National's Tom Rutherford

Last week saw the redistribution of some important portfolios between National’s cabinet ministers. The two most important changes were the shift of Dr Shane Reti’s Health portfolio to Simeon Brown and Nicola Willis’ adoption of the new Minister for Economic Growth. 

In Luxon’s State of the Nation speech he spoke about the future of the country and promoting economic growth. He also spoke about his concern about New Zealanders heading overseas to see big name artists perform. 

In our weekly catchup with National’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked about each of these issues, starting with the National Party reshuffle.

The submission period for the Treaty Principles Bill was due to close last week, however, due to mass amounts of last minute submissions leading to software issues, the deadline was extended to 1 pm on Tuesday, 14th January. 

Similarly, the submissions for the consultation period on the regulatory standards bill ended yesterday, another bill primarily pushed by David Seymour and the ACT party that would change how the government processes legislation. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor spoke to him about these bills and how the party plans to operate in 2025.

This week saw the Labour Party’s annual conference, during which party leader Chris Hipkins spoke about the party’s goals and criticised the current National-led government. 

Hipkins named the Dunedin hospital delays, interislander ferry fiasco, and tax breaks for tobacco companies as several issues that would be targeted by a future Labour government. Hipkins then called the government divisive and suggested their policies are taking the country backwards, both due to the Treaty Principles bill and this government’s approach more broadly. 

In our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, Wire host Castor asked him about these issues and how the government would respond as it moves into 2025.

Last week, the Treaty Principles Bill passed it’s first reading in Parliament.

Following this, Te Pāti Māori MP, Hana Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke, initiated a haka in protest, being joined by other members of the party, as well as other MPs from opposition parties such as Labour and the Green Party. On top of this, members of the gallery also performed the haka. This resulted in Speaker, Gerry Brownlee, pausing Parliament for an hour, with Hana Rawhiti Maipa-Clarke, being named by the speaker for ‘disorderly conduct’

For our weekly catchup with the National Party’s Tom Rutherford, News and Editorial Director, Joel, spoke to him about the bill passing its first reading, and the subsequent haka in protest.

They also spoke to him about Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, indicating the country is still considering joining Pillar two of the AUKUS agreement.