Inside the spinning room: Who’s who on the Government’s public relations team?

A leaked email on Friday shed light on a part of the political process that is generally hidden from the public: the twist.

Sometimes it may seem like the government is just Jacinda Ardern and Ashley Bloomfield over a horde of public servants.

After all, it’s Ardern and Bloomfield that the public can see every day at 1pm press conferences. While responding to Instagram posts and journalists’ questions alike, he may seem like his own press secretary. She has a degree in communications after all.

But like all governments, there is a deep team behind Ardern that helps her shape her message to the public, which is generally not seen by that public. They are the ones who handle those interview requests and try to shape how we all see big events, like Thursday’s budget. These are the people.

THE PRINCIPAL PRESS SECRETARY: ANDREW CAMPBELL

As chief press secretary, Campbell is the most important person in establishing the Prime Minister’s communications with the general public, other than herself.

She leads a team of about four people, about the standard size, who handle incoming questions for the Prime Minister, organize interviews and press conferences, and accompany her through her various media engagements, always recording every appearance in the media that does, so they have their own record of it.

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Campbell also helps write speeches for the Prime Minister, though she is known to edit and rewrite herself.

His team has a broader responsibility to help shape the messages of most Hive ministers, who have their own press secretaries, but will be forwarded to “PMO” (the “Prime Minister’s Office”) at in most cases. However, this applies less to ministers who are not part of the Labor Party.

Andrew Campbell has been chief press secretary since May 2018, when he replaced Mike Jaspers, whom Ardern had inherited from former Labor leader Andrew Little while in Opposition.

Campbell encountered the Green Party, where he had held various media and strategy jobs for several years. He had also worked at the New Zealand Rugby Union.

Campbell is understood to have been the original author of the email that caused so much doubt over the weekend, although ministerial adviser Rob Carr appears to have been involved in sending it.

THE MP: ELLEN READ

Ellen Read is Campbell’s deputy on the PMO press team. Along with Campbell and the other two on her team, she handles similar tasks: media questions, interview requests, broader strategy, and thousands of other small jobs.

Read worked in the office of Finance Minister Grant Robertson before going up to PMO. Before that, she was a business editor at Things.

YOUR HEAD: RAJ NAHNA

Above the press team is Raj Nahna, Ardern’s chief of staff, although Campbell has previously held this position.

Nahna has more to deal with than just the media as head of Ardern’s political office: PMO. (Ardern can also make use of the Prime Minister and Cabinet Department, a vast array of non-political bureaucrats who take care of everything from civil defense to knights.) But external communication is a big part of leading a country and that means Nahna is far from above.

Nahna took over in May 2019, replacing Mike Munro, who resigned due to illness.

THE NUMBERS TEAM: CHRIS BRAMWELL AND ALEX TARRANT

Finance Minister Grant Robertson is Labor’s most powerful minister after Ardern, and his two press secretaries are therefore highly influential.

Tarrant and Bramwell are former journalists for the press gallery. Tarrant came from the financial website Interest when the government changed, while Bramwell left a post as deputy political editor at RNZ when Read went up to the Prime Minister’s office.

Budget messages are a bit more complicated than most other messages, and many of them are for a more specialized audience. So much of Tarrant and Bramwell’s work involves setting up speeches for Robertson at various banks and making sure analysts have a reasonable idea of ​​the government’s fiscal intentions.

It also means helping the Treasury communications team set up the budget lock, when journalists and analysts are locked in a room for several hours as the government reveals its annual budget.

THE BEST WINSTON TEAM: JON JOHANSSON AND ALEXANDRA MASTERS

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has something of his own power structure as head of NZ First.

This includes chief press secretary Alexandra Masters and chief of staff Jon Johansson, who handles many of the party-to-party negotiations and occasionally intervenes in media matters.

Johansson came to Peters after a long career as a political scientist at the University of Victoria, with periods taught by many journalists from the press gallery and some MPs.

THE GREENS: TORY WHANAU AND NADINE WALKER

The Greens also have their own mini structure.

Chief of Staff Tory Whanau handles many of the party-to-party negotiations and occasionally engages in some hands-on media work. He has worked for the Greens in various roles since 2015.

Nadine Walker works as the party’s communications director. He came to the Greens in 2018 from Australia, where he worked in the office of Senator Rachel Siewert.