"We should have posted it much sooner," Christopher Luxon told the AM show after his Hawaii social media fiasco. Photo / Marty Melville
"We should have posted it much sooner," Christopher Luxon told the AM show after his Hawaii social media fiasco. Photo / Marty Melville
National Party leader Christopher Luxon said a video on social media suggesting he was in Te Puke while he was actually in Hawaii should have been uploaded earlier.
On AM this morning, Luxon was greeted by hosts who were wearing leis before he was questioned about the fiasco.
"Aloha, I love the leis, they look great," said Luxon.
"I own that one," he said of the controversial post. "We should have posted it much sooner and we should have actually captioned the post to say it was in recent days, not implying that it was on the day.
He confirmed he was definitely doing his interview this morning from the Beehive Theatrette.
"We should have posted it much sooner," Christopher Luxon told the AM show after his Hawaii social media fiasco. Photo / Marty Melville
"I'm definitely in Wellington today and back into the reality of New Zealand – we have big things to focus on.
"We've got the cost of living rising, we've got school education attendance being a major problem, we've got a health crisis and the health system is falling apart," Luxon said.
"Back into the real issues now, off the beach from Hawaii."
Luxon said he has called for an inquiry into the Reserve Bank because New Zealanders deserved to know if monetary policies implemented with the Government's response to Covid-19 contributed to the living costs crisis.
"Given the pain and suffering the New Zealanders are feeling with this cost of living crisis, it's really important that we understand if those policies have contributed to worsening the [crisis] and what we can learn from it for next time."
He wasn't sure what the cost of the inquiry would be but was confident it was the right approach.
"Rather than a Royal Commission or a ministerial review, actually having an independent public inquiry rather than the Reserve Bank grading its own performance is actually important."
He said National endorsed support for business hammered by Covid-19 but said "dumb" spending was occurring – such as on Three Waters Reform, the restructure of the health system and the merging of TVNZ and Radio NZ.
"Those are things we just wouldn't be doing and spending money on."
He repeated arguments voiced several times this year that money spent to build bureaucracy in Wellington would have been better invested in doctors, teachers and ICU beds.
Speaking to TVNZ's Breakfast about the Te Puke post, Luxon said that had already been addressed and it was well-known he'd been in Hawaii and not Te Puke when the post went up.
Asked if holidaying in Hawaii with his family may put him out of touch with what ordinary struggling Kiwis are going through, Luxon said his was an intense job and that this was a much needed break.
He added: "[Hawaii] is a good place for us to go because we actually have family time without being in the public eye as much and it was exactly what we needed to do."
Luxon was then asked if he understood what struggling Kiwis were enduring.
"Absolutely. I really understand it. We've got a really big problem with the Government that's letting a lot of New Zealanders down at the moment," the National Party leader said.
"We don't have an economic plan that's actually dealing with rising inflation and the cost of living - and we need to have that and we need to see that from the Government."
