Beehive Diaries
Trevor Mallard takes on an old oak tree, Judith Collins turns one, Grant Robertson is called an egg, and MFAT's boss gets a selfie with a famous cat in London.
Monday Kieran McAnulty, Citizen of Anywhere Playing England
Rarely has anybody changed nationality with such alacrity as Labour’s whip Kieran McAnulty during the UEFA Euro football championships.
Last week, as England faced off against Denmark, McAnulty tweeted “For the next hour or so I am Danish”.
A little over an hour later, Italy had won the championships and McAnulty provided an update on his citizenship: “I am now Italian”. He is presumably still Italian. He has not updated his status since Italy triumphed over England.
Tuesday
Grant Robertson - good egg, bad egg, egg head, general egg
Finance Minister Grant Robertson was a tad taken aback when he saw his place setting at a Trans Tasman Business Circle lunch.
Beneath his name on the name place sheet it read “Egg in any form”.
No, they weren’t calling him an egg. Robertson is allergic to eggs – the dietary advice had made it a bit further than the kitchen.
Robertson’s boss Jacinda Ardern was also having an unexpected day. She turned up at Linton Army Base – her first visit to an Army base since becoming PM – for a sod-turning of a new maintenance building.
The implement to turn the sod was not the shovel she was expecting: but a large digger.
Wednesday Judith Collins turns 1
National Party leader Judith Collins marked her first (and possible only) anniversary as National Party leader. Asked later what she had done to honour the occasion, Collins replied “I worked”.
The National Party Facebook account was a tad more effusive about the occasion, putting up a post describing Collins as “cheeky and cheerful by nature”.
“Judith with her unparalleled resilience and willingness to make the hard
Photo / Mark Mitchell. Herald graphic
decisions has been the strength we all needed.”
The next day Collins went to the dentist to have a cracked filling fixed.
Thursday Tie a resource consent around the old oak tree
Speaker Trevor Mallard’s efforts to build on the carpark behind Parliament began in earnest this week.
Privacy screens went up around an old oak tree in the carpark. The tree is tagged for removal to make way for new office buildings. It is a heritage tree, and this week’s operations were to assess the health of the roots in preparation for the consent application. Known as the Parliament Oak it is about 160 years old. Mallard, who possibly knew the tree as a sapling, plans to move it to another site. It is the second attempt to move the tree to make way for a new building. The first was in 1986-87, when public protests halted the uprooting (and the building project was scrapped).
Mallard will be hoping for more success this time: although NZ First leader Winston Peters may well sniff an opportunity to halt the latest incarnation of a “Parliamentary Palace” and chain himself to it.
Friday
MFAT boss’ selfie with Larry the Cat at No. 10 Downing St
A photo of MFAT boss Chris Seed taking a selfie with Larry the cat outside the British PM’s address at 10 Downing St in London did the rounds on Twitter this week. Beehive Diaries asked Seed for the result of his efforts – and he produced it. Larry has been the resident cat at Number 10 since 2011. Larry is far more famous than Seed, but Seed has his own cats, Jackson and Malone. Seed was in London this week as part of a trip which also includes Washington, Singapore, and Berlin – bolstering trade talks and touching base with NZ posts overseas. It was something of a return to normal business after an extended period of very limited travel. Diplomats are among the people prioritised for vaccination.