech to a packed audience of NZ First faithful. According to a report by Stuff’s Glenn McConnell, the deputy PM spent the first part of his speech attacking the previous Labour government before pivoting to culture war issues including te Tiriti and co-governance. He said the latter was pushed by people who thought “their DNA made them somehow better than others” and compared it to the ideology of Nazi Germany. Asked about it later, Peters defended the comparison, saying New Zealand’s Jewish community would “understand” what he meant. Labour’s Chris Hipkins said it was a reprehensible comment. “Kiwis deserve better than a deputy prime minister who behaves like a drunk uncle at a wedding,” he said.
Another week of bad headlines for the Greens
Before Peters’s speech, the biggest politics story of the weekend was the fallout from the Greens’ suspension of MP Darleen Tana over migrant exploitation allegations levelled at her husband. Commentators observed that the Tana news could hardly have been more badly timed for the party, coming just a day after former MP Golriz Ghahraman appeared in court on shoplifting charges. Writing in the Sunday Star-Times, Andrea Vance notes one striking similarity between the two cases: having learned of the allegations, each time the Greens waited multiple weeks before informing the public. It’s a pattern of behaviour that “signals the Greens are no longer as wedded to openness as they once were,” writes Vance. “And frankly, a disdain for the role of the media.”
MP and her bosses both have questions to answer
For Vance’s colleague Luke Malpass (paywalled), the Greens’ silence on the Tana matter is understandable given that the MP said the official complaint against her husband came out of the blue. “What is a leadership supposed to do with that – put out a press release saying someone’s spouse has an employment law hearing, which the MP says she knows nothing about and there was no suggestion that she did? No.” Tana’s failure to disclose a second Employment Relations Authority complaint is the more serious problem, Malpass says. “Sins of omission are still sins. And in politics neglecting to tell your party leader important information is most commonly viewed as lying.” The string of recent scandals raises questions about the quality of the Greens’ vetting of potential candidates, writes the Herald’s Thomas Coughlan. “There are also questions around whether the caucus needs to be read the riot act over the importance of fronting up to the party hierarchy as soon as an MP becomes aware of a potential problem.”
Labour keeps its powder dry
Meanwhile in Wairarapa, the Labour Party was wrapping up its caucus retreat. With controversy growing over the apparent $5.6 billion fiscal hole in the government’s books, it’s likely there were conversations in Masterton about whether Labour should go on the attack. So far Chris Hipkins has been content to stand back and let National dig its own hole. That’s a mistake, suggests the Sunday Star-Times’ Vernon Small (paywalled). “With this government making a wasteland of its predecessor’s reforms, Labour’s low-key approach and its reticence to defend its record is letting National off the hook”.