Jacinda Ardern’s reshuffle exposes lack of talent

Nanaia Mahuta’s retention of both local government and foreign affairs portfolios shows just how much power the Maori caucus wields.

Nanaia Mahuta with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: AFP.

When New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern downplayed this week’s reshuffle of her Cabinet as “minor” not everyone agreed with her assessment.

Replacing a Police Minister and announcing the minister who holds the broadcasting, justice and immigration portfolios would be leaving politics, alongside the Speaker of the House, is, by most reckoning, an upheaval.

Police Minister Poto Williams’ fate was not entirely unexpected, despite Ardern saying just last week that she had “every confidence” in her. Williams had become a target for Opposition attacks over escalating gang violence and a rash of ram raids. She was widely viewed as ineffectual and did herself no favours by claiming that the accusation she was “soft on crime” was “a very gendered statement”.

Kris Faafoi had a patchy record in both the immigration and broadcasting and media portfolios and had dismally failed, as Justice Minister, to sell hate speech laws to a largely sceptical public. He had wanted to retire for some time and his enthusiasm for his heavy workload was waning.

Few will lament Trevor Mallard’s departure after 35 years in Parliament. He has been a controversial Speaker, not least because of his bizarre decision to turn sprinklers on vaccine-mandate protesters at Parliament early this year and subject them to cruel and unusual punishment by playing Barry Manilow’s music at high volume.

And that’s not to mention his extraordinary decision to trespass former MPs — including former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters — from Parliament for two years for visiting the protest site.

Perhaps the most curious feature of the reshuffle, however, was that Nanaia Mahuta was left untouched, keeping both local government and foreign affairs portfolios.

Nanaia Mahuta (L) in bilateral talks with Samoan Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata'afa this week. Picture: Getty Images.

Although she will travel to Rwanda on Sunday for next week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), Mahuta has come under heavy fire for neglecting travel to the Pacific at a time when China is aggressively extending its reach among small island nations. Her lack of on-the-ground diplomacy has been compared unfavourably to the energetic approach of her Australian counterpart, Penny Wong.

Wong meets Mahuta in Wellington on Thursday — a visit New Zealand’s Foreign Minister welcomed, declaring without a trace of embarrassment that she was “looking forward to hearing about Senator Wong’s recent travels to the Pacific”.

But rather than following Wong’s lead, Mahuta seems to be mostly focused on her domestic portfolio, progressing her Three Waters project that which will mean the government seizing the water assets of the nation’s 67 local authorities and dividing them between four vast regional entities, which will be co-governed with iwi (Maori tribes).

It is arguably the government’s most unpopular policy, and has provoked fierce opposition from councils and the public. In fact, a poll in January showed that only 26 per cent of New Zealanders were in support, with 40 per cent opposed. (Thirty-five per cent were not willing to offer an opinion.)

It is increasingly clear that Mahuta cannot do justice to her roles, if only because of the logistical problems facing a Foreign Affairs Minister at the bottom of the world who needs to travel but has demanding responsibilities at home.

As the leader of the right-leaning Act Party, David Seymour, colourfully put it: “You cannot be the Minister of Local Government, responsible for connecting the pipes in Eketahuna, and be the Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for advancing New Zealand’s interests at the Élysée Palace in Paris … Those roles should have been split.”

The fact that Mahuta remains in both ministerial roles has been seen as evidence of how little talent is available to Ardern and how much power the Māori caucus wields. Ardern has been described as the caucus’ political hostage, and her apparent unwillingness to make Mahuta choose between the two portfolios is taken as confirmation of that view.

Indeed, in the wake of the reshuffle, former Labour cabinet minister Michael Bassett said Mahuta was Foreign Minister “in name only”, adding: “Mahuta holds a Rasputin-like grip over Jacinda, who seems permanently in thrall to anything promoting Māori that Nanaia comes up with.”

To ease her burden, Wairarapa’s Kieran McAnulty has been made Associate Minister of Local Government but his promotion has been interpreted principally as a way of having a rural MP sell the Three Waters project to mostly hostile rural communities. It remains uncertain if his support will mean Mahuta will pay any more attention to her foreign affairs role.

On January 1, news outlet Stuff predicted 2022 would see a Cabinet reshuffle in which, “Nanaia Mahuta loses the local government portfolio [that] will help to dampen the vitriol from those riled by the prospect of Māori involvement in governance of water entities, and allow her to travel more as Foreign Minister.”

So far, there is no sign of that prediction being fulfilled.

Graham Adams is an editor and journalist who writes mainly about New Zealand politics