Below the beltway

What was shaping up to be a light news week, with the prime minister offshore, wooing Pacific nations, took a busy turn when National’s Mr Fixit decided to call time on politics.

Here are this week’s winners and losers in Kiwi politics.

UP Amy Adams

She may have looked like down at the end of last week, after a failed bid for the National Party leadership, but she managed to secure the coveted finance portfolio, and has been given a mandate to review National’s finance policies. Cue a less-thansatisfied Steven Joyce.

Gareth Morgan

TOP founder Gareth Morgan has turned 65, and is allowing New Zealanders to choose what he does with his pension. Kudos to Morgan for inviting the nation into the exclusive club that gets to decide how to spend a millionaire’s money. It’s also worth a mention that he managed to put out his statement and plan without name-calling. By recent standards, that’s a win for Morgan.

Nicola Willis

National MP Nicola Willis got an early birthday present when Steven Joyce announced his retirement from politics. Willis has had a boomerang relationship with parliament. She worked as an advisor to John Key, then as a lobbyist for Fonterra. She ran in the last election and made it into Parliament for the new MP orientation. But was kicked out after the special votes were counted, taking two from the Nats.

DOWN

Steven ‘Mr Fixit’ Joyce

On Tuesday, Joyce announced his retirement from politics. He said it was time to rejoin the commercial sector and spend more time with his family. But after 10 years in politics, and running National’s past five campaigns, the news came soon after a losing out on making a coalition deal, and losing out on the National leadership.