National Party leader Christopher Luxon (L) found himself having to explain his comments about New Zealand being a 'negative, wet, whiney, inward looking country' and a Cabinet Office review cleared Labour MP Stuart Nash (R) of further confidentiality breaches but did discover a minor conflict of interest involving an appointment. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon and Dom Thomas
Analysis - It was Fieldays week and that meant Labour and National courting the farmers with enticing policies.
Opposition leader Christopher Luxon announced National's policy, which pushes back the deadline for pricing agricultural emissions to 2030 and rules out putting the sector under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
The party's agriculture spokesman, Todd McClay, said it was all about giving farmers the tools they needed to cut methane emissions.
"National is committed to reaching net zero by 2050 but we believe New Zealand's path to emission reductions in agriculture is through technology, not less production," he said.
The party is promising a "fair and sustainable" pricing system by 2030 at the latest, RNZ reported.
The government's position is that it is still working to a 2025 deadline through a deal that is being worked out with the sector-led group He Waka Eke Noa.
National was involved in that but it walked away and has done its own thing.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said National was treating climate change with contempt.
"They seem to be saying they're committed to net zero by 2050 but they seem to have absolutely no idea how they're going to deliver on that," he said.
"In fact they have opposed every single thing that the government has been doing to help us achieve that goal."
Hipkins had his own good news package for farmers.
It included $17.7 million for a new greenhouse gas testing facility and $4.3m going towards soil and grass research.
The testing facility would make it possible to measure changes to methane emissions in individual cows.
Hipkins also ruled out a fertiliser tax, which until now had been a very unpopular possibility.
Beside Hipkins was Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor, saying primary producers made more than $53 billion in export earnings for the first time ever last year and the sector was set to reach new heights this year.
National would have had clear air for its agriculture policy if Luxon had not come down with a case of foot in mouth.
Talking to a group of farmers in Helensville on Monday, television cameras caught him saying: "We have become a very negative, wet, whiney, inward looking country and we have lost the plot and we have got to get our mojo back."
He spent the next couple of days trying to explain what he meant and make sure everyone knew he was a patriot and New Zealand was a great country.
He had actually been talking about New Zealand under the Labour government, not New Zealanders, he said.
The new version was: "There's nothing wrong with New Zealand or New Zealanders. It's the best country on planet earth and we have endless potential. I'm a big, patriotic Kiwi."
He put up a Facebook post, again saying New Zealand was the best country in the world "but under Labour we've been heading in the wrong direction and lost our mojo".
It gave Hipkins an opportunity to have a crack at Luxon while out and about at Fieldays: "I haven't met anyone who's wet, I haven't met anyone who's whiney, I haven't met anyone who's inward-looking, I haven't met anyone who's really negative - admittedly I haven't run into Christopher Luxon yet."
Government minister Willie Jackson went further and said Luxon owed every New Zealander an apology for his "disgraceful comment" about the country, Newshub reported.
"He is talking down our country while proposing policy that is harsh, mean and stupid," Jackson said.
"He is nothing more than a negative hater fixated on helping the few and not the many."
Was Luxon right with his "wet and whiney" comment? Stuff ran a (very unscientific) poll to find out.
It asked its website readers to click on "Yeah, that's about right" or "Nah, that ain't us".
By Thursday there had been 31,224 clicks and 62 percent thought he had been about right. The rest did not. Maybe Luxon should have just stuck with what he said the first time.
It was not one of Luxon's best weeks, although Hipkins last week set a benchmark for bad ones.
The Herald revealed Luxon had a fully taxpayer-funded Tesla on order for his use at the same time he was bashing the government's electric vehicle policy, known as feebate, for subsidising "wealthy Tesla drivers".
As leader of the opposition Luxon was entitled to a self-drive car for his own use, bought and fully owned by Parliamentary Services.
"The Herald understands Luxon was talked out of ordering the car by horrified staff and at least one senior MP, who believed the purchase would be a massive political risk," the report said.
It quoted a spokesperson for Luxon saying Parliamentary Services repeatedly reminded Luxon he was entitled to a self-drive car.
"After initially indicating he would take up the offer, Mr Luxon quickly concluded he did not need it and cancelled the order," the spokesperson said.
Luxon told Newshub he had saved taxpayers money by not taking the car.
He already owns a Tesla, which is kept in Auckland.
The Herald report concluded that the episode had shone a light on Luxon's political judgement and "raised eyebrows in the National Party" at his inability to see political risk.
The prime minister and ministers are allowed self-drive cars but former prime minister Jacinda Ardern set down a more modest list they could choose from which did not include Teslas.
The Greens had their big moment this week with the release of a policy which would ensure no one received less than $385 a week after tax.
It would be funded through higher taxes on top earners, trusts and businesses, RNZ reported.
Co-leader Marama Davidson said the "income guarantee" would mean at least $770 for a couple while a single parent would always have an income of at least $735.
The policy would also mean anyone earning under $125,000 would pay less tax, and there would be a tax-free threshold of $10,000.
Co-leader James Shaw said he was "sick of the politics of excuses" when it came to lifting families out of poverty.
"Everything we need to make life better for people in Aotearoa exists, what's missing is the political willpower to use it," he said.
The Green Party released its tax policy, proposing an 'income guarantee' that would mean no one received less than $385 a week after tax. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
National's finance spokesperson Nicola Willis said the policy would gut the country of investment and opportunity. Businesses would flee offshore or close down.
Hipkins was not keen on commenting, saying every party would bring its own tax policy to the election campaign and it would not be long before Labour's was out.
The day before the Greens released the policy the Herald published a report saying a small number of New Zealanders had hundreds of billions of dollars in assets stashed away in trusts.
"The data is striking: of the 201,100 trusts that filed returns for the 2021-22 income year, 149,500 disclosed an astonishing $469 billion in assets - $3.1 million on average," the report said.
Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick said the problem was not just the level of wealth but the fact it was relatively lightly taxed.
IRD earlier this year found wealthy New Zealanders paid a median effective tax rate of 9.4 percent, about half the rate of tax paid by a "middle wealth" Kiwi which is about 20.2 percent.
The Herald report was put together from data obtained by the Greens using written Parliamentary questions.
The Michael Wood airport shares affair was on hold this week after dominating the media for most of last week.
Sir Maarten Wevers, the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests, has started his investigation into Wood's failure to declare his shareholding when he should have.
That has enabled Hipkins to say he is holding off on any further comment or judgement until it has been published, although it only covers part of Wood's failings.
The other part is why he did not sell the shares after being reminded 12 times by the Cabinet Office that he should.
He sold them last week and donated the money, $16,000, to charity.
Statistics NZ reported on Thursday that GDP had contracted for the second consecutive quarter, meaning New Zealand was in a technical recession.
The March quarter contraction was tiny, 0.1 percent, but it was enough for National to warn of an "incredibly fragile" economy and blame the government for economic mismanagement.
"Excessive inflation, high interest rates, a severe balance of payments deficit and now recession: this is a dangerous combination that threatens New Zealanders' livelihoods," said Nicola Willis.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said the result was not a surprise and reflected the impact of the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.
"We know 2023 is a challenging year as global growth slows, inflation has stayed higher for longer and the impacts of North Island weather events continue to disrupt households and businesses," he said.
Economists said the good news was that the contracting economy should put an end to Reserve Bank interest rate rises.
On Friday the Cabinet Office released its report on the inquiry it held into Stuart Nash.
He was sacked in March for sharing confidential Cabinet information with two donors, and the inquiry was held to find out whether there were any other such incidents.
The report said there were not, although it did discover a minor conflict of interest involving an appointment.
Cabinet Secretary Rachel Haywood said it was at the lower end of transgressions.
Nash said in a statement he hoped the report would "draw a line under this issue".
He previously announced he would not stand for re-election, and said in his statement he was looking forward to building a post-political career "and contributing to our wonderful country in other ways".
Hipkins said he had asked for the inquiry to satisfy himself there were no other instances of Nash sharing confidential Cabinet information.
"I'm pleased there were none," he said. "Stuart Nash has already paid the ultimate price for his actions by being removed as a minister. He is also retiring from politics at the upcoming election."
The last word goes to Sunday Star Times editor Tracy Watkins.
She foresees the election campaign being very different than those of the past, and it worries her. Here is why:
"A public meeting in Hamilton last week is a peek into the madness that awaits," she said in an editorial.
"Hundreds of conspiracists took over the meeting, claiming citizens arrests of Hamilton's deputy mayor and other councillors.
"Elected representatives were booed off the stage and shouted down as cowards by a 400-strong mob that had earlier chanted that Jacinda Ardern was a witch."
Watkins said the danger in this type of behaviour was ending up with a canned campaign where most of the action would take place on TV or laptops, or in carefully-managed photo ops and stunts with minimal spontaneous public appearances.
"Let's hope that's not the case, but it's hard to see how to avoid it," she said.
*Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament's press gallery, 22 years as NZPA's political editor and seven as parliamentary bureau chief for NZ Newswire.
