Prime Minister Christopher Luxon outlines the Govt's first 100 days agenda, from today's post-Cabinet presser. Video / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has unveiled his Government’s 100-day plan, as he faces pressure from Labour leader Chris Hipkins to rein in Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters over his false claims about media.
Addressing media this afternoon at his first post-Cabinet press conference, Luxon said it had been a “very busy three days” since being sworn in on Monday.
At Cabinet, Luxon said he had laid out his expectations to “get things done for the New Zealand people”.
He said almost everyone was struggling with the cost of living, adding that today’s Reserve Bank forecast signalled it could get tougher.
The Government was unveiling the 100-day plan today, which included 49 actions (see bottom of article for list).
“It is ambitious, and frankly that is because we are ambitious for New Zealand.”
The plan now incorporates the pledges of NZ First and Act, including a pledge to scrap Labour’s Smokefree policy in a bid to fund tax cuts, and a change in the way the Government interacts with the World Health Organisation.
NZ First forced National to agree to “lodge a reservation against adopting amendments to WHO health regulations to allow the government to consider these against a ‘national interest test’”.
Peters has also extracted an agreement to stop work on He Puapua, the report on implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP). He Puapua was written for the Government when Peters was last in office, though he now alleges Labour hid it from him. Work stopped on the report after it was delivered to ministers.
Māori Development Minister Willie Jackson was tasked with implementing the Government’s response to UNDRIP, but he stopped work on that prior to Jacinda Ardern leaving office.
The plan also says National will scrap Labour’s prison population reduction target, something former Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis himself scrapped on the campaign.
Other, more conventional parts of the 100-day plan have survived. National will begin working on a new road-focused GPS on land transport and cancel Labour’s fuel tax hikes, and begin extending the breast cancer screening age to 74.
Luxon told media the three parties had gone through their policies line-by-line to get to the 100-day plan and were determined to get it done.
Luxon said it was “incredibly disappointing” to see the Reserve Bank signal it could need to raise the OCR. He said it was due to “economic vandalism on a scale not seen before” by the previous Labour Government.
To reduce inflation domestically, Luxon said they would set about reducing Government spending.
Luxon said he had met the Reserve Bank Governor yesterday and they were “united” on fighting inflation.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters during a testy exchange with journalists after the swearing-in ceremony at Government House, Wellington. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Luxon responds to Peters’ ‘war’ against media
On Peters’ comments about the Public Interest Journalism Fund and false claims media had been bribed, Luxon refused to condemn them. He said that he and National had not agreed with the fund either.
He said Peters’ comments were “not the way I would have expressed it” but that he was “frustrated” by the fund as well.
The rhetoric around repealing Labour’s smokefree law was “disingenuous”, Luxon said. All three parties opposed all or at least parts of the legislation.
Luxon said he thought there would have been “unintended consequences” and the Government did not think the laws would work.
Their message was for people to still stop smoking despite accounting for $500 million a year in tax revenue from tobacco sales from repealing the smokefree laws, Luxon said.
Luxon said there was a commitment to reduce smoking rates, but he could not at present commit to the same smoking rates as forecast under the smokefree law.
He said they would work out an achievable goal.
He denied the Government was putting profits before people’s health.
On National minister Chris Bishop’s former role as a lobby for tobacco company Philip Morris, Bishop said any inference that had influenced his position was “just nonsense”.
Bishop said he had nothing to do with the decision to repeal the law.
Luxon said there was “more work to do” around their fiscal plan and interest deductibility.
The Government was still focused on the blanket 6.5 per cent cuts across the public sector.
Luxon said he had confidence in Treasury and the Reserve Bank to get inflation back under control.
Luxon defended the Government’s tax plan saying they had built in a “huge amount of buffer”.
Luxon confirmed Climate Change Minister Simon Watts would travel to COP28 in the United Arab Emirates with Green Party co-leader James Shaw, the former Climate Change Minister.
Bishop, who is Leader of the House, said Parliament would open at 11am on Tuesday and Gerry Brownlee would be nominated by National.
On Thursday would be the first Question Time. There will be 42 maiden speeches in the new Parliament.
During the last two weeks before Christmas, the Government will move urgency for a range of bills, the first being to return the Reserve Bank to a single mandate, fighting inflation.
They also intended to move a bill to repeal Fair Pay Agreements, the RMA reforms, the Clean Car Discount, and introduce and refer to select committee a bill to reintroduce 90-day trials.
“Random, visionless, and harmful” - Greens
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson called the 100-day plan a “random, visionless, and harmful grab-bag of policies”.
“Thousands of people are struggling to put food on the table, yet all they are seeing on their televisions and in the papers are a group of politicians messing around with pet projects and petty grievances.
“Plans to abolish the much-needed Māori Health Authority, remove protections for working people, and roll back climate action will be met with enormous opposition inside and outside of Parliament.”
Luxon had his first Cabinet meeting yesterday, which was mainly a photo opportunity. He said today’s meeting would discuss implementing his 100-day plan for the new Government.
The press conference came as Luxon faced pressure from Hipkins to rein in Peters, who had spent the last three days in a self-described “war” with the media, whom Peters accuses of accepting bribes from the former Government.
Peters has been unable to substantiate his claims but has said the Public Interest Journalism Fund, a Covid-era media support initiative, was in fact a bribe.
Peters was himself part of Cabinet discussions on the media support package and signed off on the first package of $50 million in support. He had left government by the time the $55m package was agreed to.
Hipkins is putting pressure on Luxon to restrain his Deputy Prime Minister following Peters’ latest outbursts.
“The behaviour that we’ve seen from Winston Peters in the last 48 hours is just wrong,” Hipkins said. “Christopher Luxon needs to show that he is actually the Prime Minister and stamp down on that very quickly.
“It is wrong for Winston Peters to be stepping outside the Cabinet manual at the very meeting where they were supposed to be confirming the Cabinet,” Hipkins said.
Peters said the PIJF amounted to bribery of media outlets, an allegation that stems from the PIJF having a goal of supporting the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Applicants to the Public Interest Journalism Fund were asked, when appropriate in producing funded content, to support NZ identity, culture and public interest requirements, including support for the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
However, overriding this in NZME’s funding agreements - a clause specifically requested by the company - is an acknowledgement of the absolute editorial independence of the media entity: “We acknowledge the importance of your editorial discretion as a media entity and confirm nothing in this Agreement will limit or in any way impede or influence the ability of your news reporting functions to report and comment on news stories and current events, including those involving us, as you see fit.”
100-day plan: The 49 Government actions
Rebuild the economy and ease the cost of living
1. Stop work on the Income Insurance Scheme.
2. Stop work on Industry Transformation Plans.
3. Stop work on the Lake Onslow pumped hydro scheme.
22. Begin to cease implementation of new Significant Natural Areas and seek advice on operation of the areas.
23. Take policy decisions to amend the Overseas Investment Act 2005 to make it easier for build-to-rent housing to be developed in New Zealand.
24. Begin work to enable more houses to be built, by implementing the Going for Housing Growth policy and making the Medium Density Residential Standards optional for councils.
Restore law and order
25. Abolish the previous government’s prisoner reduction target.
26. Introduce legislation to ban gang patches, stop gang members gathering in public, and stop known gang offenders from communicating with one another.
34. Improve security for the health workforce in hospital emergency departments.
35. Sign an MoU with Waikato University to progress a third medical school.
36. By December 1, 2023, lodge a reservation against adopting amendments to WHO health regulations to allow the government to consider these against a “national interest test”.
37. Require primary and intermediate schools to teach an hour of reading, writing and maths per day starting in 2024.
