Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joined Mike Hosking in the Newstalk ZB studio for the last show of the year today, reflecting on his first year in office.
Hosking and Luxon also completed their annual Christmas gift trade, with Luxon describing Hosking’s gift choice as “genius”.
“You don’t really have time to digest... but it’s been a great 12 months,” Luxon said about his first year as prime minister.
Hosking said his criticism of Luxon was that “you haven’t gone hard enough.”
“You can get very lost in it if you don’t have great clarity,” Luxon said.
“The problems are more complex often than they feel.”
Luxon said New Zealand needed “outside pools of capital” to address its infrastructure issues.
“This Spotify wrapped of yours, are you a fraud?” Hosking asked, referencing that Luxon had previously said he was a country music fan and there was a lack of country music on his list of most listened-to songs and artists.
“That was quite an accusation...” Luxon said.
Luxon defended himself by saying Post Malone and Dua Lipa have created a country song together and is one of his favourites.
He called Post Malones new album the “best album of the year.”
He gave a shout-out to “Day of the Jackal,” a TV series he was enjoying and joked with Hosking that they were supporting TVNZ+ by doing so.
Hosking gave a Christmas gift to Luxon that was “one of one” and a “prototype.”
It was a book titled “The Complete Guide to Surviving a Mike Hosking Interview.”
“That is genius,” Luxon said.
Luxon gave Hosking a Christmas card with a family photo on it and some “furikake seasoning,” a Japanese seasoning typically made with toasted sesame seeds and nori.
“People like me, who are men of the people, just use salt, I mean I come from a very humble background,” Luxon said.
“This is what really posh people do.”
“Absolutely love it,” Hosking said in response to the gift.
Luxon also gave Hosking a “special energy Voost” that was described as “posh Berrocca.”
Earlier Luxon described scrutiny week as an “innovation from parliament” and “not a bad thing.”
Hosking pointed out that reports say New Zealand faces an investment gap with a growing population.
“What a marvellous set of challenges Mike,” Luxon responded.
“The last 30 years, what we’ve had is a productivity disease,” Luxon said.
He said countries with similar populations are wealthier than New Zealand.
“I’ve studied this for about 20 years and it comes down to about five things, it’s education, science, technology, innovation. What you’re seeing at Fonterra, they’re really adding a lot of value to their product services, it’s definitely infrastructure...”
Luxon said as a country we are bad at attracting foreign investment.
Hosking asked Luxon if he thinks people “truly understand how troubled this country is.”
“No,” Luxon responded, referencing the past six years of previous government policy.
“We run the country like it’s 1975,” Luxon said.
There needed to be a “better quality economic engine” in place for New Zealand to be able to fund its public services better, Luxon said.
Luxon told media recently that he was feeling “incredibly optimistic” for the future of New Zealand.
As he opened a new “police base” in central Auckland, the Prime Minister spoke of going after gangs “hard”, changing sentencing laws and wanting to rebuild the country’s economy and reduce the cost of living.
Last month marked a year since the coalition Government of National, Act and New Zealand First took office.
The coalition hit the ground running by reversing the previous Labour Government’s agenda in a “policy bonfire”, slimming down the public service, and reverting many Crown organisations to their English names.
This, and the scrapping of the Māori Health Authority, kicked off tensions between this Government and Māoridom – with backlash on the Treaty Principles Bill only adding fuel to the flames.
But there was plenty for the Government to celebrate with wins around tax cuts, family benefits, more regional investment, and new laws to tackle crime.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said then he was “aspirational” for New Zealanders’ and “energised” for the next two years.
Jaime Lyth is a multimedia journalist for the New Zealand Herald, focusing on crime and breaking news. Lyth began working under the NZ Herald masthead in 2021 as a reporter for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei.
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