Winston Peters declines to rate Christopher Luxon’s performance as Prime Minister

The Prime Minister’s former deputy, Winston Peters, has avoided giving his opinion on how Christopher Luxon has been performing in his job.

The New Zealand First leader was asked by Herald NOW host Ryan Bridge how Luxon was performing as Prime Minister, to which he replied: “You didn’t seriously think I was going to give you an answer to that question, did you?”

Peters went on to say that he would not answer the question because “I’m in a coalition and I’m trying to make it work”.

Stability in the country was “critically important”, and the public, putting aside their political preferences, wanted a stable government, he said.

“I’m not going to contribute to it by not answering questions of that nature.”

“Honestly, with you this morning,” Peters continued after he paused briefly and smiled.

Winston Peters would not provide his opinion on how Christopher Luxon has performed as Prime Minister. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Minister of Foreign Affairs told Bridge he would give an update on the “state of play” next year.

“I’ll give my speech after the first quarterly announcement of the state of the economy, not in January or February, before we’ve even got the information.

“You see what’s different? They all ordered that in 2023 and all read it wrong.”

Peters’ comments come as a post from his official social media account last month seemed to take umbrage at Luxon claiming credit for a new trade deal.

When Bridge put to Peters that his comment did not have to be negative and that he could have “said something nice”, he replied that the host did not “ask the question for that outcome”.

“Look, look, look, look, this is not my first rodeo. I know where you’re going.”

Peters also suggested that the question about Luxon took away from the conversation about the new Cook Strait ferries and the deal’s “$2.3 billion” saving.

Bridge replied that the pair had discussed the ferries for seven minutes before he asked about Luxon.