Judith Collins keeps her cool as China spy revelations heat up – Audrey Young

OPINION

This is a transcript of Audrey Young’s politics newsletter. To sign up for this newsletter or Thursday’s subscriber-only Premium Politics Briefing, click on your profile at nzherald.co.nz and select ‘Newsletters’. For a step-by-step guide, click here.

Welcome to the Politics Briefing. The New Zealand Government today revealed that China was involved in a cyber hack of the Parliamentary Service and the Parliamentary Counsel Office (law drafters) in August 2021. The statement was coordinated with Five Eyes partners the UK, the United States and Australia. Judith Collins, the Minister in Charge of the GCSB, issued the statement this morning and remained as cool as a cucumber as she talked to reporters about it.

State-sponsored hackers are not new in New Zealand. But as Prime Minister Christopher Luxon explained, this is the first time a China-backed hacker has been identified breaking into the parliamentary system. The institution of Parliament sits at the heart of New Zealand’s democracy and once the source of the breach was confirmed, it was clearly worth calling out publicly, he reasoned. Few would disagree. If not then, when?

Labour’s GCSB minister, Andrew Little, called out a hack by China in July 2021 but that was not into Government systems. Andrew Clark, the Director-General of the GCSB, told reporters this morning the hackers were linked to China’s Ministry of State Security.

Tax cut chorus grows

Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday released her first pre-Budget decisions, on Early Childhood Education (ECE) refunds. It is not complicated in principle but it is bound to be in practice. It provides a 25 per cent reimbursement on ECE fees up to a maximum of $75 a week for households earning up to $140,000 a year, with payments abating up to an annual household income of $180,000. The refunds will be paid out by the IRD every three months after the electronic presentation of invoices and income information. Treasury estimates that 100,000 households will be eligible for some refund and that 21,000 households will be eligible for the maximum. Each payment will be full and final. There will be no tax bills or “square-ups” at the end of the year.

It was a timely announcement by Willis yesterday. It followed a chorus of calls by commentators over the weekend for the Government to abandon or delay its tax cuts in the May Budget and continued questions about the costings in her pre-election fiscal plan by the Council of Trade Unions. She will release the Budget Policy Statement tomorrow, setting out the priorities of the Budget and the parameters of operational and capital expenditure.

Learnings required

Meanwhile, Luxon gave notice at his post-Cabinet press conference yesterday that he plans to outline new targets very soon for the second quarter of the year. It was also clear that the Prime Minister is having difficulty letting go of the management-speak he used in his former role as a CEO. “I love talking about that because it is actually how we are operationalising our government,” he said.

Asked about new reports into how emergency management services both locally and nationally handled Cyclone Gabrielle last year, Luxon replied: “The minister and I are actually very focused and fixated on making sure we get maximum learnings out of the events… We need to understand those learnings, internalise those recommendations, understand how it will improve our operating going forward.”

Quote unquote

“I don’t need Craig Renney’s reckons on how much it will cost because I’ve got the Treasury and he can wait until the Budget” – Finance Minister Nicola Willis gets frustrated at the CTU economist who continues to question the costings in her pre-election fiscal plan.

Micro quiz

Lyttelton, where SailGP took place, is in the Banks Peninsula electorate. Can you name the four MPs for Banks Peninsula since 1996? (Answer below.)

Brickbat

More gang trouble in Gisborne. The brickbat goes to Destiny Church protesters for painting over a rainbow pedestrian crossing in Gisborne (RNZ). They must have skipped the Bible lessons on tolerance.

Bouquet

Goes to Trade Minister Todd McClay – and former ministers Tim Groser, David Parker and Damian O’Connor – for getting the EU-NZ Free Trade Agreement done after beginning in 2015. It comes into force on May 1.

Latest political news and views

Foreign interference: New Zealand’s Parliamentary systems have been targeted by China-based hackers, the GCSB says.

Childcare rebates: About 100,000 families will be eligible to receive a new childcare tax credit from October this year – as long as they do the paperwork.

Dolphin drama: PM Christopher Luxon says the cancellation of SailGP racing following dolphin sightings symbolises New Zealand’s “obstruction economy”.

Opinion – tax cuts: The Government’s books need knocking into shape before it dishes out inflationary tax cuts, writes Fran O’Sullivan.

Opinion – Labour Party: Tax, leadership and hot-button issues – Audrey Young analyses Chris Hipkins’ first major speech since Labour’s election defeat.

Job cuts: Labour’s Chris Hipkins has hit out at National over a wave of “heartless and cruel” public sector job cuts.

Pharmac: Associate Health Minister David Seymour lays out his plans for drug-buying agency Pharmac, including a scheme to boost its funding.

Media: Veteran TV reporter Maiki Sherman has been appointed TVNZ political editor, the first wahine Māori to lead the 1News political team.

Opinion – spending cuts: The coalition Government has a mandate to cut public spending – up to a point, writes Claire Trevett.

Boot camps: Minister for Children Karen Chhour is defending the decision to pilot boot camps at controversial youth justice residences.

Police recruitment: Labour says Police Minister Mark Mitchell is “trying to pass the buck” over the Government’s commitment to train 500 extra police officers in two years.

Quiz answer: David Carter (National), Ruth Dyson (Labour), Tracey McLellan (Labour) and Vanessa Weenink (National), who currently holds the electorate. (It was called Port Hills for four elections from 2008 but reverted to Banks Peninsula in 2020.)

Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.

For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald’s politics podcast.