He and Ardern had alerted Chris Hipkins just before Christmas to the decisions they were mulling over and to the possibility that he might be best to step up, which he did in late January.<\/a> <\/p>\nMuch of the focus of anti-government protests on the Covid-19 response had been on Jacinda Ardern. But Robertson was also on the receiving end of a lot of it, too.<\/p>\n
Robertson details incidents that reveal fears he had for his own safety over the response to Covid-19, which included lockdowns and mandates to be vaccinated in particular jobs, such as health and education.<\/p>\n
The first was at the end of 2020 when he and Alf were having brunch in Christchurch with Cabinet colleague Megan Woods. A fellow diner came up and started and started asking questions such as whether he had heard of The Great Reset, which he had not, Agenda 30 and the World Economic Forum.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kept going, getting angrier and angrier. I can still picture his eyes blazing. We got up and left.\u201d<\/p>\n
They headed on to Dunedin and were in town with friends when an even more aggressive young man made a beeline for Robertson, \u201cranting and raving about 5G, the Pfizer vaccine we had recently purchased and the Chinese Communist Party\u201d.<\/p>\n
The young man continued to follow Robertson\u2019s group and then grabbed him by the shoulder. At that point, Alf pushed the pursuer, who stumbled and fell over. <\/p>\n
By 2022, a few months after the occupation of Parliament grounds by protesters, the incidents were more serious. <\/p>\n
He was on a post-Budget roadshow in Dannevirke with the local MP, Kieran McAnulty, when things turned bad at a public meeting. About 30 Covid conspiracy protesters had interjected through the presentation, he said. The first question was what role Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum had in writing the Budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt went downhill from there…I eventually had to cut the event short.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe protestors pursued me as I went to leave. The small number of police officers who were present managed to get between me and the mob. I had made it to the local council offices when one young guy yelled, \u2018I\u2019m going to get you, you fucking faggot.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Other events in the electorate had to be cancelled.<\/p>\n
A month later, he received similar treatment in Whang\u0101rei, where protesters were disruptive and threatening enough for Robertson to be bundled into an unmarked police car. <\/p>\n
At the end of the day, protestors had blocked the entrance to Whang\u0101rei Airport and the cops drove him on to the tarmac.\u201cAs I waited in my car, I could hear the megaphone-toting protestors\u2019 abuse: I was a \u2018pervert and paedophile\u2019 who \u2018deserved to die\u2019. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe danger was real \u2013 and the stress that went with it was enormous. I was mentally and physically exhausted from the crises of the past few years, and was struggling to find the joy in the job that meant so much to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The coalition relationship between NZ First and Labour could swing from cohesive to fractured in a single day, says Grant Robertson. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
The book also sets out some of the strains that occurred in the coalition Government with New Zealand First, led by Winston Peters, before Covid-19 arrived in 2020.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe relationship could swing from fractured to cohesive and back again on a daily basis,\u201d writes Robertson.<\/p>\n
Ministers would often believe they had sign-off from New Zealand First for a policy, only to find it had to be re-litigated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came to the view that Winston hated making decisions. The long weeks he had put New Zealand through when forming MMP governments seemed to me to be reflective of a person who was incredibly nervous about putting his penny down.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robertson said he sat next to Peters at most Cabinet meetings. <\/p>\n
\u201cI could not always tell if he had read the papers. But some days, it seemed to me at least, if he was feeling curmudgeonly or tired or he needed a smoke, he could seize on a minor point and derail a paper.\u201d <\/p>\n
At the start of 2020, at an announcement of the NZ Upgrade Programme, Ardern, Peters and Green co-leader James Shaw were meant to have a joint standup but held three separate ones.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was obvious we were only papering over the cracks in the Government.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book canvasses his whole life, not just governing, including his parents\u2019 involvement in the church, the move from Hastings to Dunedin, his school years and student activism and love of music and sport.<\/p>\n
He talks about dealing with being gay, the move to Wellington, working for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, falling in love with Alf, working for MFAT at the United Nations, working for cabinet minister Marian Hobbs, former Prime Minister Helen Clark and her chief of staff, Heather Simpson.<\/p>\n
And all that was before dealing with being in Opposition for nine long years, and contesting the Labour Party leadership twice.<\/p>\n
![\"Grant]()
Grant Robertson with his mother Yvonne at Labour’s conference in Whanganui in 2019. <\/p>\n
Robertson has always been a superb political communicator, and he has applied that skill to his own fascinating life story. <\/p>\n
It provides a clear portrait of his important political relationship with Jacinda Ardern and his complex family relationships, particularly with his adored mother.<\/p>\n
One of Robertson\u2019s most traumatic life events occurred when he was in his second year at Otago University, having moved out of home to go flatting on Castle St. His distraught mother arrived at his flat to tell him his father, an accountant, had been arrested for theft as a servant.<\/p>\n
Robertson had the task of finding his two other brothers to tell them, and they headed home.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a surreal scene. Dad was in the laundry, taking clothes out of the washing machine to transfer to the dryer. It could have been any day at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rushed into the room and gave him a hug. He shook with his sobbing but could not say anything. He did not really say much that moment on, shutting down on what he had actually done.\u201d<\/p>\n
He pleaded guilty to stealing $120,000 over 10 years and was sentenced to two years in prison.<\/p>\n
Robertson says that over the next 18 months, much of his life revolved around visiting his father at least once and sometimes twice a week \u2013 and sometimes by way of a drive-by in one of the family\u2019s second-hand cars.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn Saturdays and Sundays, I worked in the fruit and veggie department at the New World supermarket in South Dunedin, as I had done since school days.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy route to work took me past the prison. Dad knew the timing of the trip and would look out of the window for me. As he saw the car approach, he would reach his hand through the bars and second-level window and wave. I would toot the horn \u2013 and start to cry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robertson, now aged 53, is back living in Dunedin as Vice-Chancellor of Otago University.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnything Could Happen\u201d by Grant Robertson is published by Allen & Unwin. RRP $39.99<\/b><\/p>\n
Audrey Young is the NZ Herald\u2019s senior political correspondent. She was Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018. She was political editor from 2003 to 2021.<\/b><\/p>\n
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