Seymour says the position of Deputy Prime Minister is being discussed as part of the coalition talks but is yet to be finalised. Video / Adam Pearce
EDITORIAL:
The new Government appears to be having a more difficult birth than might have been expected. Christopher Luxon used the three week wait for final election results to get acquainted with Winston Peters and that seemed to be working.
At least, Peters did nothing to suggest hewould make difficulties.
That changed on Tuesday when he did not turn up for a meeting in Wellington with Luxon and David Seymour. Peters’ explanation, that the Singapore Foreign Minister wanted a meeting with him in Auckland following the Pacific Islands Forum in Rarotonga, is as odd as Peter’s standing up his prospective coalition partners.
Either the Singapore Foreign Minister knows more than New Zealanders’ have yet been told — that Peters is going to be our foreign minister again — or Peters is being presumptuous in the extreme, meeting him before ministerial positions have been agreed.
In any case, the task of forming a government properly should be taking priority over all else right now. Since it is more important than Luxon’s attendance at the Apec summit this week it was certainly more important than Peters’ meeting, which Luxon and Seymour appeared to know nothing about.
His behaviour makes no sense but the country is used to it and it is probably not important.
They have had only two weeks for detailed negotiations and that is not long given Peters usual wish to nail down policies at the outset.
This is not the way good government works.
NZ First leader Winston Peters, National's Christopher Luxon and Act's David Seymour. Photo / Winston Peters
It is more important for coalition partners to agree on how they will consult each other and how they will determine what needs to be done as events arise and conditions change.
It is not even in the interests of small parties in a coalition to get policy “wins” in the initial agreement. Whatever policies they get accepted by the major party become that party’s policies as much as theirs.
By the time the next election arrives, not many voters remember whose idea it was.
All parties in the coalition stand or fall on the merits of what they have done together.
In fact policies cast in stone at the outset of a coalition can be more of a hindrance than a help to good government.
National’s promised tax cuts, for example, are timed for July next year when inflation could still be persistent.
Putting more money into circulation would be even more inflationary if the money has come from foreign house buyers and online gamblers rather than savings in government expenditure.
It sounds like NZ First has already blackballed foreign house buyers, which means National must find substantial Budget savings.
That should help Act to stiffen National’s spine in the drive to get rid of agencies and projects they see as serving only token or virtue-signalling purposes.
National might even be forced by its partners to make the timing of its cherished tax cuts conditional on a declining rate of inflation by July next year.
A good coalition agreement needs to be flexible and reliable. Luxon, Seymour and Peters should take as long as they need and no longer.
