The former deputy prime minister and finance minister — who is now vice-chancellor of the University of Otago — injured his back playing rugby while growing up in Dunedin. In his book, Anything Could Happen, Mr Robertson writes that he re-aggravated the old injury just before the 2022 Labour party conference, and that scans revealed he had a ruptured disc.
On the last working day of that year he had scheduled a spinal cortisone injection to give him some pain relief.
‘‘In a one in 10,000 event the anaesthetic that is used as part of the CT-guided injection was put in the wrong place,’’ he wrote.
‘‘As I went to stand up after the procedure my legs felt incredibly heavy. I tried to get up and could not. I had lost all the feeling below my waist ... after an awful night the feeling slowly came back and I was discharged.’’
The health scare coincided with then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern having confidentially told Mr Robertson that she was contemplating resigning and retiring from politics — as she did early the following year.
A ‘‘highly strung’’ Mr Robertson was in Dunedin that Christmas and, fearful he would re-aggravate his uninjured back, he started to have anxiety issues. Having been given medication, he made the unwise decision not to take it.
‘‘About 2am I woke up and began shaking uncontrollably. I could not stop ... after what felt like hours, my heart began to slow a bit and the shaking stopped. I had no idea what a panic attack was, but it is clear to me now that this is what it was.’’
After returning to Wellington Mr Robertson called then Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall and asked for the name of someone to talk to.
‘‘Contacting them was the best decision I had made in many years in politics. I had conversations with a couple of people and settled on a therapist who would help me through my remaining time in Parliament.’’
Mr Robertson writes that his bad back pain persisted through the election campaign and limited how much he — one of Labour’s best campaigners — could contribute.
‘‘I flew to Auckland and then down to Queenstown, popping pills all the way, to keep me going. I tried my best but in the final couple of weeks of the campaign the pain of sitting on flights was just too much and I had to pull out of a few events.
‘‘I felt terrible letting colleagues down, but my body was calling time even if my mind was still going.’’
Mr Robertson also reveals his misgivings about the party’s 2023 tax policy. Having had his preferred option, a capital gains tax rejected, he was obliged to campaign on a policy of removing GST from fruit and vegetables — something he had previously called a ‘‘boondoggle’’.
‘‘To be frank, I don’t think I was very convincing,’’ he said of his announcement speech.
In an interview with the Otago Daily Times, Mr Robertson said he had given momentary thought to putting his name forward to replace now Dame Jacinda when she stepped down — although he had previously, and adamantly, said he would never stand for the Labour party leadership again after two previous failed bids for the top job.
‘‘Of course I thought about it,’’ he said.
‘‘But I thought about it more in that context of not wanting to let others down, but I couldn't get past the fact that I'd made that decision and I was very comfortable with the role I was playing, and also I just knew what it would take, and not just because of the physical health issues I was facing, but also just where I was in my political career, and it just wasn't there.’’
Mr Robertson said that Chris Hipkins had done his best to try to secure a third term for Labour.
‘‘I don't think it mattered who the leader was, we were going to lose that election,’’ he said.
‘‘There were things that could have done better, and there is, I guess with Jacinda there's no counterfactual, what she might have been able to pull off, but that was an election where cost of living was just doing us in as a government.
‘‘I continue to believe that we, you know, it might have been a different result in terms of the percentages, but I'm not sure once Jacinda left anyway that there was another result.’’
■ Anything Could Happen is published tomorrow. A full feature interview with Grant Robertson will run in The Weekend Mix on Saturday.
