Parliament full of finger-pointing, grandstanding, as the reality of climate change bites

ANALYSIS: As Aucklanders lugged their sandbags out in anticipation of yet another extreme weather event, days after evacuations in Tasman after heavy rain and while the cleanup continues in Hawke’s Bay, the political game-playing revved up.

The games are likely to ramp up even more next week, with the highly anticipated ‘no frills’ Budget 2023 out on Thursday. Stuff will be in the ‘lock-up’ hall, with all the details, interviews and analysis of what it means for the everyday New Zealander once the doors open.

The pre-Budget announcements so far have been relatively ho-hum. There really haven’t been any frills – $240 million on defence assets and infrastructure and $400m for defence pay increases to stop staff leaving; there’s been a much-needed $20m to protect Westport from flooding and $300m to the green investment fund NZGIF to push low-emissions technologies.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins previously signalled any climate policies would need to factor in the cost of living crisis – which isn’t hard given people can lose their homes and lives to climate change.

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The prime minister’s head has been turned to the climate, and it is understood a significant package for the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery is set to be announced on Sunday, largely focused on resilience.

The Budget, despite the ‘no-frills’ approach, will be more than the cyclone. Sunday’s pre-Budget announcement should largely cover the cyclone allocation, leaving more surprises in store on Budget day.

It is Hipkins’ first as prime minister – with the Westport and Sunday’s pre-Budget announcements setting the scene for conversations to heat up on multi-generational approaches to climate change ahead of the election.

It is all about what needs to happen to community resilience in the face of extreme weather events, an issue that inevitably will come up again and again for any government.

This has been a week of finger-pointing, grandstanding and politicians accusing each other, and the media, of talking about the wrong things.

Asked about National’s recent announcement that it would not work with Te Pāti Māori, Climate Change Minister James Shaw said the focus should be on people who had lost their lives to extreme weather, “not on the kind of gamesmanship that you see around here”.

So, turning the focus, he was asked about the urgent changes he pledged to lookat in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle.

He wanted swift answers from officials on whether there were immediate interventions to help build long-term resilience, rather than reverting to the status quo, which would “increase a lot of people’s risk”.

It’s been months since he said that.

This was his answer on Wednesday: “There are some things in train and I can’t speak to them yet because they haven’t finally gone through Cabinet, but there’ll be some announcements in the coming weeks.”

People who have lost their homes, and families who have lost loved ones because of climate change should not have to accept bureaucratic waffle from any politician.

At a media conference called by Christopher Luxon, at which the National Party leader accused Te Pāti Māori of grandstanding and ruled them out as coalition partners, Luxon, too, wanted the focus shifted.

“What New Zealanders need right now is none of this stuff, none of this stuff that’s been happening over the last week.’’

When a reporter later asked if it would make his job harder to pull the numbers to form a government, Luxon bafflingly replied, “I know you guys want to talk about that stuff.

“All I’m saying to you is it’s all about the New Zealand people who actually want to be able to get on and get a government who gets things done for them.”

To be fair, Luxon has been asked frequently whether National would work with Te Pāti Māori and it is beneficial to be transparent with the public about who you’re not keen on. It saves the media five months of guessing games and trying to read between the lines.

National deputy leader Nicola Willis took a strong stance to slashing wasteful spending, urging the finance minister to add a bit of backbone to ensure that every dollar he was spending “is being spent as well as a struggling New Zealander would spend it in their family right now”.

Until it came to flying Jetstar. Willis was asked about flying with the airline, and if a National government would like public servants and MPs to use that airline to save money.

“It actually depends on whether it’s a real saving on money because sometimes what happens with senior public servants’ diaries, as things change quickly and you don’t want to be in a situation where you can’t get a refund,” she said.

“So it does need to be a case-by-case approach to see whether the savings are real. We’ve got MPs who are scattered throughout the regions.”

A spark of consistency came from Parliament, when Luxon spoke about “one person, one vote”. He seemed loosely to promise to look into binning the rule that gives people who own multiple properties in different jurisdictions more votes than others.

Hopefully next week will see politicians turn the focus from themselves, as New Zealanders continue to face the reality of climate change and the cost of living crisis.

But one cohesive thought can hardly give voters confidence that their politicians have suddenly become focused on policy rather than politics.

This has, after all, been a week of stones being thrown in glass houses. With the Budget heading to the printers, we’ve seen politicians from all sides preoccupied with getting their attack lines ready ahead of the election.