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At a National Party event last night, Luxon said that this morning New Zealanders would “wake up to a new day, a promise of a new government and a new direction”.
The election night results put National and Act in a position where they have a majority to govern, but at 61 seats and special votes still to count, it will be a few weeks before Luxon will know if he will get his dream of a National-Act government or if he will need to call NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Luxon’s key election campaign promises included tax cuts for middle-income earners, a crackdown on crime and youth offending, a ban on cellphones in schools, and the scrapping of the Labour government’s plan to raise fuel taxes.
The strategy team will be meeting on Sunday afternoon, Luxon said, to talk through the next steps including discussions about working with Winston Peters.
Luxon promises to try to unify the country, saying that was the job of a prime minister.
“You want every prime minister to leave the country more unified than when they came into the job,” he said.
“We’re going to govern for all New Zealanders, we are going to bring New Zealanders together, to work together on the challenges that we’ve got.”
Luxon said that he had spoken to Act Leader David Seymour twice since last night’s election results.
“In very broad brush terms, David and I over the last couple of months have spoken every couple of days and we’ve been neighbours for four years so we do know each other fairly well,” he said.
“We’ve talked about getting the economy rebuilt, restoring law and order, those same goals we are very aligned.
“What we have made sure is that we have good alignment and good chemistry.”
Luxon said he will not be doing any of the coalition negotiations through the media or with the media out of respect for the parties involved.
He said with more than 500,000 special votes still to count, there was still a lot of dynamics at play and the numbers were “going to bounce around.
“But our view is that we’ve got a great mandate for change,” Luxon said.
“What I want is for New Zealanders to be reassured that we are going to deliver a strong and stable government that’s going to get things done.”
Luxon said the relationship with Australia will be his government’s “number one foreign policy” and it is one that he would like to see grow from strength to strength.
Chris Bishop said he was really happy with the campaign that the National Party had run.
“It’s about the country, it’s about changing the government and that’s what we’ve done and that’s ultimately why I’m happy,” Bishop said.
“Auckland in particular has swung very hard for National, we really did do an excellent job in Auckland in places like Mt Roskill for example where Carlos (Cheung) ran a great campaign... we weren’t expecting to pick up the Mt Roskill seat with Michael Wood who many people regard as a hardworking local member.”
He told RNZ the decision to call Winton Peters would be a call for Luxon to make.
“But as the on the day votes came in and specials were yet to be counted, our vote may diminish.”
Last night, Peters said “if we can help, we will” if National and Act lose votes on the special votes or if there is a larger overhang in Parliament because of Te Pāti Māori’s resurgence.
In his election night speech, Luxon said he had spoken to Act leader David Seymour, and on current numbers it appeared National and Act would be able to form a government.
He also congratulated Peters, and said he appreciated Peters’ comment that he was willing to help if needed.
He said he was humbled by the support for National, but also energised by it.
“We all share an interest in living in a safe, stable country that celebrates fairness and wants the best for every New Zealander.
“It’s what unites us that matters to me,” he said. He offered a special thanks to everyone who voted for National.
“For all those that didn’t vote for National, we won’t let you down either,” he said.
