Former Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson has resigned from Parliament to take up a job as Vice Chancellor of the University of Otago and will be replaced by Mana MP Barbara Edmonds.
He said he was grateful for the privilege of being a Member of Parliament for 15 years, both as a minister and representative for Wellington Central.
“The chance to make a positive difference in the lives of New Zealanders in this way is not afforded to many people. I have given absolutely everything I have had to these roles, but now is the right time for me to move on to a new set of opportunities and challenges”.
Robertson has been a MP since 2008 and held the Wellington Central electorate until the previous election.
Prior to politics he was a NZ diplomat, with a stint posted to the United Nations in New York, and helped design Labour’s interest-free student loan policy ahead of the 2005 election.
He served as deputy leader under David Shearer and unsuccessfully ran for the party leadership twice. He was Finance Minister for six years and Jacinda Ardern appointed him deputy Prime Minister after the 2020 election.
In a statement, he said he was fortunate to serve with Ardern and Hipkins and had “huge admiration for how they performed their roles”.
“I know I leave a Labour Caucus in good heart, with strong leadership and a clear focus on the issues that matter to New Zealanders,” he said.
Robertson was widely expected to resign if the Labour party lost the 2023 election, but he opted to stay on while the party transitioned to opposition.
In October last year, he said that would stay for at least some “months” but would “make assessments” throughout the term.
The long-time Labour MP will leave Parliament in late March and start at Otago University in July.
He delivered six budgets and introduced legislation to reform the Reserve Bank, most of which will survive the change in Government.
Former New Plymouth MP Glen Bennett will take his place on the list, while senior MP Barbara Edmonds will take over the finance spokesperson role.
She was a specialist tax lawyer and policy advisor—for both the National and Labour parties—prior to entering Parliament in 2020 as the MP for the Mana electorate.
For a short time, she served in Cabinet as Minister of Revenue and has also held the Economic Development, Internal Affairs, and Pacific Peoples portfolios.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said she was a “formidable Parliamentarian with experience across nine portfolios”.
“Barb is not only incredibly clever with a broad knowledge-base, she also has the interpersonal skills to work with people from every background across all sectors… she will be a fantastic finance spokesperson and I’m looking forward to working closely with her in this role,” he said in a statement.
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“The chance to make a positive difference in the lives of New Zealanders in this way is not afforded to many people. I have given absolutely everything I have had to these roles, but now is the right time for me to move on to a new set of opportunities and challenges”.
The right time was 2017. NZdrs are still waiting for the "positive difference" because his "everything I have" proved to be a disaster.
Prattle & rattle. Believe this puts him back where he started his ascent, the students union etc. Certainly well versed and successful in using the building blocks of bureaucracy for himself. In fact that really sums him up as a successful bureaucrat and to that end, he is still enduring.
Prattle & rattle. Believe this puts him back where he started his ascent, the students union etc. Certainly well versed and successful in
I was present the day he shouted down Roger Douglas and Robbo and his goons chased Douglas off campus resulting in one of them being run over.
Little more than a performative clown show.
Coffee spit all over the water cooler. But should anyone be surprised about Robbo's 'descent from heaven' into some high-paying role where you can expect that he won't be ultimately accountable for much? Would be quite interesting to know the recruitment process and who he was up against. Sure, he did some kind of 'restructuring' project for the NZ Student Union Association, which will be recognized as 'related experience' for this role. But just another example of failure celebrated with an undeserved golden handshake.
I don't know, but if he was, I am all for interest-free student loans. So if was responsible, all power to him to get it over the line. You could also have applied 'negative gearing' to student loans given that education is supposedly an investment in NZ.
I would not be surprised that the intro of interest-free student loans was a vote bribe under Hell-en's reign.
Less of this https://laboursfailures.com/
That website attributes a number of problems that weren't even the fault of the Labour govt that it just comes off as grasping at straws to anyone who doesn't blindly support the other side. You don't even have to read past the first line to see that (Labour was the cause of a recession in 2020?). I doubt you or the creator of that website would hold the other side accountable to the same standard.
Pushing the same rhetorics while helping further division in the country and with the other blind supporters patting you on the back and giving you a thumbs up does nothing to further meaningful discussion. Not on this website or in real life. But I'm sure that won't stop you.
We got through Covid pretty well, had 5.5% GDP growth in 2021, 2.4% in 2022 and 1.3% in 2023. Before Covid there was also good GDP growth.
Real GDP per capita growth has been abysmal compared to other countries and so are IMF forecasts.
https://croakingcassandra.com/2023/10/11/a-few-snippets-from-the-imf-we…
15 years an MP. His departure/retirement package will be much more than ordinary Kiwis could dream of getting.
But to be fair I think he might have had the right idea when I heard him say during a speech; "Real jobs for everyone, everywhere" (or something like that). If that was his aspiration, I would be curious why he didn't have a plan on how to make it work, or if he did, what was it and why didn't it get implemented?
You're being too extreme. I suggest that MPs pay should be bench marked against pay scales in the community. Back benchers start at $160 K but don't do anything other than what they are told. Don't tell me that job is hard. True they need a few clues to do the job, but so do very many jobs in the community, including in government departments, especially on the frontlines. None of those jobs get paid at that level.
And the retirement benefits? How can they be justified?
This exit strategy was planned a year ago when he moved from being the electorate mp to Labours list after he lost Jacindas protection.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/483193/grant-robertson-goes-list-o…
A sizeable gutting of the senior ranks since PM Ardern quit just over a year ago. Starting with Nash and leading then to Davis, Little, Mahuta and now Robertson and likely, soon Hipkins himself. This is a large clean out but at this stage it is looking at least more orderly than National’s collapse post 2017. Labour now needs to change its body, not just its clothes as the electorate, rightly or wrongly, will still be suspicious of the division in its ranks which spilled out most alarmingly under the undue influence of its Maori caucus and resultant policy, being little short of racial selectivity. Suggest a good bellwether of that, will be the future status of Mr Jackson.
Little, Davis and Robertson retired after being elected (Little electing not to take his list seat). Nash didn't contest the election and Mahuta lost her seat, not being on the list.
So Mahuta is the only non-voluntary retirement in that crop of senior MPs.
Prediction for 2026: Contested by McAnulty and Edmonds. Parker having retired after losing leadership bid.
She has been well conditioned to the mantra prevalent in the last government of considering that if you say it, it must then be true because you have said it, and everybody else better believe it too. This remarkable nothingness was portrayed by the like of PM Ardern time after time. Until she descends from that sublime elevation of self belief, she will simply have no credibility.
Love to see an unbiased critique of this guy. My uneducated opinion is he was pretty dam useless. QE was too much, too late. Wage subsidy was largesse without strict eligibility criteria. Don’t get me started on his last budget….Disclaimer-zero formal accounting or economics study.
"Disclaimer-zero formal accounting or economics study"
Thought you were talking about Grant there...Grant Robertson - Wikipedia
Or Nicola ?
Her first job was as a cashier and server at a Wholly Bagel Café in Wellington, later working in retail stores selling clothing.[7]She graduated with a first-class honours degree in English literature from Victoria University of Wellington in 2003,[8] and a post-graduate diploma in journalism from the University of Canterbury in 2017.[9] She was a member of the Victoria University Debating Society, competing in international tournaments.After graduation, she worked as a research and policy advisor for Bill English and as a senior advisor to John Key in 2008.[10] In 2012, Willis joined dairy co-operative Fonterra in a lobbyist role.
Maybe they need to give a bit more to people down the chain. Applied for a technician in the NZ education system and it barely got on the bottom of the page in terms of perceived importance in the good old company hierarchical structure. The pay was so bad it was almost laughable, had to say sorry its not the job for me. I was told during the interview "We don't work here for the money, we work here for the vibes".
Most Fletchers senior management.
Most of Fonterra seniors perhaps..
Synlate, maybe not so much..
Spark, averaged.
Probably some ASB and Simplicity senior folk?
Other banksters once you take share holdings or bonuses into account.
Investment outfits like Craigs perhaps?
Well, not on $ 750 k , but I can see in some of our suppliers , they have added management staff , and service has got worst . Simple tasks like fulfilling an order fall through the cracks , because there are 3 or 4 people that are doing the job one person used to do . End result is they all think the other person is doing it .
Head office putting product on a sale one month , then blasting salespeople for low sales of that product next month.
The VCs in Australian Universities are on $1M-$1.5M. I suppose we should be grateful that he's getting only half of that. Then again, he might have negotiated an even higher salary since he's a "name" appointment. But $750k is what other VCs like Auckland are being paid.
I never really understood how he planned to achieve what he was trying to sell.
At least Bill English seemed to be open to writing the cheques so to speak if the business case stacked up.
But Robertson's 'well being' approach was just too wishy washy to be measureable.
National seem to never understand the numbers till they get in power, regardless of how much they are informed. Fully costed tax cuts you can take to the bank turn into tough choices required. You could argue it is either incompetence or malice on their part, but I never heard Grant Robertson flip flop to that degree.
Scott Galloway turned me on to how tertiary education cost has been blown out of proportion and reach by administration. It's one of the most crucial issues in the English-speaking economies for younger generations and a reason why many are so tapped out with debt.
Very good MSM read.
As college costs continue their decades-long climb, pushing U.S. student loan debt to nearly $1.8 trillion and counting, rising administrative costs are likely to contribute to higher costs for students.
The central mission of higher education is teaching, but in recent years administration has enlarged as a share of institutional spending. Some observers and researchers who promote greater financial transparency and accountability in higher education are concerned that growth in professional nonteaching positions is generally outstripping faculty hiring, even as student enrollment declines.
https://www.usnews.com/education/articles/one-culprit-in-rising-college…
Universities in the angloshere have done inordinate damage to our society in general, our relationships in particular & contributed copious amounts of debt to the tertiary types. The really sad part is that today's young adults emerge from university with absolutely no idea how the real world works, nor do they have any desire to learn such things. Sigh. As for the very expensive tertiary administrators, this is where woke comes from.
I was recently made redundant from a clinical teaching position at a university. Our unit was costing too much to run, so rather than implement suggestions which would have improved its financial performance, it was shut down to save money. The level of training given to the next batch of health professionals in that particular discipline was seriously degraded as a result.
On the up side, the uni has a nice new logo which only cost half a million.
Yeah it was hard to hate his financial ability, Hellon had control over the Maori MPs (seabed hence the formation of the Maori Party) , JA and Robbo did not, now when do the disallusioned Maori politicians inside Liebour spit the dummy and leave to form there own Maori Workers Party ( that will have a lot of non worker support). labour will rip itself apart of the next few terms......
From the always insightful Robert MacCulloch
What is this game of former members of parliament getting jobs they are not qualified for? What kind of message does it send our young people studying hard at school and in tertiary institutions? It doesn't matter how much you study or how smart you are? Better to become a politician if you want the top job at a University paying $500,000? Research is a waste of time? It's who you know not what you know if you want status and to earn big bucks? If you know people in Wellington then people will employ you hoping you can use your networks there for them? We're no longer a meritocracy? The University of Otago Council should resign. The whole lot of them.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/rob-macculloch-vice-chancellor…
"Why are you retiring from politics at the countries biggest hour of need Grant"
"The war in Ukraine, wait, no, covid, we're doing better overseas yes that's it yes"
Good riddance robbo, you showed your true colours under the pump and that was to abscond from all responsibility, and inflate your ego and image at the expense of the average kiwi punter that were the ones that 'allowed you the opportunity' to be in the position of responsibility you had. Plundered left and right from the Covid emergency fund for pet projects and now you get to walk off into a cushy sunset retirement package and anew role while so many others struggle with the ramifications of your lack of fortitude. Enjoy your victory dinner with your old pal Orr, venison or export lamb and caviar is it?
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