Michael Wood
Auckland, February 23, 2024
Standfirst from the Editor: Indian Newslink has worked closely with Grant Robertson since he began his career at the office of Prime Minister Helen Clark in early 2000, about two months after our newspaper was established. He has since then been a guest at our offices and events. He delivered the Indian Newslink Annual Lecture in 2019. He was with us at the launch of Electionlink for the Labour Party in Auckland on July 10, 2023, at which he declared his fascination for Indian food and said that he would visit India and learn various recipes. Indian Newslink wishes him well in his new assignment as the Vice-Chancellor of Otago University. In essence, the University which shaped his career will welcome him as its Chief.
Grant Robertson leaves parliament this month as one of the most consequential New Zealand politicians of recent decades.
First elected to parliament in 2008, he served as Finance Minister, Minister of Sport, and Deputy Prime Minister during the Sixth Labour government and will take over as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Otago upon retiring from Parliament.
Robertson ranks as one of the great Labour Finance Ministers alongside Walter Nash and Michael Cullen. Like both of these predecessors, he formed a crucial partnership with his Leader that the government was centered around.
His political relationship with Ardern was extraordinarily close, built on a firm friendship that predated their entry to parliament.
From our Archives
Robertson charts a new course for public accountability
A high degree of stability
This closeness enabled a high degree of stability at the heart of government over six years even as a complex coalition arrangement was navigated in the first term, and over the course of successive national crises such as the Christchurch Mosque shootings and the Covid-19 pandemic. While the nation always wants to see its Prime Minister out front when significant events occur, something that Jacinda Ardern excelled at; Grant Robertson would often play the crucial role in working through the policy response and harnessing the machinery of government to deliver.
The establishment of the Wage Subsidy after the first Covid lockdown stands out. In the heat of a public health crisis and the momentous decision to enter the first full nationwide lockdown, it was Robertson who set the Wage Subsidy policy in motion within days, and had payments being made within about six weeks.
It is an intervention that without doubt saved many businesses and jobs.
Such a large-scale policy would usually take well over a year to develop and implement, but his drive and capability saw it roll out at an astonishing pace.
A dignified workforce
The Wage Subsidy was also emblematic of Robertson’s traditional Labour focus – the value of people being in well-paid, dignified work. He often spoke of the experience of the early 1990s recession when huge numbers of young people lost jobs, apprenticeships, and hope at a time when the government took a ‘hands-off’ approach.
He was determined that there would be no repeat on his watch – and he succeeded. While there is always room for debate about individual policy initiatives, the numbers do not lie and Robertson left office as Finance Minister with unemployment at a 40-year low, growing real wages, one of the highest post-Covid growth rates in the developed world, one of the lowest debt positions, and a AAA credit rating.
He was also a Finance Minister who wanted to humanise the way in which the government manages its finances. He did this by introducing ‘wellbeing economics’ to our national Budgets. No longer do New Zealand’s Budgets just measure the money in and money out – they now measure how well (or not) we are doing in making people’s lives better.
So, now, alongside other important measures, year on year you can track how many children are living in poverty in New Zealand’s Budget – something that was reduced by 70,000 on his watch. He always argued that the purpose of an economy was to serve people – not the other way around.
Robertson now returns to his beloved Dunedin to serve as the Vice-Chancellor of Otago University, where he took on his first elected role as Student Union President many years ago. He can do so with his head held high, knowing that he served his Party and his country well.
Michael Wood is a former Minister of the Crown and was a Member of Parliament elected from Mt Roskill from December 2016 to October 2023.
