Christopher Luxon speaks on National's win and Chris Hipkins concedes the election.
After more than three hours, National leader Christopher Luxon and other high-ranking party members have emerged from his home in Auckland after a long strategy meeting today.
Luxon, set to become the next Prime Minister, said he would be travelling to Wellington tomorrow afternoon and would be welcoming the party’s new MPs to Parliament as they began their induction process.
Among the National Party MPs arriving around midday were Todd McClay and Simeon Brown. National Party president Sylvia Wood and Luxon’s chief of staff Cameron Burrows were also among the gathering. Wood was greeted by MP Paul Goldsmith and deputy leader Nicola Willis on her arrival. Party campaign chair Chris Bishop arrived shortly after.
Luxon said the purpose of today’s meeting was to “digest the election results” and think about the next steps.
He remained tight-lipped on what had been decided, not answering whether the party had firmed up when it might conduct talks with members of the Act Party or New Zealand First.
“I said we won’t do it through the media, we’ll do it directly with the parties involved out of respect to them.”
National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis (from left), MP Paul Goldsmith and National Party president Sylvie Wood outside Christopher Luxon's house in Remuera. Photo / Adam Pearse
Luxon also did not confirm or deny whether he had spoken to NZ First leader Winston Peters today.
With more than 500,000 special votes yet to be counted, Luxon did not indicate whether it was his preference to not advance the formation of the next Government until those votes were in. He did accept it would make things more complex if that process began before the votes were counted.
“There’s a bit of volatility sitting there but we’ll carry on working with the parties directly,” Luxon said.
“We know that the result is going to bounce around a little bit and that’s the thing that we need to see how that’s going to button down.”
National Party leader and Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon with deputy leader Nicola Willis. Photo / Alex Burton
He echoed comments made by his campaign chair Bishop earlier this morning that it was “quite possible” National would lose a seat after the special votes were counted, increasing the likelihood NZ First could be required to form a government.
While he was reluctant to share details of his conversations with New Zealand politicians, Luxon said he’d had a good talk with Australian PM Anthony Albanese earlier today.
Luxon said Albanese congratulated him on the election results and reaffirmed that he wanted to work “really closely together”.
They also spoke about upcoming events for world leaders, including the Pacific Islands Forum and the Apec Economic Leaders’ Week next month.
With the Pacific Islands Forum starting on November 6 in Rarotonga, Luxon said it was his intention to attend but acknowledged it could be compromised by how negotiations panned out.
“We’d like to try and do that but again, it’s a little bit contingent upon how the next few weeks play out.”
Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.
