National leader Christopher Luxon, Act leader David Seymour, and NZ First leader Winston Peters sign their coalition agreement
Act leader David Seymour says he’s confident his party has secured a favourable coalition deal - and suggested his party has trumped NZ First when it comes to ministerial roles.
The deal, which has not been released yet, will be signed by the parties at Parliament this morning and then made public.
A jubilant Prime Minister-designate Christopher Luxon would give nothing away about the deal National had struck with Act and NZ First, including who has been given the role of deputy prime minister, which was one of the final sticking points in negotiations.
“I won’t get into any of that until the deal has been ratified by the respective parties,” he said, adding he was “100 per cent” confident the deals would be ratified by the parties’ respective boards. Act’s board had already been consulted on a deal as required under that party’s constitution. National’s board had signed off the deal as of late afternoon yesterday, leaving only NZ First.
Luxon promised to announce the shape of his Cabinet later on Friday, after briefing MPs.
Luxon on his way to announce the end of talks. Photo / Mark Mitchell
He called the Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro on Thursday to say he was on the verge of announcing the deal, and was set to call her again last night after the parties’ respective boards had ratified the deal. Kiro will look for public statements from the three parties that Luxon has the ability to form a government, which will be obvious by today.
Luxon said he wanted to have a swearing-in ceremony for ministers on Monday.
Rehearsals for the state opening of Parliament took place there yesterday. Luxon said he wanted Parliament open by December 5, allowing three weeks of sitting time before the House rises for Christmas.
Act leader David Seymour told the Herald the Government would announce a 100-day plan shortly after the announcement of the coalition deal. Seymour hinted some of this would include repealing legislation, potentially under urgency.
“There may well be some things where the existence of legislation that we no longer want to exist and that is costing a large amount of money and therefore, it actually requires urgency to stop that waste,” Seymour said.
National had promised to repeal the Government’s RMA reforms by Christmas and revert to the old system. It also wants the Clean Car fee or “ute tax” gone by the end of the year.
Luxon defended the length of negotiations, the longest bar one since the advent of MMP in 1996, saying the deals were detailed enough to justify the length of time spent negotiating them.
“I’m really proud of the negotiations... When you see the deals... you will understand how comprehensive they are, we cover a tremendous amount of policy,” Luxon said.
“I’ll take as long as it takes, it’s been important for me to go through this in a really disciplined way,” he said.
NZ First leader Winston Peters on his way to Wellington. Photo / Michael Neilson
The deal was announced via a press statement at 4.03pm on Thursday. Luxon had for more than a week promised that a deal was in its “final stages”, but such pledges began to ring hollow as day after day, Luxon continued to return to the Cordis Hotel, locking himself in hours of negotiations over this allegedly “close” deal.
As late as Thursday morning, it was still not certain that New Zealand First leader Winston Peters would return to Wellington to join Seymour and Luxon for the final stages of talks and the signing of a deal.
It was only when Peters was snapped boarding a late morning flight from Auckland to Wellington that it appeared a deal may actually be finalised. In Wellington, Peters confirmed that negotiations were over on Thursday afternoon.
“You’re not gonna nail me down, this is not my first rodeo,” he said. “We’ve been very careful to make sure we get it right.”
Peters would not speak to the Herald after the deal was signed, saying confidentiality was crucial to the process.
“We’ve never had a co-deputy prime minister ever. Why are we starting an argument there? We’ve never had one in this country, why would you say that’s the case?”
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
