“I am cleaning up the ungodly mess that Labour left this country, they want to borrow more, tax more, spend more, they don’t deliver anything and they’ve got no ideas,” Luxon said.
A grand coalition, in which the two largest parties in Parliament go into coalition together to keep out the minor parties, is not uncommon in MMP systems around the world, particularly in Germany.
However, the highly adversarial relationship between Labour and National means such a governing structure in New Zealand is very unlikely. Instead, New Zealand’s MMP governments have so far always comprised either National or Labour, with support from other parties.
The grand coalition idea recently gained traction when Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown raised it in a column in the Sunday Star-Times.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins also said no to a grand coalition.
“I mean, the values of the National Party and the labour Party are utterly incompatible and, frankly, I’m more interested in solving problems than finding people to blame for them,” Hipkins said.
“The National Party are primarily interested in supporting people who’ve got a lot of money, the Labour Party’s priorities are different,” he said.
