Christopher Luxon fires up at Winston Peters, says NZ First responsible for Prime Minister Dame Jacinda Ardern

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has fired up at his coalition partner New Zealand First, including claiming its leader Winston Peters is trying to “scaremonger” and reminding New Zealanders the party put Dame Jacinda Ardern into power.

It follows Peters taking aim at Luxon, the National leader, for what he called a “very bad move” to put his leadership to a confidence vote. While Luxon survived that, Peters warned there would be “consequences”.

Peters told Ryan Bridge TODAY that if he had spoken to Luxon beforehand, he would have advised the Prime Minister against the confidence motion.

“Mary and Joe Bloggs, who want stability, who are concerned about economic and social recovery, it sends the wrong signal to them,” Peters, who also suggested there could be another confidence vote if poor polling continued for National, said.

National deputy leader Nicola Willis later said there was a “live risk” of NZ First working with Labour in a future governing arrangement. Peters has ruled out working with Labour leader Chris Hipkins, but not the party generally if Hipkins was gone.

Now Luxon has piled in, telling Newstalk ZB’s The Country that while he didn’t believe Peters was undermining him, NZ First had a different agenda to National.

Among the differences Luxon identified was National and NZ First’s division over the New Zealand-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). He said NZ First was behind the programme to plant a billion trees, which has received some backlash from farmers.

“They’re the guys that claim to be socially conservative and then put Jacinda Ardern into power,” Luxon said.

“I’m just saying we are different and we have our differences. We have things that we can align on and we can work very constructively around and we will if it’s needed down the future.

“The real answer is if you’re sitting out there thinking about what kind of government you want to take New Zealand forward with, you need a National-led Government period, it’s that simple.”

Christopher Luxon (left) identified some differences between his party and Winston Peters'. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Luxon said Peters was “dead wrong on the India FTA”. NZ First has opposed New Zealand signing the deal, raising issues like the number of migrants and their families coming to New Zealand, as well as concerns over an investment clause.

“He is trying to scaremonger. He’s trying to crank it up,” Luxon, who highlighted that NZ First had opposed the China FTA as well, said.

“He has, for want of a better word, an anti-immigrant sort of bias in his party and his constituency and his belief system. We don’t buy that. We’ve got smart, targeted, and immigration settings in New Zealand that have served us well.”

He said areas where the parties agree include growing the economy, law and order, health and education.

Parties often have differences under the Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) system of Parliament, Luxon said.

The Prime Minister went on to say Peters “shocked” New Zealand when NZ First went with Labour over National following the 2017 election.

“I think it shocked a lot of his own supporters, frankly, but ultimately, that’s his decision. What I’ll do is, we’ve had a very constructive working relationship in this Government,” Luxon said.

“I’m actually very proud of the strong, stable Government the three parties have been able to deliver in this coalition.”

When later asked about Luxon’s comments regarding putting Ardern into power, Peters responded: “I don’t know what on earth that would mean at all.”

He said he had put other people into positions of power as well.

Peters also denied New Zealand First had an “anti-immigrant bias”.

“For goodness sake, we’re the first lot of immigrants that came here. I am the original immigrant, okay? So how can we be anti-immigrant?”

Despite the back-and-forth between the leaders, Peters said the coalition was stable.