With a year to go before the next election and polls suggesting Christopher Luxon could become the next Prime Minister, Audrey Young talks to the National leader about his preparation for the role.
Christopher Luxon’s office at Parliament is almost as you’d expect, neat, tidy and organised, but unusually, the din of distant music suggests there’s a Zumba class next door.
It turns out to be from the sound system in Luxon’s office and no sooner has he settled into a chair for the interview on his first year as National Party leader than he springs out of it to turn off the music.
It turns out to be Fat Freddy’s Drop, not Latin exercise music.
“I always run with music,” he says.
He needs to explain he doesn’t mean he literally runs with music - although his wife, Amanda, gets up early like him about 4.30 am and she runs 12 km. He means that he likes to have music around him.
The small talk is exemplary with Luxon. He is a real details man.
He has an answer for everything, even when a question has not been asked.
“I have this thing with my daughter where every day I send her a song for the day.”
He says he does the same to The Country radio host Jamie Mackay and his producer Rowena before any interview.
“I still have this view that we should try to improve the country’s understanding of country music – and it’s modern country music; it’s not country and western.”
He got into it a bit when he lived in America.
“It’s such good stuff, like Kenny Chesney is the biggest song-singer in the world - US$180 million out of concerts in the past year.”
Now we are ready to get down to the serious business of politics, although he prefers a sporting analogy when describing the transferability of skills from Air NZ chief executive to a political leader.
“For me, it has been really making sure we reset our culture, make sure everyone understands we are in a team, it is a team sport, it is not an individual sport and, as a result, you’ve got to use the talent that you’ve got, rebuild a culture, rebuild a team, and then do the renewal that you need to see.”
His focus has been a renewal of the caucus, the party, and political staff.
“Those are the three legs to the stool of renewal that we’ve needed to focus on.”
It was important that every MP understood that they played as a team and passed the ball between each other, he says.
His job was to get the best out of National MPs and that included a focus on policy development.
Every Tuesday night, pizzas are ordered and for an hour and a half, ideas are thrashed around by frontbench MPs and staff advisers – usually up to 15 people - with Luxon chairing the discussion and the issue being led by the relevant MP.
“We have a paper as a straw-man provocation and then everybody around the table, it doesn’t matter what your portfolio is, is expected to contribute.”
This week it was a paper by environment spokesman Scott Simpson on the Resource Management Act.
It was crime and justice last week with Mark Mitchell and before that mental health with Matt Doocey.
‘A really rapid entry into political life’
It is part of Luxon’s mission to put National’s house in order - to take it from its pitiful state of self-destructive infighting a year ago to a cohesive alternative government.
Labour may be worried by Luxon’s current polling success but they are not panicking yet. Unsurprisingly, their private polling shows that the biggest worry voters have about him is his inexperience.
That is likely to become even more apparent in the pressure of an election campaign when his grasp of policy and political instincts may not be as honed as Ardern’s.
Ardern is still the most preferred Prime Minister (29.9 per cent to Luxon’s 21.5 per cent in the Newshub poll). And while Luxon’s renewal plan for National appears to be going extremely well, there is a broad expectation that it will be a close election.
Luxon’s rise in politics would perhaps feel more extraordinary except for the fact that it was virtually pre-ordained and predicted before he had even sought selection to stand for National in the 2020 election.
He has a nifty way of describing the trajectory.
“I came into politics just two years ago [2020]. I didn’t speak in Parliament in my maiden speech until the end of March [2021]. We went into a lockdown in August and I came back [in November] and I was made the leader, so essentially it has been a really rapid entry into political life.”
Luxon describes himself as “one of those people who is always constructively dissatisfied” with their own performance because there is always more that can be done.
He gets regularly smacked around by Labour over his pledge to cut the top tax rate on income of more than $180,000. But he resists a suggestion that he is not a match for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the House.
And he has a nifty way of describing her and Deputy PM Grant Robertson in a way that turns his weakness into an apparent strength.
“It’s a fair challenge of course. I didn’t grow up in Parliament. I haven’t been a political staffer. I haven’t been here for 14 years. I’m not a career politician like Robertson or Ardern, or Hipkins or Wood – insert anyone.”
To be fair, this week Luxon did a little better in two ways than usual with his heavily scripted questions to the Prime Minister. He lifted his eyes from the script more regularly. And he successfully baited Ardern.
He forced her to defend the costly merger between RNZ and TVNZ when she was clearly expecting questions on the cost-of-living crisis. And when she implied that the cost of living was much more important, he suggested various ways in which she could help people with the $200 million a year [$100 million of it new] to be spent on the new entity.
If it has been a good year for Luxon, it has been an excellent seven days.
Last Saturday Finance Minister Grant Robertson targeted Luxon in his keynote speech at the Labour Party conference – always a compliment in politics - and they met at the Black Ferns semifinal game at Eden Park that night.
“I offered him a hug because he had just come out of his first day of his Labour conference. I said ‘mate do you need a hug?’”
It was, of course, laughed off. But there’s more of that trademark Luxon detail: he went to the game with his wife, sat next to former Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy and Mark Robinson from NZ Rugby, and right behind Robertson.
Luxon effuses over the Black Ferns and the game that night against France, which he rates as one of the best he has ever seen. He went to the tournament opening, and he will be at the final tonight, and he is wearing the badge to show his support.
Sunday went even better for Luxon. On Sunday night, the Newshub-Reid Research poll suggested Luxon would comfortably become Prime Minister of a National-Act government were its results translated to an election result.
And in more good news for Luxon, who has been on a mission to ensure National has a more diversified caucus, Hamilton West members selected Tama Potaka as its candidate for the December 10 byelection.
Potaka lived in Hamilton when he was general manager for Tainui Group Holdings, has previously been an adviser to the NZ Super Fund and is currently the chief executive of an Auckland iwi, Ngāi Tai ki Tāmaki.
In fact, of National’s last six candidate selections, four have been Māori: Potaka, former chairman of the Taranaki District Council David MacLeod in New Plymouth, lawyer James Meager in Rangitata and former MP Dan Bidois in Northcote.
It is a big shift for the National Party. Although selections remain the domain of locals, there has clearly been a concerted effort by Luxon behind the scenes to ensure Māori candidates are there, and cannot be ignored.
The Treaty of Waitangi promises to be a strong factor in Act and New Zealand First’s campaigns in 2023 and beyond.
Act, National’s natural coalition partner, not only wants a general referendum to define the principles of the Treaty, but leader David Seymour has stated several times it will be “a bottom-line” policy – meaning non-negotiable.
Luxon said there was no need for a referendum.
“For us, it is pretty straightforward so we don’t see a need for that.”
He said the Treaty of Waitangi was not designed to create co-governance - a contentious policy being pursued in a piecemeal fashion by Labour such as through the Māori Health Authority, and iwi co-governance with councils on boards overseeing Three Waters entities.
National in the past has supported co-governance of local resources with relevant iwi working with relevant councils in Treaty settlements, but Luxon says National will not support co-governance of public services.
“It makes no sense,” he says.
“We are brutally interested in delivering outcomes for New Zealand people and that is not going to deliver more outcomes. It is going to create more bureaucracy, like we’ve seen, and it is not an efficient way of getting it.
“We think we are one country, a single system of service delivery that can have massive amounts of innovation within that system, that targets people on the basis of need, all equal under the law. One person, one vote.”
Luxon was out of New Zealand for 16 years from 1995 to 2011, which means he missed many of the major modern events shaping Māori policy such as early Treaty settlements, Closing the Gaps, the Ōrewa speech, the Foreshore and Seabed, and the formation of the Māori Party.
But he says it was no disadvantage.
He said he was very proud of the personal relationships he had built with a diverse range of Māori across the country and he had been meeting many since becoming leader.
“Just quietly, one on one.
“Māoridom is not a monolithic point of view either and there is a lot of diversity of thought in Māoridom.”
Then back to Air NZ.
“I built deep relationships when I was at Air New Zealand with Ngāti Porou. I went on a great journey of cultural fluency and literacy in the company as well.”
The airline won a Māori language award for introducing te reo into its business. He also cites the rainbow tick, and the increase of women in senior positions under this watch.
“I really felt as a new generation CEO, you don’t just manage things for a shareholder. You have a society you are part of.”
For a conservative, he loves to burnish his liberal credentials, although he prefers the term “centrist pragmatist”.
It is evident, he still talks a lot about Air NZ because that’s his deep well and he has so little political experience to draw on.
‘Outside of this building, out there in NZ people are fed up’
But it hasn’t been a perfect year for Luxon. About three months ago, his judgment was being questioned after suggesting to a London audience that New Zealand businesses had gone soft during Covid.
And he was mocked for a social media post suggesting he was hard at work in Te Puke when he was holidaying in Hawaii. The polls punished him. Some suggested he had peaked.
The current polling suggests he has been forgiven because the transformation is obvious.
In the Newshub poll, National would add another 19 extra MPs to its current total of 33 and Labour would lose 24 from its current total of 65.
“I’m telling you, outside of Parliament, outside of this building, out there in New Zealand people are fed up. They want people to get things done and it is not happening.”
He points to what he calls abject failures in crime, housing, education and health.
“The New Zealand people want someone like me coming in who says ‘I know how to get things done. I know how to chunk the process down to get outcomes.’ That’s what’s important.”
With one year down and one to go, it’s a tune the voters appear to be running with.
Head to head: Luxon vs Ardern
IN THE HOUSE
Luxon - Not his comfort zone. Relies on written notes for almost all questions and all speeches but has been an MP for only two years.
Ardern – Superior but not unexpected. Often makes mincemeat of Luxon when answering his questions. Not bad at delivering speeches but they are rarely memorable. Has had a lot more experience with 14 years as an MP, including five as Prime Minister.
HANDLING PRESSURE
Luxon – Untested in terms of coping with high-level pressure in politics but has certainly coped with it well in Air NZ and with internal crises in his own party, including disciplining two MPs, Sam Uffindell and Barbara Kuriger.
Ardern – The pressure could not have been higher for the issues she has had to deal with as PM, namely a massacre, natural disaster and pandemic. Whatever else she lacks, it is not the ability to cope with pressure.
HANDLING MEDIA
Luxon – Very good. Runs a good press conference. Not too long. Crisp and descriptive answers that usually have a good soundbite for broadcast. Should avoid reciting long lists to describe a problem. It’s hypnotic. Has good relationships with media.
Ardern – Controlling. Runs a press conference like a school headmistress who doesn’t like any calling out. Does not have many good relationships with the media that go beyond a bit of banter at a press conference.