Fifth National Government, 2011–2017
Goldsmith stood in the Epsom electorate at the 2011 general election, [17] but lost the electorate vote to John Banks, who earlier in 2011 had joined ACT New Zealand. [18] Goldsmith had been expected to lose; National leader John Key encouraged National voters to elect the ACT candidate in Epsom to keep the smaller party in Parliament. [19] [20] [21] Goldsmith was ranked 39th on the National Party list [22] and was elected as a list MP sitting in the 50th Parliament. [23] During his first term in parliament, Goldsmith was deputy chairperson and, from 2013, chairperson of the finance and expenditure select committee. [24] He was also a member of the local government and environment committee. [24]
During the 2014 election, Goldsmith contested the Epsom electorate and came second to new ACT candidate David Seymour. [25] Ranked 30th, Goldsmith was re-elected as a list MP. He was appointed a minister outside Cabinet from November 2014 until December 2016, responsible for commerce and consumer affairs. He was also associate minister for ACC. [24] At the same time, he served on the Education and Science and Social Services select committees. [24] Goldsmith was promoted into Cabinet for the government's final year, as Minister for Science and Innovation, Minister for Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment, and Minister for Regulatory Reform. [24]
Opposition, 2017–2023
During the 2017 election, Goldsmith was re-elected as a list MP after coming second place in the Epsom electorate. [26] At the beginning of the parliamentary term, as an opposition MP, he was the party spokesperson for arts, culture and heritage. [24] Following the March 2018 National Party portfolio reshuffle, Goldsmith became spokesperson for revenue and economic and regional development. [24] [27] Later in the year, he lost the revenue portfolio, but became transport spokesperson. [24]
In 2019, Goldsmith assumed the spokesperson role for finance and infrastructure and the third-ranked member of the National caucus. [28] [24] Stuff.co.nz writer Thomas Coughlan described him as "possibly the most libertarian or right-wing person to hold the shadow finance portfolio." [9] Political columnist Danyl McLauchlan said Goldsmith was "possibly the only remaining member of his party who could be described as 'neoliberal'." [29] Goldsmith was additionally spokesperson for state-owned enterprises between February and May 2020 and for the Earthquake Commission between May and November 2020. [24] Between March and May 2020, Goldsmith was a member of the Epidemic Response Committee, a select committee that considered the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. [30]
Goldsmith's budget for the National Party's 2020 election campaign was found to have several errors, some of which Goldsmith accepted. [31] [32] Re-elected for a fourth term as a list MP, [33] [34] Goldsmith lost the finance role after the election and became spokesperson for education and a member of the education and workforce committee until 2021. [24] When Christopher Luxon became National leader in 2021, Goldsmith became justice spokesperson. [35]
Sixth National Government, 2023–present
Goldsmith won a fifth term as a National list MP in October 2023. Though he failed to unseat ACT leader David Seymour, he was re-elected on the National Party list. [36] [37]
On 27 November 2023, Goldsmith was announced as the Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage, Minister of Justice, Minister for State Owned Enterprises and Minister for Treaty of Waitangi Negotiations in the Sixth National Government. [1]
On 7 February 2024, Justice Minister Goldsmith announced that government funding for cultural reports would be stopped under the new National-led government. [38] On 6 March 2024, the Government passed urgent legislation ending taxpayer funding for cultural reports. [39] [40]
On 25 February 2024, Justice Minister Goldsmith and Police Minister Mark Mitchell announced that the Government would introduce legislation to ban gang insignia in public places, enable Police to disperse gang gatherings, allow Courts to ban gang members from communicating for at least three years, and giving greater weight to gang membership during sentencing. Goldsmith argued that the Government needed to take action in response to a 51% increase in gang membership (over 3,000 individuals) over the past five years. [41] On 19 September 2024, the Government passed legislation banning gang patches. [42] [43]
In early April 2024, Goldsmith ordered that work on the previous Labour Government's efforts to develop hate speech legislation protecting religious communities be halted, saying it undermined free speech. Goldsmith's decision drew criticism from Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (FIANZ) President Abdur Razzaq, who argued that there needed to be limits to free speech when it crossed the lines into defamation and incitement of violence and hatred. [44]
On 24 April, Luxon appointed Goldsmith as Minister for Media and Communications during a cabinet reshuffle. Goldsmith replaced Melissa Lee, who had faced criticism for her response to Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand's closure of Newshub. [45]
On 26 June, Goldsmith confirmed that the Government would encourage judges to hand down "cumulative" sentences for offences committed on parole, bail or in custody. Earlier, the National-led Government had announced it would require "cumulative" sentences for such offenses but backtracked due to concerns about increasing the prison population. [46]
On 11 July, Goldsmith and Associate Justice Minister Nicole McKee announced the formation of a new retail crime advisory group to engage with victims, workers, business owners, retail experts and advocacy groups to combat retail crime. The advisory group will be allocated NZ$1.8 million a year and expected to last two years. [47]
On 15 July, Goldsmith in his capacity as Justice Minister signed an extradition order against fugitive Internet millionaire Kim Dotcom. Dotcom had spent the past 12 years fighting against extradition to the United States where he is facing several charges of copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering related to his Megaupload website. [48]
On 10 November, Goldsmith confirmed that the Government would introduce new anti-stalking legislation with new restraining and harmful digital communications orders, and prison terms for stalking. [49] On 14 November, Goldsmith introduced new legislation that criminalised covert and other subversive activities on behalf of a foreign power "to intentionally or recklessly harm New Zealand." [50]
