Christopher Luxon speaks on National's win and Chris Hipkins concedes the election.
The voters have answered the question of whether National Party leader Christopher Luxon is ready to be Prime Minister with a yes.
Provided he can cut the deal or deals with potential support partners, Act and NZ First, Luxon is set to be Prime Minister after just three years inParliament.
What kind of Prime Minister will he be?
Luxon is unlikely to waste much time in setting up his Cabinet and starting on his policy promises, from tax cuts to clamping down on law and order and the gangs – his 100 Day policy includes both and a mini-Budget will be used to deliver on some of it.
Before that will come coalition negotiations: Luxon has pitched his “real world” experience as being valuable in terms of cutting deals and dealing with other people. His big challenge in that will be in deciding where National is willing to compromise on its own positions and what they are willing to give away. He will be reluctant to give coalition partners big spending promises lest it impact on National’s own promises and get the economy in order.
The economy is his priority area and the area he has the most understanding of. Education is also a passion for him.
He is likely to adopt a CEO model to his prime ministership – and will go in with a fairly inexperienced Cabinet, only a few of whom have been ministers before.
Luxon has pointed to his pre-politics experience as an advantage in his pledge to “get things done,” saying it has given him the skills to turn around struggling organisations – skills he believed transferred well to politics and to running the country.
That business background has given him a low tolerance for political gamesmanship.
However, he has a long interest in politics. He reads extensively about political leaders both in New Zealand and overseas and is an avid watcher of political debates and speeches.
Since becoming leader he has toned down on his “corporate-speak” - while he struggled to earn the trust of voters, that has slowly improved over the course of the election campaign as he got more attention.
In a recent interview with the NZ Herald he described himself as a pragmatist and a centrist: although he has so far appeared to be less naturally centrist than his political mentor: Sir John Key.
“I consider myself a pragmatist and what I’m interested in is solving problems.”
He also described himself as a “reforming perfectionist.”
He is not a micro-manager, believing one of his strengths is being able to pick the right people for the right jobs rather than trying to do it all himself.
While he said he sets high standards, he said he was “calm and even-keeled.”
“I don’t scream, shout, rant or rave. I don’t get too high when things go well and don’t get too low when things don’t go so well. I take the job really seriously, I work hard. But I don’t take myself too seriously and I think that’s important. I see way too many business people and political people who are way too full of themselves and caught up in their own self-importance. Every single one of us is dispensable.”
His first weeks will see two possible overseas trips - to the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands and to the Apec summit in San Francisco. While foreign policy is not in his background, he is careful when asked for his position on various foreign policy issues – an area in which there is a large degree of bipartisanship.
His faith has come under the spotlight, especially his anti-abortion views. He has dealt with that in the same way former PM Bill English did, saying his faith would not be part of his politics and pledging he would resign if he broke his promise to leave New Zealand’s abortion laws as they are now.
Christopher Luxon just after being elected in 2020. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Perhaps even more astonishing than Luxon’s transformation from first-term MP to Prime Minister is that National Party’s reformation under his watch.
In 2020, National got a drubbing in the polls and Luxon fought his way back into contention with a depleted caucus of just 33. Since Luxon took over just two years ago, he has turned into a disciplined and focused team. It has not been totally without trouble since then – Luxon has been swift to dispense justice when it was required. He has dealt with historic bullying allegations against new MP Sam Uffindell and had to demote Barbara Kuriger for her exchanges with the Ministry of Primary Industries over animal welfare charges relating to her family.
However, the leaks from within caucus have dried up and MPs have been more focused. That is no small feat – but not quite as major as running the country.
