Election 2023: A cohesive coalition is high on incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s list

The incoming Prime Minister has achieved the unprecedented feat of winning an election as a first-term MP. Photo / Hayden Woodward

OPINION

Monday morning, the weekend’s excitement and celebrations are done, and a new Government contemplates its task in the cold light of day. It is not yet officially installed, of course, and does not yet know the composition and form if its coalition, but National knows it needs Act and will probably need New Zealand First once special votes are in.

Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon might welcome a wider coalition. His victory speech on Saturday night was generous and moving as he described a night flight over the lights of farmhouses, towns and cities of the nation he wants to bring together.

Election campaigns are nasty and divisive, this one more than most. Labour chose to fight the election on National’s policies rather than its own merits. It was not until his concession speech that Chris Hipkins spoke powerfully of his pride in his government’s record. He should have done so in the televised debates.

But the divisions that must now be healed lie deeper than disagreements between the major parties. The success of the minor parties on both the right and left speaks to the underlying divide.

On the right, Act and NZ First appealed to voters who think Labour has taken the country too far along the path to Aotearoa New Zealand.

On the left, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori think it did not go far enough. The loss of so many Māori seats must have come as a hard blow to Labour after having spent so much political capital on empowering Māori and promoting te reo.

Luxon can defuse these issues without abandoning their cause. He could extend an invitation to Te Pāti Māori just as Sir John Key did, to see if there are planks in their platform his Government could accommodate. He could do the same with the Greens on climate policies.

Act will have more leverage in this Government than it has had before. But it has several major concerns to pursue besides co-governance. Inflation, public spending, crime, education and red tape are also its prime targets. NZ First, too, has other objectives, notably a thorough inquiry into the Covid lockdowns.

But the new Government’s first concern will be inflation. Tomorrow, the country learns the latest quarterly rise in the consumers price index. If it is not substantially down on the 6 per cent to June, the figure will lend urgency to the need to reduce spending.

National, Act and NZ First have all campaigned against Labour’s level of spending, and we can expect the Government to run a fine-tooth comb through all departments to remove virtue-signalling agencies and programmes that are not producing much visible value.

The incoming Prime Minister has achieved the unprecedented feat of winning an election as a first-term MP. His instincts appear moderate, but his partner(s) will be in a stronger position than any we have seen. With a common purpose to get the country back on their “right track”, they should be able to agree on a cohesive coalition fairly quickly.