National's Christopher Luxon rules out joining with Brian Tamaki-led Freedoms NZ coalition

National will not be going into coalition with Brian Tamaki's new umbrella party should it need a majority to rule in next year's general election.

Christopher Luxon this morning unequivocally ruled out engaging with the fledgling Freedoms NZ coalition party that was announced in a mass demonstration on Parliament grounds last week.

He told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking that as a new leader in a beltway game of ruling parties in and out he was not going to be presumptuous and talk about coalition arrangements when there was still a lot of work to do in the National Party.

But to rule out any speculation that National would be interested in speaking with the anti-Government faction he ruled a line in the sand.

Brian Tamaki at Parliament Grounds last week, where he announced the formation of a new three-part6y coalition. Photo / George Heard

"What I've tried to say consistently is that I've got nothing in common with Tamaki. I think they're crazy, I don't think they're serious, I don't think they're going to make it and you saw that coalition fall apart if you read between the lines.

"If it helps Mike, I'm very happy to give you a Mike Hosking exclusive that I'll certainly rule out Tamaki and never work with him."

He said talk of National and Tamaki joining forces was a distraction or "a squirrel" and if you were in the Labour Party you would want to create a distraction to try and deflect from issues facing Kiwis.

"These guys want anything, whether it's holidays in Honolulu or this kind of issue to distract and that's what's going on in order to stay in power."

Luxon wanted to focus on the big issues because New Zealand was in trouble with the economy falling apart, education going backwards, housing problems and crime rising.

At the announcement of the new umbrella coalition, Tamaki said it would consist of the New Nation Party, Vision NZ and the Outdoors and Freedom Party. One of the parties was based in London and two had signed a memorandum of understanding.

However just a day later the Outdoors and Freedom Party said Tamaki had jumped the gun and that they were still discussing the issue as a party and had not come to a consensus about joining political forces.

Vision NZ was set up by Brian and Hannah Tamaki and contested the 2020 general election where it got just 0.1 per cent of the vote.

Tamaki has been approached for comment.