Election 2023: Chris Hipkins, Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters exchange barbs ahead of Parliament’s final week

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has thrown down the gauntlet to his rival Christopher Luxon, ruling out any form of governing arrangement with Winston Peters and NZ First.

Taking off his “Prime Minister” hat and donning that of “Labour leader”, Hipkins ruled-out any form of post-election government with Peters, a man whom Hipkins sat with around the Cabinet table during Labour’s first term.

He made the announcement on Sunday ahead of the last sitting week of the 53rd Parliament, which begins today, and the beginning of formal campaigning this weekend.

Hipkins said Peters, along with Luxon and Act leader David Seymour, would lead a “coalition of fear” and a “government of cuts, chaos and confusion”, and ruled out forming a government not just with NZ First, but with National and Act as well.

Hipkins said the decision was based on the fact those three parties had run campaigns he found to be divisive, or anti-women and anti-transgender.

In reality, Labour’s chance of forming a government with National in a grand coalition or Act was close to zero, and Peters had ruled out working with Labour as early as last November in an interview with the Herald, claiming Labour hid the contentious He Puapua report from him.

Peters has spent many of his media engagements since that interview trying to persuade voters he really meant it.

National leader Christopher Luxon would not rule out Peters himself. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Luxon refused to rule out working with NZ First, telling Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking it was not a consideration.

“I’m just not wasting time on thinking about other parties and want people to vote National. I don’t want people to think about strategic voting.

“They are not in parliament, and according to our internal polls they won’t make parliament.”

In New Plymouth on Sunday, Peters said Hipkins’ rule-out did not matter because NZ First had already ruled Labour out.

“It seems that Mr Hipkins is in some form of time warp,” Peters said.

“It has taken him a year and a half to read my speeches back to me,” he said.

“NZ First has already ruled out going into any form of government with Labour because of their racist separatist policies.”

Hipkins’ gambit was more directed at Luxon, who has not ruled out working with Peters.

Luxon’s voice is the one that matters on the issue, because unlike Hipkins and Labour, Luxon and National still have a chance of going into government with NZ First after the election.

His likely coalition partner, Act, says it would not sit around the Cabinet table with NZ First, but has not said it would withhold confidence from a National-NZ First government, leaving some form of governing arrangement on the table.

Luxon told media on Sunday he was not ruling Peters in or out because NZ First was not in Parliament or above the 5 per cent threshold.

But NZ First is increasingly polling close to or above the threshold. Curia, who also poll for the National Party, had NZ First above 5 per cent in the most recent poll for the Taxpayers’ Union.

“I’ve been very clear in saying he’s not above the threshold, he’s not in Parliament,” Luxon said.

“[NZ First] hasn’t been a consideration for me. They’re not in Parliament, they’re not above the threshold,” he said.

Seymour told the Herald his “honest practical observation” of Peters was that he “can’t be worked with. He is pathologically unable to work with anyone co-operatively”.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the rule-out did not matter because he had already ruled out Labour. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Hipkins said Labour was open to a governing arrangement with the Greens or Te Pāti Māori, which he referred to by its English name, the Māori Party.

“The Green Party have been part of confidence and supply or co-operation agreements with Labour for the past six years. We have worked constructively over that time and can continue to do so - we share a common direction, just with different ways of getting there,” Hipkins said.

“The Māori Party has, in the past, supported National in government, but they are a party we can work with too. Sir John Key had a constructive relationship with the Māori Party in Government, and I believe I will too,” he said.

Hipkins’ email to supporters did not mention either the Greens or Te Pāti Māori, dwelling exclusively on “the Coalition of Fear”.

Labour is keen to paint Luxon’s indecisiveness on Peters as a moral failing. It sent an email to supporters just as Luxon started speaking on Sunday saying Hipkins’ rule-out was “about values”.

“The rhetoric we’ve heard from Winston Peters this year is a style of cheap, divisive politics imported from overseas. It’s designed to cause fear and division within our communities. It does not fit with my values or my vision for New Zealand’s future, and that’s why I’ve made this decision,” Hipkins said.

It also connects Hipkins to the legacy of popular former National leader and Prime Minister John Key, who twice ruled out governing with Peters - in 2008, and again in 2011.

Hipkins also highlighted the socially conservative aspects of the National, Act and NZ First parties in his speech, highlighting MPs’ remarks on abortion, NZ First’s attack on transgender people using bathrooms and Act’s campaign against co-governance.

“Members of [National’s] caucus celebrated the US Supreme Court decision to roll back a woman’s right to choose,” Hipkins said.

“It’s no surprise, given they have people in their party who intimidate and threaten other MPs and who think it’s funny to place a woman MP’s face on to a toilet seat.

“I voted to legalise abortion in our first term, and I’ll continue to defend a woman’s right to choose,” Hipkins said, implicitly drawing attention to Luxon’s anti-abortion beliefs, although Luxon has said he would not not change New Zealand’s abortion laws.

But Luxon said these remarks were “desperate”.

“Chris Hipkins is really desperate, and it’s sad to see,” Luxon said.

“I’ve got a positive plan to take New Zealanders forward.”

Luxon said also that under National, there would be no change to abortion law, funding or access.

Seymour said the attack was “a really sad development”.

“You’ve got an incumbent running a negative personality-based campaign because his own record is so abysmal. Normally, someone who has been in government for six years would run on their record, but that option isn’t open to Chris Hipkins,” he said.

Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.