Best and worst celebrity politicians as Taine Randell announces candidacy for NZ First – Audrey Young

Sounds like he has been to the Shane Jones candidate school. By the way, Willie Jackson tried and failed to woo Randell to Labour in 2023.

Until now, Chris Laidlaw is probably the best-known All Black to have entered national politics before Randell. He was elected as a Labour MP in a byelection in 1992 and lasted only a year.

Louisa Wall, who was a former Silver Fern and former Black Fern, had a more substantial career with Labour and got same-sex marriage passed into law. National’s former All Blacks have included Ben Couch, Grahame Thorne and Tony Steele.

Tāmati Coffey was a television celebrity before he was elected as a Labour MP in 2017 for six years.

New Zealand First had a brush with a celebrity politician when former TV weatherman Brendan Horan became a list MP in 2011. He was expelled a year later after a dispute over family money and became an independent MP.

Television sports presenter Hayley Holt missed out on joining the Greens as a list MP in 2017.

Former radio broadcaster Pam Corkery made it in 1999 as an Alliance MP but didn’t stand the following election.

Te Pāti Māori’s Oriini Kaipara was a television presenter before she won the seat in last year’s byelection. Tukoroirangi Morgan was a TV3 television reporter before winning Te Tai Hauauru for New Zealand First in 1996.

And how could we forget Maggie Barry of radio and Garden Show fame, who was elected in 2011 and became Conservation Minister under Sir John Key, never far from controversy?

Arguably, the most successful recent celebrity politicians were Don Brash and Christopher Luxon, who were business luminaries from the Reserve Bank and Air New Zealand before their elections in 2002 and 2020 respectively. Both rose to the leadership of National a year after their elections.

Act has also pulled off a coup in getting the highly capable lawyer James Christmas to switch allegiances from National. He is a Treaty of Waitangi expert, having advised former minister Chris Finlayson, Sir John Key and Sir Bill English on it. He has also been a member of the panel that reviewed Treaty clauses in legislation, which he described as “an unholy mess”.

Christmas is seeking selection in Tāmaki, which deputy leader Brooke van Velden is vacating. There are eight candidates in the running, but given that leader David Seymour told the Herald on Sunday that Christmas was future leadership material, it’s pretty clear who he wants. The selection will take place on Sunday by the party board, but it must seek the views of the electorate.

The fact that Christmas has the support of Act royalty in Seymour, Richard Prebble and Sir Roger Douglas did not stop the right on social media from going into overdrive over his candidacy, pejoratively describing him as a woke, homosexual, vegan, Māori-loving recruit (he is not vegan, by the way).

I asked him this morning what he thought of Act’s Treaty Principles Bill and of Cameron Luxton’s member’s bill which would ban councils from giving voting rights to unelected members of council committees or subcommittees. He said he didn’t have a problem with Luxton’s bill, and, on the Treaty bill, he said he hoped he could bring some expertise to the ongoing debate.

The fuel crisis has led to a downsizing of New Zealand’s representation for Anzac Day commemorations at Gallipoli next week. Normally, the Air Force would load up a gas-guzzling plane of veterans, politicians, other dignitaries and media for the event. This year, however, New Zealand will be represented by Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro, who is travelling commercially on planes that would have been flying anyway. It will be her last chance to represent New Zealand there, as her term ends on March 31 next year. A good outcome.

The Government is announcing a swag of appointments this month, before early May when it will be six months before the election on November 7 and will be considered inappropriate to make significant appointments. This morning, Simeon Brown announced a new chairman of the Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora board, Mark Darrow, who will take over from Lester Levy for three years on May 1. Earlier this week, Cameron Brewer announced a new Retirement Commissioner, David Boyle, to replace the retiring Jane Wrightson, and Brooke van Velden has announced a new chairman of the New Zealand Lotteries Commission, Tony Balfour, to replace the retiring Mark Todd. You can also expect an announcement soon on the Regulatory Standards Board.

• Reshuffle effect: Is it just me or has Chris Bishop made a lot more media appearances since losing a couple of big jobs in the Cabinet reshuffle?

• MPs abroad: Finance Minister Nicola Willis is in Washington, DC, for meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank; Louise Upston is in the US for meetings as Tourism Minister; and Speaker Gerry Brownlee has led a delegation to China this week to meet its No 3, Zhao Leji, the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. With Brownlee are Deputy Speaker Barbara Kuriger, Labour MP Damien O’Connor and Green Party MP and Associate Speaker Teanau Tuiono.

• Wednesday win: Congratulations to New Zealand Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan for being named a finalist in the political journalist of the year category in this year’s Voyager Media Awards. The other two finalists are TVNZ political editor Maiki Sherman and RNZ’s Guyon Espiner. Winners will be announced on May 22.

“We are ... reassured and confident because we have our fuel importers providing us with sensitive commercial information that gives us confidence that those orders are confirmed out to the end of May and then planned quite well into June.” – Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at yesterday’s fuel stocks update.

National’s Catherine Wedd is the current MP for Tukituki, but can you name two of the four previous MPs for the electorate, which was formed in 1996? (Answer at the bottom of this article.)

Goes to Labour’s Deborah Russell, whose interview with Newstalk ZB on tax policy yesterday suggests there could be more to come on tax from Labour, contrary to what her leader says. Discipline, Deborah.

Goes to Simeon Brown and David Seymour for plans to allow pharmacists to prescribe funded medicines for relatively straightforward health issues such as lice, conjunctivitis, urinary tract infections and emergency contraception, instead of having to pay full price or needing a GP prescription for a subsidy. Good for patients, good for pharmacies.

Covid response: Ostracised, angry and heart-inflamed – families vent over Covid vaccine rules

Surprise candidate: Energy, water, mass immigration – why ex-All Blacks captain is joining NZ First

Surprise candidate II: National’s former Attorney-General prospect switches allegiance to Act

Oil shock: Christopher Luxon reassures Kiwis not to be concerned by fuel shipment departure delay

Prescription shift: Expanded role for pharmacists announced

Cancer treatment: Government to deliver 13,000 more cancer infusions by end of year

Tax clue: ‘It’s the answer I’m giving you’ – Labour MP won’t say if CGT policy should go further

Tax clue II: David Seymour hints big tax reform may be coming in this year’s Budget

Analysis – tax forecast:Higher GST and a CGT – Inland Revenue says taxes will need to rise – Jenée Tibshraeny

Minerals deal: Inside NZ-US critical minerals plan – why ministry told Herald to destroy sensitive info

Redress law: ‘Heartbreaking and unjust’ – how a woman abused by a nurse as a teenager changed the law

Illicit tobacco: Calls for Government tobacco taskforce to combat growing black market

Quiz answer: Labour’s Anna Lorck, National’s Lawrence Yule, National’s Craig Foss or Labour’s Rick Barker.

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