National leader Christopher Luxon at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
National leader Christopher Luxon at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
In his first interviews since forming his Government, incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says he has done everything he can to try to make sure his coalition with NZ First and Act does not fall apart.
In an interview with the Herald after releasing the coalition agreements alongside Act leader David Seymour and NZ First leader Winston Peters, Luxon said getting all three parties to sign off on each other’s agreements was key to ensuring the coalition held together.
“We’ve done everything we can to make sure it’s strong and stable. We didn’t want to just form a government. We did something quite ambitious, which was to get all three parties to sign off on each other’s programmes. That’s something that before negotiations commenced, I don’t think many people would have expected we would achieve.”
A cheerful and relaxed Luxon said he had not yet had time to sit back and let it sink it that he would be Prime Minister after 40 days of waiting and then negotiating since the election.
“Not really, I’ve really been focused [since] the day after the election of getting into these negotiations. But it’s a tremendous honour, it’s a great privilege.
On whether there was an agreement not to criticise each other publicly or take potshots, he said the process was for those involved to settle matters behind closed doors and directly.
“It’s the way you want a good team to work together, that you should be able to raise concerns with each pretty straight-up and directly. In terms of our way of working, when inevitably conflict or tension will arise, we have direct leader-to-leader communications.
“We are all in it together.”
He said a coalition committee would act as a “clearing house” for any problems, and to ensure agreements were being advanced as expected.
He also insisted there was enough flexibility to be able to change any given approach if there was an economic shock or major disaster that needed addressing.
“All three party leaders acknowledge we are in very volatile economic times. We can have forecasts, we can have plans but we have to face up to the realities we are encountering too.”
Act leader David Seymour, National leader Christopher Luxon and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters walk to the signing ceremony to announce their new Government yesterday. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Luxon had laughed during a press conference when Peters described the negotiations as long, hard and arduous.
“I agreed with him. There were moments when they were very long, and very arduous. As they should be, because we had a lot to discuss. There was a lot of debate and discussion along the way.”
However, there was never a moment when he thought there was a chance he might not get a deal, despite the difficulties.
Luxon talked about some of the trickier issues in the negotiations, saying National’s biggest sacrifice in the coalition talks was giving up on the foreign buyers’ tax, meaning it now had to find the revenue to pay for the tax cuts from elsewhere. That has led to National’s first U-turn on its promise to repeal other taxes.
National caved in on its plan to tax foreign buyers after NZ First dug its heels in, because it would have meant letting foreign buyers back into the New Zealand housing market, even if only on properties worth more than $2 million.
However, Luxon said he was confident they would find the revenue to fill the shortfall from elsewhere - and said National was no longer planning to repeal the so-called “app tax”.
That is a tax on app-based services such as Airbnb and Uber, which National campaigned on repealing along with others introduced by Labour.
Luxon said all three coalition parties had committed to National’s core promise of tax relief “but we just have to find an alternative funding mechanism for that”.
He said other measures in the agreements had resulted in some other savings and revenue measures that were not in National’s original policy mix, which would fill the gap.
“So we are very confident we can deliver tax relief as we planned.”
One example was moving the fees-free year for tertiary education from the first year of study to the third year. The number of students who took shorter courses or dropped out by the third year meant fewer students would qualify for it, freeing up some money.
Another tricky aspect was Act’s request for a referendum on the Treaty principles. The agreement commits National to supporting at first reading only a bill setting out what the principles should be: but Luxon has not committed to supporting it into law, or a referendum on it. During the election campaign, he had said it would be divisive.
“The reality is you’ve got three parties with slightly different takes and different policies. What we’ve done is say, look it’s important for the Act Party but it’s not something our Government is up for supporting beyond first reading, to the select committee. That’s the price of MMP and making sure we can work our way through any differences like that.”
There will be 14 National Party ministers in the 20-strong Cabinet, which Luxon said was proportionate and fair, though it had meant some disappointed MPs.
He will not have much time to sit back and soak-in his new role in coming days either: he moves into the ninth floor of the Beehive over the weekend, ahead of being official sworn in on Monday, along with ministers.
There are briefings with public servants and work to get ready for when Parliament sits again, likely on December 5 – and to start to tick off items on its first 100 days list.
A big chunk of that will be stopping and reversing a tranche of Labour’s measures - and starting on National’s own list, such as in law and order matters.
Luxon said the first thing that would be repealed would be Labour’s resource management laws. National would revert to the old Resource Management Act while it put together its replacement law. The Three Waters changes would also be repealed quickly, before Christmas.
Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.
