Incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is visiting his Botany electorate in Auckland as coalition talks to form a government continue in Wellington.
He visited Cockle Bay School in Cockle Bay in east Auckland. Luxon said he loved going to school “because of this school”.
He was welcomed to the primary by a performance from students. He then signed autographs and discussed the All Blacks with the children.
Luxon said it was special to come back to his former school, and it set him up well.
“We had to call the principal ‘sir’ and I was part of sir’s math club,” he said.
The National leader said he is confident the party’s education plans will be successful.
“We want to turn the country around and a big part of the plan is education.”
Referring to coalition agreements, Luxon said he was using the time before the special votes to come in to build relationships with other potential coalition partners.
He told the media National plans to cancel light rail because it’s a “white elephant”.
Luxon also said there is always more work to do with diversity within the National Party.
“I was really proud that we ran in two Maori seats and we reached out to Pasifika communities.”
He said he won’t be attending the Rugby World Cup because it’s more important to be in New Zealand.
He spoke to the media during the visit, the first time he has spoken publicly since Tuesday when he held his first meeting with his bolstered caucus and introduced his new MPs to Parliament.
Luxon is taking the opportunity in his home base to thank his voters and visit his old school before visiting local businesses.
He has kept mum on any coalition talks so far, yesterday reiterating his preference to keep negotiations out of the media.
He has said he disagreed with the “blow-by-blow” negotiations going “through the media” following past elections.
Luxon has suggested, contrary to what the other two negotiating partners might want, that he is happy to take his time and run down the clock until special votes are counted before doing a deal.
He would use that time to build relationships, he said.
“The approach is very simple, I’m going to use the next three weeks until the special votes are fully counted to actually progress the relationships and the arrangements with each party, the way we work with them will be different,” Luxon said.
However, this is not exactly different to how prior negotiations were conducted. While in 2017, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters regularly spoke to the media during negotiations, mainly because they were camped outside the lifts beneath his office, the leaders of the other two parties did not.
At his first caucus meeting, meanwhile, Luxon was greeted with applause as he walked into the room. He joked it was a very different circumstance to the one that greeted him and other new MPs after National’s devastating loss in 2020.
“This has been a bit of an empty room the last three years. I hope we’ve got enough chairs for everybody,” Luxon said.
Raphael Franks is an Auckland-based reporter who covers breaking news. He joined the Herald as a Te Rito cadet in 2022.
The Royal Society Publishing Photographic Awards celebrates the beauty of science