Driven by Aussie-UK media, the criticisms were unwarranted
Peter Wilson
Wellington, May 2, 2021
Weekly Analysis: The famous ‘Orewa Speech’ of former National Party Leader Don Brash speech is recalled as current Leader Judith Collins campaigns against ‘racist separation;’ an international defence analyst says that the Five Eyes controversy is ‘a beat-up’ and the government’s flagship New Zealand Upgrade Programme runs into problems.
No Racist Separation
Judith Collins’ hard line against what she called racist separation and segregation drew reaction last week, including references to Don Brash’s 2004 Orewa ‘One Law for all’ speech.
The National Leader strongly opposes the government’s proposed Maori Health Authority and told RNZ’s Morning Report that her Party would not pursue policies of “racist separation” when dealing with poverty and lack of opportunity.
She said that socioeconomic statistics pointing to inequities faced by Maori reflected that poverty and simply highlighted the need to address obstacles in the way of all citizens to achieve success.
“It is not actually an issue of race, there is nothing in being Maori that intrinsically makes anyone more in need in the health system. We are not going to go down that path, any more than the National Party will ever agree to racist separation in education or in the justice sector,” Ms Collins said.
Appalling Idea
The New Zealand Herald quoted her as saying that the proposed authority was segregation from the last century which would divide New Zealand into ‘Maori and everyone else.’
“As far as the National Party is concerned, segregation was an appalling idea of the last century and it remains an appalling idea in 2021,” she said.
Politik’s Richard Harman said that her comments “almost sound like an echo of Don Brash’s Orewa speech, she is now campaigning against separatism”.
Political commentator Ben Thomas, a former National government Press Secretary, recalled the impact of Brash’s Orewa speech in an article published by Stuff.
“The reason this card remains so tempting to play is the dim political memory of National Leader Don Brash’s 2004 Orewa speech which led to a sudden, meteoric rise in National’s polling. Since then … ‘one law for all’ has been regarded as having an almost magical power, an ever-tempting get-out-of-jail-free card or a nuclear option for oppositions in the wilderness.”
Mr Thomas interpreted Collins’ comments as “the clearest signal yet that she feels under intense pressure for the leadership.”
Five Eyes under scrutiny
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had some forthright comments to make as well when she spoke to media following a Zoom meeting with the US Chamber of Commerce and was asked about Five Eyes.
New Zealand’s attitude to the intelligence-gathering alliance which includes the US, Britain, Canada and Australia was under scrutiny last week following critical reporting in Britain and Australia.
Five Eyes has widened its remit to issue joint statements criticising other countries for human rights violations and anti-democratic measures, something which Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said she was “uncomfortable” with.
New Zealand has not signed up to some of the statements criticising China, although it has issued its own.
Intense reaction
Ms Mahuta’s comment caused some intense reaction, with the Telegraph’s Defence Editor Con Coughlin suggesting New Zealand could face expulsion.
Prominent former British politician Nigel Farage told Newstalk ZB New Zealand had betrayed the English-speaking world and “sold its soul to China.”
Former Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that New Zealand had alienated itself and Five Eyes was now “more like four eyes and a wink.”
Ms Ardern said that New Zealand had an independent foreign policy and she rejected any suggestion that diplomatic relations with its Five Eyes partners were strained.
Strategic importance
“For us, Five Eyes will continue and will always be very, very strategically important to New Zealand. Going forward, we will continue to make sure that we work with our partners around issues like human rights and democracy and, as we have always done, we will make sure that we raise these concerns in those arenas on an ongoing basis,” she said.
Regarding increasing tensions between China and Five Eyes, she said New Zealand had never chosen sides. “In having that independent foreign policy over decades, we have never been in the position of choosing sides.”
Media driven campaign
International Defence Analyst Paul Buchanan asked on First Up as to why New Zealand was coming under such intense criticism and said that it was interesting that none of it had come from Five Eyes governments.
“It has come from the conservative media, mostly in the UK and Australia. The criticism in my mind is completely unwarranted because New Zealand has done nothing but reaffirm the original purpose of Five Eyes,” he said.
Mr Buchanan said that using an intelligence collection network for diplomatic initiatives undermined the diplomats who should be responsible for those initiatives.
“Let us remember, this is not a defence alliance, it is not a diplomatic coalition, it is an intelligence collection and sharing network,” he said.
Good relations intact
Mr Buchanan said that the security relationship in general between New Zealand and its Five Eyes partners was the best it had been since the non-nuclear row in the mid-80s.
His conclusion was: “I think what we have here is a beat-up, put quite simply, and it is going to go away because neither the intelligence partners nor their governments have made any criticism of New Zealand’s stance.”
Food for National’s thought
Revelations in a report by Stuff’s Thomas Coughlan this week have given National something to work on in Parliament if it decides to have another go at Labour for failing to deliver on its promises.
His report, based on documents gained under the Official Information Act, was headlined ‘Government may axe promised roads as costs mount in $12 billion infrastructure package.’
The flagship New Zealand Upgrade Programme (NZUP) was announced in January last year, when Ms Ardern described it as “a once in a lifetime opportunity to invest in New Zealand.”
It included upgrades to schools, hospitals and infrastructure but the centrepiece was $6.8 billion for transport projects with $5.3 billion to be spent on roads.
Mr Coughlan reported that the Programme was “in danger of collapse” with Transport Minister Michael Wood now refusing to say whether all the 22 promised projects would actually be built in the way they were announced.
“That puts the fate of $6.8 billion worth of road and rail infrastructure up in the air and could lead to projects like Auckland’s $1.3 billion Mill Road or Wellington’s $817 million Otaki to North of Levin (Road), and the $258 million Melling Interchange either pared back or dropped entirely,” the report said.
Budget Blowout
The problem is a familiar one – budget blow-out.
The costs, when the programme was announced, were taken from NZTA Waka Kotahi estimates. It then went back and worked on more detailed costings, called baselining.
That took almost a year. Ministers were regularly updated and were warned that costs could be significantly higher – and any over-runs would force Wood to ask for more government money.
Mr Wood told Stuff that cost escalation had been seen across the country post-Covid.
“Given that the Programme was announced pre-Covid, a baselining exercise has been done to provide more certainty around the scope, cost and scheduling of the programme,” he said.
Asked specifically whether he would commit to delivering all the projects, Mr Wood declined to answer, the report said.
Instead, he said that the government was weighing up its options and that the Ministers were considering this advice and an announcement will be made in the future.
Politically contentious
The programme was politically contentious at that time because within it were roads that National wanted to build if it won the 2017 election. They were subsequently set aside by the incoming Labour-led government. It then resurrected them in the NZUP.
National Transport spokesman Michael Woodhouse accused the government of a “flip-flop-flip” and said that it should top up the NZUP fund and get the roads built.
Other developments
The New Zealand Police handed over the Maori Party donations case to the Serious Fraud Office. The Party had failed to declare more than $300,000 of donations to the Electoral Commission on time. Party President Che Wilson said that the mistake was made by volunteers who were “learning the ropes.”
The National Party did not declare a $35,000 donation on time and was given a warning.
Unknown sums of money are being handed over to moteliers to cover damage caused by emergency housing clients – officials are not keeping track of it and cannot put a total figure on it, RNZ reported.
National housing spokesperson Nicola Willis said that it had been extremely difficult to get any information at all and that was unacceptable because it was taxpayer money.
Social Development Minister Carmel Sepuloni admitted the situation was “not ideal.”
Associate Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield held a briefing to report the vaccine rollout was ahead of schedule nationwide although some DHBs were not doing so well. Northland missed its target by nearly 4000 jabs and has been given a talking to.
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. The above Report has been published under a special agreement with www.rnz.co.nz
