Chris Hipkins is acutely aware his prime ministership has taken a beating after a string of ministerial sagas and he’s running out of time before the election to stem the bleeding, writes political editor Jo Moir
Opinion: Stuart Nash, Meka Whaitiri, Michael Wood and Jan Tinetti are all names that have haunted Chris Hipkins’ thinking far too often in the short five months he’s been Prime Minister.
Just how angry he is with the incompetence and blindsiding from those he trusted to be ministers was clear in the final line of his statement announcing Wood’s resignation on Wednesday.
“These have been unnecessary distractions from my firm focus as Prime Minister on delivering what is most important to New Zealanders,” Hipkins despaired, knowing full well it’s his leadership it reflects on.
READ MORE: * Michael Wood resigns as minister * Michael Wood denied any other pecuniary interests * PM getting stung by his own team falling short
Hipkins started his tenure in February leading a national emergency disaster, but ever since he’s been riding out a storm brought upon him by his own team, dealing with one ministerial disaster after another.
The group of people around him who he can actually trust diminishes each week, and questions are rightly being asked as to whether his ministers simply don’t respect the office of the prime minister.
Nash and Wood both misled Hipkins – hamstringing his ability to act fast – and Whaitiri waited until he’d left the country to announce her defection to Te Pāti Māori.
It’s no longer fathomable that Wood is a victim of his own forgetfulness, not even Hipkins believes that anymore.
Even in announcing Wood’s resignation for not disclosing several conflicting shares he held totalling tens of thousands of dollars, Hipkins continued to describe Wood as an “honest and decent person” and a minister who has been “conscientious and hard-working”.
If someone he’s known for decades and considers a friend didn’t come clean to him, can he really trust other MPs in his caucus to get through the next four months without imploding or deceiving him?
Wood got the benefit of a look into the future with Nash’s demise playing out as a warning shot for what happens when you don’t properly disclose conflicts and don’t front up with the truth.
Even then, he wasn't inspired to do anything.
And in his statement following his resignation Wood still hadn’t quite clocked on to the fact that he was solely responsible for the mess he had found himself in, saying “in some respects my de-prioritisation of my personal financial affairs has led to this situation”.
There’s no “some” about it, Wood’s inability to sort out his conflicting shares is completely to blame.
It’s no longer fathomable that Wood is a victim of his own forgetfulness, not even Hipkins believes that anymore.
If Wood had just been a beneficiary of the shares he may well have forgotten, but he was an active trustee and Hipkins told media it just isn’t plausible anymore that he didn’t realise the conflict and manage it.
“I don’t understand why he has not done that, and he still hasn’t given me a good explanation for why he hasn’t done that.
“I don’t accept it was simply something he didn’t get to, it should have been a priority for him, and it wasn’t, and I haven’t heard an adequate explanation for why he didn’t do that,” Hipkins said on Wednesday.
Hipkins fronted media a fed-up and worn-down figure.
In a week when Opposition leader Christopher Luxon hasn’t showered himself in glory with a refusal to accept there are inequities in the health system for Māori and Pasifika, and dodging whether he collected a rebate on his Tesla at the same time he’s been criticising the policy, Hipkins couldn’t get a win.
There are just seven Parliamentary sitting blocks left until the election and every single one of them appears to be ripe for a new scandal.
Hipkins will be dreading getting on a plane to China at the weekend for a week-long trade mission while his scandal-prone caucus stays behind.
If he can’t nip the screw-ups in the bud, even the smaller-scale ones like Tinetti facing the Privileges Committee, he doesn’t have a hope of going on the campaign trail with a straight face and claiming he has a competent team to run the country for the next three years.
* This story has been amended to say Stuart Nash and Michael Wood misled the Prime Minister
