National's Christopher Luxon on Phil Goff for London, and MPs' performance reviews

National Party leader Christopher Luxon has given his tick of approval to the likelihood of Auckland Mayor Phil Goff becoming High Commissioner to London.

As reported by the NZ Herald on Monday, Auckland's current mayor Phil Goff is expected to be appointed the next High Commissioner to London once his term ends in October.

Luxon said the appointment had merit in it.

"He's a very experienced politician, he's held a number of roles including foreign ministers, and he understands NZ Inc issues very well. I think he's going to be quite a good candidate for that role."

He said executing the free trade agreement with the UK was important for New Zealand.

"It's a big, big opportunity and someone like him would help operationalise it and bring it to life."

The appointment of former politicians as diplomats can sometimes be controversial – Luxon did not comment on reports Speaker Trevor Mallard was being lined up for the Ireland posting – but his comments on Goff mean it would have solid bi-partisan support.

However, Luxon said he will not be taking a side on who should replace Goff as Auckland's mayor.

In recent weeks, outgoing National MP Simon Bridges has publicly backed Viv Beck, while Judith Collins went to Leo Molloy's campaign launch.

"That's up to them individually, but from a National Party perspective and my perspective I think those decisions are best left to the people of Auckland to determine. You won't see me getting involved."

As an Aucklander himself, he said he would make a decision on who to vote for but would not reveal it publicly.

Asked if he was concerned the candidates on the right of the race would split the vote, he said it was still early days and the field could change in that time.

"We need to see what emerges. But yes, it has been challenging for centre-right politicians to win Auckland in recent times. That's more the demographics of Auckland are also different and tough too."

Asked if he had hoped former National MP Paula Bennett would have run, he said he thought she would make a "great candidate" for mayor.

"But I fully understand her decision not to run."

Luxon on his MPs' performance reviews

Luxon said his performance reviews with MPs had been delayed by his Covid-19 isolation period, but were now back on track – and MPs would be followed up with a progress check at the end of the year.

"We have an hour-long conversation, we have a two-to-three-page template that everybody has completed. It's about where their focus and priorities are and it forces a discussion between me and them around where I think their priorities are and where they think are. We get aligned on that."

He said he had not adopted the approach of ranking his MPs on a bell curve – something he had used in performance reviews for staff in the past at Air NZ.

"No, I haven't brought the magic of the bell curve to this."

Asked whether his reviews would result in portfolio or ranking changes, he said it was mainly about setting expectations about what each MP should be doing and how they were going to do it – including who they should be engaging with.

He said at the end of the year there would be a further round of "discussions".

"We will have a continued conversation about how they are going, what else needs to change. We will revisit it then."