Political & Economic week that was: Goff set to announce mayoralty bid

Click the NBR Radio box for on-demand special feature audio: Rob Hosking breaks down the political and economic week that was

Politically, much of the week was overshadowed by tragic events that have little to do with New Zealand politics. The atrocity in Paris puts New Zealand's own parochial and petty squabbles into some sort of context and reminder that, in the words of the song, "we don't know how lucky we are."

And, domestically, there was a loss, at the tragically young age of 40, of New Zealand's and probably the world's first true rugby superstar, Jonah Lomu. The grief over Mr Lomu's death has been genuine and overwhelming. 

The absence of Prime Minister John Key, visiting the Asian region and further afield for trade talks, also took a lot of the heat out of the domestic debate.

Mr Key's presence has tended to heighten rather than lessen political tensions in the past year or two, and his absence this week meant the opposition was deprived of its favourite target.

So, after last week's particularly nasty wave of stunt, counter-stunt and parliamentary meltdown, there was an air of anti-climax about Parliament this week – or perhaps MPs are just counting down the days till the Christmas break.

What excitement there was came on speculation of an announcement this weekend that long-serving Labour MP Phil Goff is going to throw his wind-sock into the ring for the Auckland mayoralty.

There is really no other big political beast lining up for the job. Mr Goff, whose career shows a remarkable degree of political flexibility, appears to have the backing of the Labour Party and the grudging non-opposition from quite a number of people who would normally view the prospect of second Labour mayor in a row with some disquiet.

There have been moves to recruit someone from business to head a centre-right campaign: former Telecom boss Theresa Gattung was canvassed earlier in the year but is understood to be less than enthusiastic. The latest rumour is Victoria Crone, managing director of Xero, although how serious this prospect is, is not yet clear. 

The conservative side of politics needs someone who has sufficient crossover appeal to drag in at least some votes from West and/or South Auckland.

The ideal candidate would be someone like Paula Bennett but the National Party front bencher and senior cabinet minister currently has rather bigger ambitions and prospects elsewhere.

Mr Goff is expected to make an announcement this weekend.

Economically, it has also been a relatively quiet week.

The most significant local announcement was a marked increase in the cost of business inputs, with producer prices rising 1.3% for the quarter and capital goods rising 1.5% for the quarter.

This is quite significant. It is the largest increase in the costs of business inputs for some time, and largely reflects the fall in the New Zealand dollar over the middle of this year.

The question is whether those increased costs will be passed on to consumers and whether this will have an in fact on the consumer price index.

If so, and if it continues, those who were forecasting a series of interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank might turn out to have been a bit premature.

Use MyNBR Tags to track people and companies - and receive key-word email alerts. Find out how here.