Christopher Luxon not ruling out NZ First coalition after Winston Peters rules out Labour

National Party leader Christopher Luxon is keeping his options open regarding a coalition with Winston Peters' NZ First party. Photo / Mike Scott

National Party leader Christopher Luxon is not ruling out working with NZ First leader Winston Peters after the 2023 election, opening the door to a National-Act-NZ First grouping.

Speaking in Napier, Luxon said it was “way too early” to talk about coalitions and exhorted voters to “party vote National” if they wanted to change the government.

Peters has a history of never revealing which party he would work in government with before an election, keeping his options open. However, he broke this precedent this year, telling the Weekend Herald that he could not work with Labour. The news comes as NZ First’s polling has risen to within one percentage point of the crucial 5 per cent threshold.

“No one gets to lie to me twice,” Peters said.

“We are not going to go with the Labour Party, this present Labour Party crowd, because they can’t be trusted.

“You don’t get a second time to lie to me, or my party and they did,” he said, citing the work that was done on the He Puapua report in the last government, in which Peters was a minister.

That puts the ball firmly in Luxon’s court - ruling out Peters would mean it would be difficult for Peters to work with either Labour or National after the 2023 election without a significant political backdown.

There’s precedent for National ruling out working with NZ First. Former leader John Key ruled Peters out in 2008 and 2011, but did not in 2014. Simon Bridges ruled Peters out in 2020.

When asked if he would rule out working with Peters, Luxon fell back on a classic trope for politicians who are not keen to discuss post-election government formation by saying the only way to change the government is a vote for National.

“Way too early to speculate on any electoral calculations as I’ve said, if you want to change this Government and a lot of New Zealanders do, there’s only one thing to do and that’s party-vote National,” Luxon said.

“All I’m saying to you is the right way, if you want to change this Government is party vote National in 2023,” Luxon emphasised.

Luxon was asked whether he was worried about Peters eating into the centre-right vote.

“I’m worried about making sure we take our case to the New Zealand people that we help them with an economy that’s going backwards, a healthcare system that’s falling apart, an abysmal education set of failures, we’ve got a major set of challenges still on housing, and we’ve got rapidly rising crime - those are the issues that New Zealanders care about, those are the issues we’ll be prosecuting in the coming year,” Luxon said.

When asked whether he could cooperate with Peters on those issues, Luxon said he was “focused on the National Party.

NZ First polled at 4 per cent in the most recent Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll and 4.4 per cent in the most recent Talbot Mills poll.

It also raises the question of what Act would do if asked to join a grouping with National and NZ First.