Beehive Diaries

Covid-19 delivered a busy day for Chris Hipkins, and again hit the National Party's calendar. But the Black Caps delivered pure, unadulterated joy.

Tuesday The Backbencher puppets unveiled

The Backbencher pub unveiled its new puppets of PM Jacinda Ardern,

National leader Judith Collins,

Act leader David Seymour, and Green MP Chloe Swarbrick. Onlookers noted the puppets seemed to be more flattering than the usual caricatures. But if you looked a bit closer, it was not quite that way. Ardern’s puppet had a celestial theme to it, but Ardern clearly noticed it also had rather large teeth.

“That is not what they meant when they said pearly white gates,” she observed.

Collins declared herself delighted with her likeness — the eyebrow lifted just the right way.

But a closer inspection revealed blood dripping off her hands.

Wednesday Chris Hipkins’ day from hell

Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins was working from home on Monday and Tuesday with a cold. A Covid-19 test came back negative on Tuesday night – but he may have wished it had taken a bit longer by the end of Wednesday. On Tuesday night, Hipkins learned of the Australian visitor who had tested positive for Covid-19 after visiting Wellington the weekend before.

His day started with a speech at 7am to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, followed by an impromptu media standup.

He spent an hour being grilled in a select committee, then transmogrified back to Covid-19 Minister for meetings with health officials and Cabinet to decide what action to take for the case. Then came the 1pm press conference to announce the move to Level 2 for Wellington before heading to Question Time.

Straight after that was another 90-minute select committee grilling, which finished just before 5pm, and Hipkins went straight into three radio interviews.

Curse of the Nats strikes again

Anyone wanting to predict when and where a Covid-19 outbreak might happen could do so by checking the dates of National Party conferences and major events. National had to scrap its campaign launch in Auckland in 2020 because Auckland went into lockdown a couple of days. Auckland again went into lockdown ahead of a conference the party was due to hold. National tried to avoid the curse striking by avoiding Auckland for its Special General Meeting.

That was supposed to be on Sunday at Te Papa. Alas, the move to Level 2 in Wellington prohibited gatherings of more than 100. The event was postponed.

Thursday The day of joy

The Black Caps win of the cricket World Test Championship led to sleepless MPs wander round in a blissful bubble of elation all day. They included the Parliamentary cricket team co-captains Kieran McAnulty and Chris Bishop. Bishop started the day by leaving a cup of coffee outside McAnulty’s office. Later both spoke in Parliament about the big win. They wore the Steady the Ship captain’s hats – to mark the Alternative Commentary Collective’s nickname for Kane “Steady the Ship” Williamson.

Bishop might want to loan his hat to National’s captain,

Judith Collins, next week when the caucus meets for the first time since

Todd

Muller was forced to resign.