Cyclone Gabrielle: With taciturn authenticity Kieran McAnulty makes his mark

ANALYSIS: We are back in the middle of it. Disaster-management Government, led by new prime minister Chris Hipkins and now Kieran McAnulty, the Minister for National Emergency Management.

Hipkins has been solid, well-practised and is on top of his brief, as befits the man who had to front so many Covid-19 press conferences. While the quality of the response will only be known in the fullness of time, it is McAnulty, the Cabinet neophyte, whose performance is really impressing.

The contrast with Wayne Brown a couple of weeks before was telling. Brown in Auckland may well be good at many aspects of his job – although given how reluctant he is talk to media it is difficult to know – but disaster management communications has clearly not been his strong suit. He has struggled to deliver timely and clear information.

In contrast, McAnulty has been a steady hand at the tiller. Thorough, prepared, clear and concise. Safety first. He is also clearly someone who instinctively understands the requirement of humility in the job he has: humility in front of the public; and humility before the forces of nature and reality of the livelihoods, home and lifestyles cyclone Gabrielle has put asunder.

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He looks and is authentic.

In particular the death of the volunteer firefighter clearly affected him. He was involved in the volunteer fire brigade before entering Parliament.

Early last week, the minister was expecting to spend this past Sunday taking the field for the Parliament XI cricket team, but as the possibility of the cyclone loomed, the match was swiftly postponed. Since the middle of last week he has buried himself in preparing for what might come.

As a Government spokesperson conveying information to the general public, answering questions, being on his brief, his performance leaves little room for criticism. His economy with words and at times taciturn manner is also a welcome tonic to some of the verbosity of the later Ardern years

McAnulty, still young at 38, has long been seen as a potential prospect to be a senior minister in a future Labour government. He was first promoted to the outer ministry when Kris Faafoi resigned in the middle of last year. He has since been promoted into the Cabinet proper since Hipkins took over as Labour leader.

Shortly after he became Minister for Emergency Management he was caught up in the baseless allegations made by now very former Labour MP Gaurav Sharma that he was a bully while Labour whip. McAnulty – someone who prides himself on the way he treats others – was stung by the criticism and had little choice but to stay silent throughout the early part of the episode to let Sharma’s grievances get a fair hearing.

Anyone who knew McAnulty knew the allegation sounded far-fetched, and it soon turned out that Sharma was not actually interested in getting a “fair trial” as he called it, but preferred to just throw wild allegations at Labour.

While that was unfolding, McAnulty had his first real challenge in the job, as the minister in charge during the Nelson floods from which he learned a lot.

Well-regarded within Labour, he has been given the Local Government portfolio after it was taken off Nanaia Mahuta. Injecting him into that particular area with the task to try to clean up Three Waters will be an important political job and will test his mettle.

He is also Labour’s Minister for Rural Communities, and as befits a former bookie and greyhound owner, the Minister for Racing.

The thing with McAnulty is that what you see in public, you also get in private. There is no put on, he is genuinely a small town Labour guy – an endangered species nowadays – who loves cricket, the golden shears and Wairarapa Bush RFU. He’s also a bit of a character, which is also a rare bird in modern Labour.

When he exhausted questions from journalists at his first press conference on Tuesday he looked up at the assembled hacks before shuffling his papers, saying “sweet”, and heading back off to work.