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PM Chris Hipkins meets with China’s Premier Li Qiang
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has met with China’s Premier Li Qiang for a one-on-one discussion as part of Hipkins trip.
The meeting followed Hipkins meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping overnight (NZ time) at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Summer Davos event in Tianjin.
Ahead of their meeting, Li extended a “warm welcome” to Hipkins, and said he was inspired by the points he had shared during the WEF event where they had dinner together.
“Mr prime minister, you are a young and capable stateman of New Zealand and you led the people of New Zealand to successfully respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, this is a great achievement,” Li’s translated words said.
Li, who took over the role in March from Li Keqiang, said he appreciated Hipkins stressing the importance of the relationship between the two countries, and making a visit to China within six months of becoming prime minister.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Chris Hipkins shakes hands with China’s Premier Li Qiang. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
“The people of our two countries have a traditional friendship,” he said.
Li also spoke of the influence of Rewi Alley, a New Zealand-born writer and political activist who joined the Chinese Communist Party and set up the International Committee for the Promotion of Chinese Industrial Cooperatives in the 1930s.
“Chinese people of my age are very familiar with the stories of Rewi Alley,” Premier Li said. “I worked in Shanghai for five years and Shanghai has a memorial for Rewi Alley, the place where he lived for more than 10 years, and people of Shanghai are very familiar with him. He was an old friend of China together with revolutionaries of the old generation of China.”
He said the committee had made a major contribution to China’s socialist endeavours and revolution, and Alley’s work was a “precious legacy” for the New Zealand-China relationship, which was at the forefront of China’s relations with Western countries.
Hipkins speaking with President Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum in Tianjin. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
“Our relationship’s become a fine example of win-win cooperation between countries with different social systems, history, culture, level of development and economic size. Next year we will celebrate the 10th anniversary of our comprehensive strategic partnership. China is prepared to work with New Zealand to further deepen our traditional friendship, promote our cooperation across the board, so as to deliver more benefits to our people and more benefits to the Asia Pacific and the world.”
Hipkins responded in kind.
“Ni hao, kia ora, Premier Li. Thank you for your very warm welcome. I’m honored to have this opportunity to visit Beijing for my first time as the prime minister of New Zealand,” he said.
He said he had been pleased to visit China in 2018 as Education Minister and was delighted to return, and the World Economic Forum event had been a great opportunity to reflect on economic challenges and opportunties.
“And I enjoyed our conversation over dinner at the welcome ceremony there. Premier Li, our bilateral realtionship is wide-ranging, it encompasses significant economic, people-to-people and cultural connections. My large delegation is a reflection of the breadth, the diversity and the significance of our comprehensive relationship.”
He said the particular presence of senior Māori representatives and the winning kapa haka group signified the importance of Māori to the connection to China through trade and culture, and said he was looking forward to discussing “a range of bilateral relationship issues and other matters of mutual interests”.
Hipkins with Li at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
VIA RNZ
The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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