Editorial: National Party reset around Christopher Luxon needs to work

National leader Christopher Luxon and deputy leader Nicola Willis after their caucus meeting at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Editorial

EDITORIAL

The first few statements from new National Party leader Christopher Luxon will have gone some way to reassure the unfaithful.

It is those whose fidelity was found wanting in the last two elections who Luxon will most want to assuage.

Luxon may be lauded or damned for his endorsement from National's most popular leader in recent times, Sir John Key. But despite their similar business acumen, Luxon is not in the same mould.

Although it is very early days, the new leader has yet to display the personability Sir John seemed to find so naturally. This is something for Luxon to develop, and he could do himself and the party cause a great service by getting among New Zealanders in their daily lives.

That said, he still needs to find the unity within his own party, which abandoned the room soon after Key anointed Bill English as his successor. Luxon will need to negotiate a unified purpose in a party that has spent four years bedding in a culture of treachery and vengeance.

He takes the leadership earlier than almost anyone wanted because the legs had been kicked out from under everyone else — in the process, plunging the party to the low 20s in the polls. Simon Bridges was a worthy contender; as Herald political editor Claire Trevett wrote, when he is good, he is very good. But there's no appetite for returning to the well when there is a fresh spring.

Luxon's first public words as leader were to thank his colleagues. This, and his reputation for leading Air NZ with a tight and effective executive team, may also offer some hope for an end to hostilities.

Much has been made already of Luxon's fundamental Christianity. In itself, this should be of no more concern than any other faith, unless it overruns into policy.

The party was built on values common to the tenets of Christianity and shared by many other religions. But it will, undoubtedly, be a theme returned to by his critics and he will need to find the means to deflect it as an irrelevance.

Luxon's choice of deputy is another good step. An MP since 2018, Nicola Willis also reinforces the look of fresh branding Luxon wants to present. But her political experience runs deeper, having been a researcher for English, Don Brash and Key.

One jarring note so far was Luxon's declaration, "National is back". It would be a rare find indeed to scare up someone who wanted much more of what National has offered over the past several years. But Luxon hit the mark when he said "we are the reset".

The reset must recognise lessons from the past. Former National prime minister Jim Bolger's call to address inequality where "some are getting obscenely rich and others are going to food kitchens" should resonate with this new leadership.

This leadership needs to work. Party survival hinges on it, and the country also desperately needs a strong and robust political process right now.