Tax cut pledge not exempt from Chris Luxon policy review

National leader Christopher Luxon says a big tax policy is not exempt from being cut. Photo / Mark Mitchell

National leader Chris Luxon will not exempt his party's promise to cut the top tax rate from 39 per cent from his summer policy review.

Luxon has inherited a handful of policies from the former National leadership, including a pledge to cut the new top tax rate from 39 per cent on income earned above $180,000, back to 33 per cent.

Luxon had previously told TVNZ's Q&A he would like to reduce taxes, but did not pledge any specific cuts.

"Simon [Bridges] and I will have that conversation over the coming months," Luxon said, when asked about whether the tax cut policy would survive the summer," Luxon said.

"Not having a conversation about that today - sadly, we've got a lot of work to do as you know to work our way through the different issues,"

The interview was recorded before the Government published its improved fiscal forecast today.

It puts a big focus on where New Zealand's interests are, where we can actually help our neighbours around civil defence and where we need to have a presence.

Luxon also gave his support to a new Defence assessment published last week, which aims to pivot the focus of new Zealand's attention to the Pacific.

"We're quite supportive," Luxon said.

The assessment has raised some eyebrows for its frank assessment of United States and Chinese strategic competition.

The assessment raised the prospect of a "military base or dual-use facility in the Pacific by a state that does not share New Zealand's values and security interests," as a specific challenge.

This has been interpreted as a coded reference to China.

Luxon would not say whether he specifically agreed with that part of the report.

"It's in our interest to have a strong presence in the Pacific and that's what we're trying to orient our interests around," Luxon said.

When asked again, he agreed that it was in New Zealand's interests to keep powers that did not share our interest out of the Pacific.

"Yeah, we need to stand up for our values.

"We're going to act in New Zealand's interests in the Pacific, and we've got a lot of contribution we can make there," Luxon said.