My review of the NZ Herald's Cabinet Report Card

What do you rate the performance of our ministers?

Audrey Young’s Cabinet Report Card was published today in the NZ Herald and on the whole I agree with her assessment of our ministers - with a few exceptions.

You can read the article here.

Apart from a thorough run down of New Zealand’s Cabinet, she also revealed a bit more information than we had previously known about the nature of the incident that saw Andrew Bayly resign as a minister. Young shares:

He put his hands on the upper arms of his ACC private secretary during an office debate about how ambitious changes to ACC should be (we can assume Bayly was more ambitious than his staffer).

Young points to the impact this resignation had on Luxon’s own ‘brand’ and while I think the furore over the resignation taking too long - three days from incident to resignation - was a complete beat up, she is right that Luxon took a hit. His interview with Mike Hosking in which he would not (could not?) answer the most basic questions about the matter was an unmitigated disaster.

In my view, the Prime Minister’s biggest failing was his management of the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill which somehow was not mentioned in Young’s assessment of him. Luxon’s bumbling handling of the Bill left him scorned by both left and many on the right. From the coalition negotiations that allowed for the Bill to exist - despite ACT asserting that it was not a bottom line for them in the process - to allowing himself to be bullied by the media into promising to vote the Bill down at Second Reading far too prematurely, Luxon showed his inexperience. He lost control of the narrative and basically had to tell his caucus to just hang on and try to survive the ride.

Young refers to the Prime Minister’s “que sera sera approach” to his coalition partners and although it may seem contradictory to my previous paragraph, I tend to think this has been largely successful. Let’s just set aside the Treaty Principles Bill for now!

There is no point whatsoever trying to put a bridle on Winston Peters and definitely not a muzzle. Luxon seems to have received good advice and understood this from the get-go. He has given Peters room to do his thing and run tight lines on the independence of the three parties who have common goals and a plan.

Likewise, he has applied the same approach to David Seymour. In relation to the Treaty Principles Bill this was a ploy to create distance between National and ACT and the Bill. As I say, it wasn’t successful ultimately. This distance has ensured that despite the best efforts of the Opposition the (partly media-manufactured) disaster of school lunches landed squarely in Seymour’s lap.

It will be very interesting to see how Luxon and Seymour make the next eighteen months work as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Peters has been a very good Deputy - and even better Foreign Minister - so Seymour has a lot to live up to. I have concerns that he won’t be as adept at managing the tension between the responsibility to be consistent with the Prime Minister and his party’s agitating style.

Young gives Christopher Luxon 8/10 and I think that is mostly fair. I might be inclined to go with 7/10 based on the Treaty Principles Bill and his failure to manage the expectations of his base. His international visits have been stellar and National should continue to play to this strength.

Young has awarded three ministers a score of 9/10 - Chris Bishop, Judith Collins, and Chris Penk. While Erica Stanford and Simeon Brown receive 8/10. She has been generous in giving Matt Doocey, Penny Simmonds, and Nicola Grigg 5/10 each, in my view.

I agree with Young’s positive assessment of Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, however, her comment on ‘culture wars’ inspired an eye roll. The media in New Zealand are determined to keep kidding themselves that they are not engaged in the ‘culture wars’, but they are right in the thick of it. They just think they are right so any challenge to that is a declaration of war. Young nonetheless gave him 8/10.

Nicola Willis received 7/10 and she is definitely a competent stateswoman and slick communicator. She will rapidly lose the confidence of the coalition’s base if she doesn’t start to close the gap between her fiscal restraint rhetoric and the reality that her budgets are larger than Grant Robertson’s. There is a danger that like Luxon she will get sandwiched between the left’s cries of austerity and the right’s frustration that more bold action is not being taken to bring the books back into order.

Young calls Chris Bishop “a superman in terms of workload and achievement” and this is accurate. I don’t know how he is managing to get so much done but he is. He seems to have made good relationships with his coalition partners - especially Simon Court and Shane Jones - and this has served him well in the massive infrastructure projects. A well deserved 9/10.

Simeon Brown received the literal hospital pass of the Health portfolio and Young calls him “a victim of his own success”. Indeed. Brown’s star was rising rapidly and in shifting him to arguably the hardest job in Cabinet Luxon was able to both put a high performer on the health system and handicap a future rival. Brown’s ability to secure several high profile resignations almost immediately was reported on as if it were a negative thing. It was the opposite. Health New Zealand was being incredibly resistant to the changes the Government wants to make, there were several incidents of malignant leaks, and even a family member of the Opposition Health spokesperson lurking in Associate Minister for Health Casey Costello’s office unbeknown to her. The behemoth organisation needs a clean out and Brown was able to swiftly see some of the top dogs to the door. Young has given him 8/10 but I would put him at 9/10 if he had only managed to do as many other countries have done and ban puberty blockers.

Erica Stanford has earned a widespread respect with her work on Education in particular. Immigration definitely plays second fiddle! She has been effective in withstanding the barrage of accusations about her reforms from the Opposition especially on matters of Māori education. Her new English curriculum looks excellent and the criticisms of it as racist are quite frankly deranged when you examine the course texts. She receives 8/10 from Young.

I agree broadly with Young’s assessment of Paul Goldsmith as doing a good job on law and order and being more engaged in the media space. I was disappointed in the watering down of the Three Strikes Bill and that sentencing discounts were capped at a still very high 40 per cent. He portrays himself well as a justice minister who is focused on victims though. He is limited in what he can do in the media space so as not to appear like he is messing with editorial independence, however, with trust in media so low and spending decisions from NZ On Air and Creative NZ so insane, he needs to do something. He got 7/10.

Young’s description of Louise Upston as a “solid performer” is spot on. She is a safe pair of hands and a team player. Her principled and unapologetic approach to social development has been refreshing. She wants New Zealanders off the dole and into work. She recognises that longterm welfare dependence is not a sign of a government that cares, but rather one that will chuck money at people and leave them to live in relative misery. Upston received 7/10 from Young. I would bump that up to 8.

My old boss Judith Collins is hitting home runs and Young has her at 9/10. She has once again proven herself to be a formidable advocate for her ministries and portfolios and an excellent minister. Defence must be thanking their lucky stars that she is in charge of them. She has shown loyalty in standing with them in crisis (e.g. sinking our own ship), has championed the importance of our military and demanded respect for them, and has secured a funding boost. I am hopeful that she will sort out the excesses of the public service. If anyone can wrangle them into shape it is her.

Dr Shane Reti is a fantastic doctor, excellent advocate for his communities, and a lovely human being. Unfortunately, he does not have the mongrel required to win political wars with health bureaucrats. His intelligence and medical expertise is invaluable, but his lack of political nous holds him back. Despite my affection for him, I would have given him a 5/10 where Young gave him 6.

Mark Mitchell is exactly what New Zealand needed coming out of the crime epidemic the last Government created. As an ex-police officer, he has a much better handle of the realities of policing and of offenders. Labour’s parade of inept police and justice ministers persisted in trying to coddle and cuddle criminals and were a laughing stock. His attitude alone made a huge difference, but the Government’s series of law changes in justice have also been key. A solid 8 from Young and me. I also agree with Young that I would like to see more in the corrections space.

I have said before that our international line up of Winston Peters, Judith Collins, and Todd McClay is a dream team. McClay is proving to be a standout trade minister already having secured the deal in the UAE and repairing our much beleaguered relationship with India. As Young says, if he manages the India deal with dairy getting some wins he will be 10/10. As things are now, she has given him a fair 8/10.

Poor old Tama Potaka has been under sustained fire from Opposition for much of the first part of this term. He has effectively been assigned the insulting title of “Kūpapa” which was what Māori who fought on the British side in the New Zealand Wars of the 19th century were called. He has weathered the storm well and with few slip ups. His work with Bishop on emergency housing has produced great results, but he has been quiet on conservation. I agree with his 6/10.

Matt Doocey needs to be dropped from Cabinet. He has one portfolio (Mental Health) and appears to be doing sweet ‘eff all to improve it. Young asserts that he retains his position because he is from the South Island; I suggest it has more to do with his loyalty to Luxon. I am not sure where Young finds 5 points to give him, I would feel generous giving him a 2.

I disagree with Young on Simon Watts also. He is another one who owes his position in part to his loyalty (ahem sycophancy) to the Prime Minister. He is full of bluster and notoriously bad at listening. I worry a great deal about him wanting the accolades from the media and so making stupid climate change and energy decisions. He is not reading the room domestically or globally. His arrogance will continue to get him in trouble as evidenced by his dismissal of the rural sector and refusal to meet with Federated Farmers until recently. My concerns are echoed in his local government portfolio. With local elections and the Māori ward referendums coming up, I do not have confidence in his willingness to champion the coalition’s positions if he fears he will get bad press. He is a potential liability. Young says 7/10; I say 4/10.

In agreement with Shane Jones’ 8/10. He is winning across the board by championing the working class, mining, and regional development. He is spectacular to watch in the House eviscerating the wokesters in Te Pāti Māori and Greens too.

Casey Costello is a survivor. She was one of the Opposition’s first targets and they failed to take her out. Also an ex-police officer, she has worked solidly with Mitchell as his associate minister. She has championed women’s rights in maternity care and by telling the painfully woke Health New Zealand to stop using ridiculous language like “people with uteruses” or “people with the potential for child birth” instead of “women”. Young has given her a 6/10. I nudge her up to 7.

David Seymour is embattled. The media reported more thoroughly on school lunches than virtually any other topic in recent memory. Radio New Zealand practically had a dedicated team on it. The media even ran out of credible sources, reporting at one point that blogger Emily Writes knew someone whose child opened her serving of lunch only for a fly to emerge. This fly needs to be studied for apocalyptic resilience because the hot food is so throughly heated that no ordinary fly would survive the process. In fact, in other articles we were told the lunches were so thermonuclear that they have caused injury.

Seymour’s consistency and disciplined communications on the Treaty Principles Bill were admirable in the face of more hostility than we have possibly ever seen in Parliament. He is not one to talk about the threats he receives but I suspect they were a magnitude that far exceeded the so-called “immense” amounts the Greens claim Benjamin Doyle received. It will be very interesting to see where he takes the issue of equal rights now that the Bill has been voted down.

There have been grumblings of a new attack channel in the media with charter schools being portrayed as his latest failure. This is a premature diagnosis and we should wait and see. Young gives Seymour an 8/10 which surprises me given the bollocking the media gives him. For his pure resilience I will agree with that mark.

Brooke van Velden is a composed minister who has been a steady hand. As Young details, her portfolios have made her enemy number one of the unions and her party quite enjoy that. She is not prone to emotional reactions so the Opposition’s tactics of “she is a bad person” appear to bounce off her. 7/10 is about right.

Nicole McKee has been a bit disappointing for me. I have heard through various channels that she is quite captured by her officials and seems to not understand that she can disagree with their advice. I personally am over the gun conversation, but it was always going to be a priority for her. I want to know what is being done to sort out the backlog in our court system. Her focus on that portfolio is desperately needed. Justice requires speedy trials and we are getting absurdly far from anything remotely resembling that. Young says 7/10; I say 6/10.

Promote Chris Penk to Cabinet. Matt Doocey can be dropped. I agree with Young’s glowing report of Penk and the impressive workload he is achieving outside of Cabinet. He deserves a seat at the Cabinet table, but swapping him in for Doocey would mean Luxon would lose his most liberal minister for one who is more conservative. The building sector and veterans are very happy with him and he would excel with larger portfolios. He also has a great sense of humour enjoyed by MPs from all over the House. Well deserved 9/10.

Penny Simmonds and Nicola Grigg both got 5/10 from Young and I think that is pretty generous. Simmonds has little to do on the environmental front with the big boys working on the RMA. She had disabilities taken off her and part of the tertiary education portfolio is gone too. Nicola Grigg was on maternity leave for six months so that should be taken into account, but she is very quiet. I am cynical about the Ministry for Women anyway because the bureaucrats think men can be women, but she seems to think attending brunches and making statements on Women’s Day is the extent of the job. Both deserve a 3/10.

James Meager is too new to be properly assessed, but if his time leading the Justice Select Committee is anything to go by he is one to watch. If, as Young asserts, Doocey is in Cabinet because he is from the South Island, Meager would be a much better replacement. Young has given him 7/10 and I don’t feel like I can disagree, but as I say he is very new.

Scott Simpson has been a great whip for the National caucus. He is diligent and organised and, as Young says, he is a “safe pair of hands”. I found it very strange that he was plastered across the front page of the Herald simply because he did the right thing and preemptively recused himself from the supermarket review as a family member owns one. It was framed up as a scandal when it was really just a minister identifying a conflict and taking appropriate action. Young gives him 6/10 and that is probably fair.

Andrew Hoggard is an effective advocate for rural and agricultural communities. He has been in the background making good changes and handling some tricky situations. I agree with 7/10.

Karen Chhour has been under as much fire as her party leader. She has copped a lot of standard Opposition flak, but she also faced some seriously nasty behaviour from Te Pāti Māori and the other opposition parties. Mariameno Kapa-Kingi has disgraced herself on multiple occasions with her vile comments about Chhour’s ‘Māoriness’ and the fact that she was a child who went through state care. Oranga Tamariki is a nightmare for any minister and she is making inroads. “Boot camps will be an ongoing challenge” is possibly an understatement from Young! 7/10 is right.

I can’t say I have paid much attention to New Zealand First’s Mark Patterson. On the one hand that means there have been no dramas and scandals! Young points out he has had a win on wool procurement, but that is kind of it. She gives him 6/10, but I think 5/10.

So that is what Audrey Young and I think. What do you think? Let me know who your top performers are and who is struggling.