The first time it is raised, Luxon answers by acknowledged the troubles, saying "you're right. If you can't manage your team, your party, why should people trust you to manage the country?"
He then tries to persuade them National can.
The second time, a woman says she voted for Luxon, but gave her party vote to Act "because I just don't think National has got its leadership sorted."
Luxon responds by singing Collins' praises.
Sometimes he steers the conversation onto Botany issues by asking about local issues.
Transport is the most common answer.
He talks about local roading projects planned for the distant future.
"John F Kennedy said 'we will go to the Moon,' and nine years later they got to the Moon. But it's going to take us 25 years to get a busway?"
He talks about Covid-19, saying the ramifications will be around for a few years. He believes the debt is necessary, but must be well-used on "legacy" infrastructure.
He insists the election is still winnable for National.
"People need to start looking out the front window screen and thinking about what things are going to look like in 18 months' time."
National's Botany candidate Christopher Luxon talks to Dannemora local Vince Oldfield while on the campaign trail in East Auckland. Photo / Peter Meecham
When somebody wishes him luck, he jokes he has been unemployed for a year now and would like to tell his wife that he has managed to get another job.
If there was any doubt that the chief executive could become a politician wooing voters, it is quickly dispelled.
He charms, and makes self-deprecating jokes. He greets them all individually, he tells them of his own family, and why he wanted to be in politics.
He gives an optimistic view of New Zealand's future.
Of his own future, he says the media gets ahead of itself on leadership speculation. "I take it one step at a time. If I'm going to be any good at this job, I've got to know the electorate, the party and the Parliament."
"I'm not just going to eat my lunch," he says several times during the street meetings, but he is careful not to say that when he is asked about his leadership ambitions.
Then it is the old "my only job right now is winning Botany."
Eventually we do go to eat lunch at Botany Town Centre.
There, he tells the NZ Herald he loves the campaign.
"There are amazing people out there, and you do realise your voice is to put some volume and voice to what they're doing. It's an old-fashioned idea. It's not all House of Cards, it's public service."
He is asked how the National Party's woes have affected his campaign, and says his focus was on introducing himself.
"But yes, the more recent period has been fine, but through the leadership transition and changes, people did lose a sense of what we were trying to do. I think we've got that now."
Of Collins' post-election future, he says that is not a matter for here and now.
"She's taken a tough proposition and has sharpened us up big time since she took over. "She's someone who is pretty tough, she's pretty formidable, she's black and white and you know what you're getting.
"And when you're doing a turn-around job, which is what we'll be doing with New Zealand going forward, that clarity is important."
Soon after, he meets Collins, who has turned up to wave National Party signs on a busy intersection with the east Auckland candidates: Luxon and Simeon Brown.
They greet with a hug, he takes to the loudspeaker to thank her for the work she has put in.
She leaves, and a media outlet stops Luxon for an interview. They ask if Collins should stay on as leader if National loses the election – and if he will be the one to roll her.
The only job he is thinking about, he says five times over, is to become the MP for Botany.
