David Cohen

New Zealand has just lost one of its most stylish politicians after shoplifting allegations were made against her by two of the country’s high-end fashion stores. The Iranian-born Golriz Ghahraman, who had just begun her third term as a high-profile Green party MP, today announced she will be standing down from parliament with immediate effect. In her resignation statement, Ghahraman said her mental health has been ‘badly affected by the stresses relating to my work’, leading her to ‘act in ways that are completely out of character’. Although she did not address the allegations in any detail, she said she took ‘full responsibility for my actions which I deeply regret’.

After six years of Labour party rule in New Zealand, the country’s foreign policy brings to mind the line about everything being at sea except the fleet. While the conservative National party of prime-minister-elect Christopher Luxon won on familiar-sounding domestic problems – galloping consumer prices, spiking interest rates and urban crime – the importance of foreign policy was not that far away.   For decades, New Zealand has made much of its independent foreign policy stance Luxon, a former airline boss, has hinted that he will be on board the diplomatic jet as soon as he has finished hammering out a coalition agreement.

It may be difficult to imagine a housing crisis more dismal than the one Britain is experiencing right now, but New Zealand’s has come pretty close. One survey of the world’s most advanced economies showed that NZ was the ‘most vulnerable’ in the world for the less well-heeled to buy homes. Despite this, however, the Antipodeans could yet emerge in better long-term shape. At the very least, housing ought not to be a point of serious difference between New Zealand’s Labour party government and its National party-led opposition when the country has an election this October. Both major parties have until this late point in the parliamentary term put aside their usual differences to produce what both have said is a residential roadmap out of the morass.

A promotional clip for New Zealand uploaded to social media the other day looked like the usual decorous fare churned out by the country’s tourism agency: all deep-blue skies, golden sands and soaring mountains. The words were another matter. There was no come-hither voice enjoining visitors to experience ‘pure New Zealand’. Rather there was the miserable sound of Auckland this past weekend as the women who gathered to hear the biological sex campaigner Posie Parker were confronted by a much burlier mob determined to ‘turf the Terfs’, as one of their placards had it.

Chris Hipkins can afford to feel pleased with his first days in office as Prime Minister of New Zealand. In his inaugural press conference, Hipkins came across as thoughtful and intelligent. In a welcome change from his predecessor, Jacinda Ardern, he was also gratifyingly dull. Hipkins has vowed to shift his focus back to basics, concentrating on the cost-of-living crisis and tackling crime. Gone are some of the more contentious policies, such as unemployment insurance, espoused by Ardern. ‘Over the coming week,’ he said, ‘the cabinet will be making decisions on reining in some programmes and projects that aren’t essential right now’.