Analysis - Tourists will soon be back and an end to vaccine mandates is in sight, the government cuts the price of petrol to ease the pain at the pump, National loses one of its most experienced MPs and its new shadow finance minister makes her mark in Parliament.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and outgoing National MP Simon Bridges. Photo: RNZ
The soundbite was "we're ready to welcome the world back" and when she said it Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern looked genuinely happy for the first time in weeks.
It's been a while since the government had a good week, and she needed this one.
Wednesday's announcement that the border would open to Australian tourists with no isolation rules on 12 April and to those from visa waiver countries on 1 May marked the beginning of the end for Covid-19 controls and restrictions.
"There was a clear feeling of bonhomie in the room," Stuff's political editor Luke Malpass said.
"Not only would the borders be re-opening after more than two years but, left unsaid, the political sore and all the time, money and effort that had gone with it would also be able to fade into the past."
Malpass said the turnaround had been stark. "The virus has been more or less allowed to run rampant. This is an incredible shift from those four short months ago when the country's biggest city was still in the midst of a - by global standards - pretty restrictive lockdown."
Ardern said an announcement on vaccine mandates would be made next week. They're expected to go with some exceptions such as teachers and health workers.
On Thursday she went further, saying all Covid-19 settings would be reviewed. "As we come down off our peak of Omicron… we will be relooking at everything from mandates to vaccine passes which we don't believe will need to be used as widely anymore," Stuff quoted her as saying in Auckland.
"And we will also be looking at all of the settings within the traffic light (system) - so we will be making those decisions in the coming week."
This is happening as daily Omicron hospitalisations are close to 1000 a day (930 on Thursday, a slight drop from the previous day) and active cases approach 200,000 (199,645 on Thursday).
However, Auckland cases have been trending down and the city is thought to be past its peak. Ardern said it wasn't yet clear that it definitely was past it, and the rest of the country definitely wasn't.
The new reality is that New Zealanders are living with the virus, mostly recovering at home if they get it with a relatively small number of the active cases ending up in hospital.
Vaccination and booster rates are high (94 percent fully vaccinated, 73 percent boosted) and the death rate remains minuscule compared with other countries.
The border announcement gained blanket coverage and tourist operators celebrated.
"At last, the industry that has endured what's been memorably described as 'about 730 days of pain' can get busy," Stuff said in an editorial.
The only date still awaited is throwing open the border to all comers. The original plan was to do that by October but it's likely to be much sooner.
Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
Ardern's announcement, made with Tourism Minister Stuart Nash, was the second big one of the week.
On Monday, the government cut the price of petrol from midnight by reducing excise tax by 25 cents a litre for three months. It also announced public transport fares would be halved from 1 April, also for three months, to give people better travel options.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who was at the announcement with Ardern, said the public transport subsidy would run to the end of the current financial year.
"Supporting public transport and mode shift will be an important part of the work we do to reduce emissions and it will feature in Budget 2022," he said.
That raised speculation about what he meant. Stuff reported Transport Minister Michael Wood "declined to comment" on whether Labour was looking to pinch the policy of its endorsed candidate for Auckland mayor, Efeso Collins, who is running on a policy of making public transport free.
The petrol and public transport decisions were in response to soaring fuel prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"We are in a wicked perfect storm and it's a storm that's impacting many people's lives," Ardern said. The war had unleashed a "global energy crisis" with fuel prices rising 13 percent in a month - the highest on record.
The cut means a saving of $11.50 to $17.25 on a tank, enough to make a real difference.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon may have been trying to diminish it when he described the move as "tweaking". He said it would give some relief but the "cost of living crisis" was a much broader issue.
Having hammered the government for weeks about the cost of living, Luxon accused it of "reactive politics".
"It's reacting to the media, I think it's reacting to the public and I think it's reacted to the opposition," he said.
Simon Bridges on the day he announced he was quitting Parliament. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
There was one real surprise this week - the announcement by Simon Bridges that he was leaving Parliament.
The former party leader held the number three slot on the front bench and was National's finance spokesperson.
Bridges said the time had come for him to go, he was exploring commercial opportunities and wanted more time with his young family.
RNZ's political editor Jane Patterson describes the "wild ride" that was Bridges' political career in this week's Power Play.
There have been no suggestions that a scandal was about to break or that Bridges had been pushed.
He said he had been thinking about quitting politics for a long time, and it probably went back to losing the leadership to Todd Muller in 2020.
Herald columnist Bryce Edwards saw a reason behind the timing - the poll that showed National overtaking Labour and Luxon's personal popularity increasing.
"Last week's shock poll was the final indication, if Simon Bridges needed it, that his chances of eventually taking back the leadership and becoming PM were slim to none," Edwards said.
"Any feeling that it was worth waiting around to see if National's leader Christopher Luxon might stumble over the next couple of years could be put to bed."
National will undoubtedly miss the very experienced senior MP and former cabinet minister.
Malpass said Bridges was one of the best retail politicians National had.
"Importantly as well, Bridges was cut from more conservative and confrontational cloth than Luxon," he said.
"He represented part of National's caucus, and an important wider constituency of the party.
"In short, he could be a mongrel when required, appealing to a different set of voters to Luxon while also leaving Luxon to float above the more petty politicking. It was a good set-up."
Luxon quickly appointed his deputy Nicola Willis, whose star just keeps on rising, as finance spokesperson.
Chris Bishop, the Covid-19 response spokesperson, was given Willis' housing portfolio and promoted to number three.
Nicola Willis will replace Simon Bridges as National's finance spokesperson. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
At her first question time in her new role, Willis showed she wasn't going to be a pushover.
She went for Finance Minister Grant Robertson, breaking the House rules as she did so and losing two of her questions as a result.
MPs aren't allowed to make disparaging comments about ministers when they're supposed to be seeking information through questions, and Willis did it twice.
"Why does he keep gaslighting New Zealanders by claiming that his stats prove…" she asked, and Speaker Trevor Mallard shut her down.
"Why does he keep patronising New Zealanders by claiming…" Mallard shut her down again.
Willis finally made it with: "Why does he keep trying to fool New Zealanders by claiming his statistics prove they're getting ahead under his government when they're not?"
Robertson gives as good as he receives. He's had plenty of experience - as RNZ reported, Willis is the seventh National Party finance spokesperson he has faced across the floor of the House.
Other political news this week included:
- Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi announced the Special Ukraine Policy. It allows an estimated 1600 Ukranian-born New Zealand citizens and residents to sponsor parents, grandparents, adult siblings or adult children. RNZ reported it covered about 4000 people. The visas will be valid for two years.
- Parliament passed the safe areas abortion bill by 108 votes to 12. The legislation prevents anti-abortion protesters from intimidating or obstructing people accessing abortion services. The safe zones don't automatically apply to all clinics and will be assessed on a case by case basis by the Ministry of Health.
- Labour MPs blocked an opposition attempt to call Police Commissioner Andrew Coster to appear before the Justice Select Committee so he could be questioned about the way the protest at Parliament was handled. "I think they just want everybody to forget about it as quickly as possible," National's justice spokesperson and committee member Paul Goldsmith said.
*Peter Wilson is a life member of Parliament's press gallery, 22 years as NZPA political editor and seven as NZ Newswire's parliamentary bureau chief