
Minister Seymour,
Person of the Year is an annual issue of Time magazine which features on its cover a person, group, idea or object, that has had the most significant influence ‘‘for better or for worse’’ on events of the year.
Looking back on the political scene last year in New Zealand, I couldn’t help thinking that if we were to have our own Person of the Year Award, you would have been one of the strongest contenders for 2024.
With just 8% of the vote, on April 1 you will become, arguably, the second-most powerful politician in the country. There are many who would argue that you stepped into the most influential role — ‘‘for better or for worse’’ — from the minute the election ended, and the coalition talks began.
The first masterful move in your ascension to being named Person of the Year was getting your coalition partners to sign off on your Treaty Principles Bill. A Bill both partners say will not see the light of day past its first reading.
But there you are, part of a coalition government elected on the promise of responsible economic management — yet one of the first policies you pushed your partners to endorse has resulted in a $6million taxpayer-funded hearing for a Bill that everyone agrees is doomed to fail. And that’s before accounting for the immense social cost.
Your divisive Bill has fractured the nation, sparked one of the largest hīkoi in the history of Aotearoa and has amplified the most extreme voices on both the right and left.
That coup on its own would arguably qualify you as an individual that has had the most significant influence — for better or worse — on (New Zealand) events for the past year. But your influence has not stopped there.
Despite overwhelming research confirming the critical role of nutrition in a young brain’s ability to learn, you swung your axe at school lunches.
The world-renowned Dunedin Longitudinal Study has shown how early-life conditions shape long-term outcomes — yet instead of prioritising student wellbeing, you treated food in schools as a budget line to be cut.
The latest research out of Auckland University shows Kiwi kids going hungry at school end up two to four years behind their peers in subjects such as maths and reading. That’s numeracy and literacy — and you are Associate Minister of Education.
You then gave that contract to a foreign-owned company, and last week we witnessed the chaotic roll-out of your $130m cost-cutting initiative.
You framed it as fiscal reasonability but, in reality, it was a decision made without regard to the overwhelming scientific evidence, not to mention the front-line experience, of teachers who deal with this challenge every day.
For context, Finland (ranked #1 in The World Happiness Report for the seventh year in a row) has spent decades ensuring every student from preschool to high school receives a free, nutritious meal — an approach embedded in their education system.
Their investment in student wellbeing has contributed to one of the most successful education systems in the world.
In Finland, school meals are more than just food; they’re part of the curriculum—an opportunity to nourish young minds while teaching lifelong lessons on nutrition and wellbeing.
But none of that featured in your thinking. I still recall hearing you ask the question of teachers at a conference I attended last year; ‘‘Is it the job of education to feed kids?’’
All the scientific evidence says, yes minister. Feed both the mind and body, especially of those young people who, through circumstances beyond their control, are not in a position to do either.
Then there is the stuttering start to your charter schools policy.
Last year, in answer to a question on Q&A you stated that there was enough funding for ‘‘up to 15’’ charter schools to be operational in term 1 of 2025.
Minister, term 1 has arrived, and you have announced a total of seven charter schools, the largest of which will have 45 students. There are two schools from overseas, the BUSY School from Australia and the Ecole Francaise, based on the French educational curriculum. Reports suggest the French school was planning to open with six students — legally they need a minimum of nine — and the Australian school was ‘‘hoping to start with 15-30’’. Hardly the flagship policy you promised us.
The old charter school policy you claimed you were bringing back had at its core the concept of ‘‘priority learners’’. How do six students studying French in Remuera qualify as priority learners when Kiwi-led initiatives — backed by experienced educators and aimed at far greater numbers — were rejected by the very bureaucracy you established to evaluate applications?
A bureaucracy that an OIA request has shown has taken up $29.7m of operational funding from the $123m budget set aside for charter schools.
As minister in charge of cutting bureaucracy, it’s not a great look doling out almost $30m on operational funding to a bureaucracy that missed its first target by 50%. This is a bureaucracy that did not exist until you created it, so you can’t blame anyone else for this.
And then there was your state of the nation speech.
That’s a coup on its own ... 8% of the vote, and you get to deliver a state of the nation speech. A speech in which you described those of us who did not support you as being ‘‘the majority of the mediocre’’ before making the claim that you, and Act New Zealand, were the ‘‘change makers’’.
People with ‘‘a pioneering spirit who don’t just believe it is possible to make a difference in our lives, we believe it’s an obligation’’.
And Minister, in 2024 you certainly lived up to that.
From your minority position, you have taken up that ‘‘obligation to make a difference in all our lives’’ — whether that difference will be for better or for worse remains to be seen. The evidence to date is not encouraging.
So, given the disproportionate impact you have had on politics in New Zealand, David Seymour you are my Person of the Year for 2024.
■ Sir Ian Taylor is founder and managing director of Dunedin company Animation Research.