National leader Christopher Luxon, Act leader David Seymour, and NZ First leader Winston Peters on their way to sign their coalition agreement. Photo / Mark Mitchell
It’s been six months since National, New Zealand First, and Act penned their coalition deals and came to power - but, the honeymoon is well and truly over.
But, commentators question whether there was any honeymoon period to begin with.
Just weeks in, the new Government was rocked by leaking scandals and outrage over its perceived “anti-Māori” style policies like the dissolution of the Māori Health Authority and the use of Māori language.
It completed its 100-day plan with ease, with the Māori Health Authority scrapped, derailing the Auckland Light Rail project, and turning the Three Waters money tap off.
In early April, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon turned his attention to a 36-point action plan, to be completed by the end of June.
But the centrepiece of this quarter is still Budget 2024, to be delivered this Thursday, May 30.
So, six months into the three-headed coalition Government’s reign - how have they fared?
NZ Herald political editor Claire Trevett and Newstalk ZB senior political correspondent Barry Soper spoke to The Front Page about the political highs and lows.
Regarding the immediate public backlash seen in the Government’s early days, Soper said he hadn’t seen that level of outrage so early on.
“People are facing very difficult times. They were in 2008, but, John Key’s popularity was always right up there. When you go back to 1984 with David Lange, he was a populist Prime Minister and never suffered either.
“When you think of Chris Luxon, he had just learned to be an MP at the last election, while a leader of the opposition for a relatively short time, and now he’s got to learn to be a Prime Minister, and I think, That learning process, in a way, is still underway, and he’s dealing with what I would describe as two fairly sizable egos.
“Chris Luxon and Winston Peters, I know for a fact, get on really well. David Seymour is in a different position. They have not embraced him in the way that maybe he would like to have been embraced,” Soper said.
Trevett said Budget 2024 will be a huge indicator of whether Luxon will see a trajectory as a leader.
“It’s possible National has taken a bit of a hiding by association. I also wonder if people are still ... a bit skeptical about Christopher Luxon and the ability of National to deliver on what they’re promising.”
But, in Trevett’s eyes, Luxon’s biggest mistake thus far has been taking the accommodation allowance.
“I was surprised he did that. Looking at their polling and the polls immediately after - he absolutely plummeted as preferred PM.
“It may be a short hit, but he is still in kind of ‘first impressions land’ with the voters and you do something like that and then keep talking about your entitlements - it just is a terrible look and I was gobsmacked when I heard that he’d taken it in the first place,” she said.
The NZ First Leader hasn’t wasted any time jet-setting around the globe meeting prime ministers, presidents, and international counterparts.
He’s travelled to India, Indonesia, and Singapore, met US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington, and jetted across Europe, Egypt, and the Pacific.
Soper said one thing that Winston Peters does well is being Foreign Minister - something others before him failed at.
“We’ve been badly served. We haven’t been out there the way Winston Peters has been out there. He’s virtually traveled most weeks he’s been in the job and that’s what you’ve got to do when you’re a country on the bottom of the world.
“You’ve got to get out there and be known, wave the flag, and hopefully that flag will see a better outcome when it comes to exports.”
Back home, Peters’ doubled down on comments he made during his State of the Nation speech delivered in Palmerston North - where he compared Labour’s used of co-governance to “race-based theory”, as seen in Nazi Germany.
He later clarified his “Nazi Germany” comments were referring specifically to comments made by Te Pāti Māori regarding Māori genes.
Deputy Prime Minister in waiting, the Act Leader has drawn ire for his persistence over the Treaty Principles Bill - legislation to define the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon stopped short of ruling out support for it beyond its first reading. NZ First’s Shane Jones was less ambiguous, saying “We won’t be voting for it”.
Trevett said it’s something that’s become a distraction on the sidelines of the coalition Government.
“The coalition parties have pursued and got into their coalition agreements by way of meeting their own specific voter interest groups, and that hasn’t been unproblematic for them in a lot of areas.”
On Seymour’s path to power, Trevett said he is toeing a fine line.
“He’s very conscious of what happens to small parties when they’re in government and that they tend to lose support,” Trevett said.
“They get subsumed by the bigger one and he’s trying desperately not to let that happen to him.
“I think he’s been a little bit more of a thorn in the side of National than NZ First has been.”
When it comes to whether there’ll be a falling out between coalition partners, Soper agrees that Act has the potential to cause issues.
“If that does come to pass, I think the chances are more that they have a falling out with Act than they will with New Zealand First.”
Listen to the full episode to hear more about how the coalition Government’s fared in its first six months of power.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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