Source: Radio New Zealand
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has blamed leaks about his leadership on a “small handful of dissatisfied MPs” and says he will address the matter with his caucus at a meeting tomorrow.
In a round of interviews with morning media on Monday, Luxon insisted there was “no risk” of him standing down or being rolled from the top job.
“That’s not going to happen,” he told Morning Report. “I have the backing of my caucus.”
Asked whether he would put his MPs’ loyalty to the test and call a confidence vote, Luxon refused to say: “What we do in caucus is up to us, but we’ll have a good conversation.”
He said he did not know which MPs had been leaking to the media.
“In every political party, there’ll be a small handful of people who either are disappointed they weren’t made ministers, or are concerned about being in marginal seats.
“I want every one of my MPs back in Parliament, and to do that, the party needs to do better, and that’s what our focus is going to be between now and the election.”
Over on NewstalkZB, Luxon suggested the caucus discontent was confined to “probably five people that are, you know, moaning and frustrated”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. RNZ / Mark Papalii
The comments came after a shocker 1News-Verian poll published on Sunday, showing National crashing to 30 percent – seven points behind Labour – and without a pathway to power.
Luxon questioned the findings on Morning Report, saying it was “quite different” from other polling which showed the coalition’s re-election.
“Frankly, I just don’t believe that New Zealanders want a Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori coalition.”
On his personal popularity, Luxon acknowledged “not everybody… wants to invite me over for a barbecue”, but he said New Zealanders understood the coalition – under his leadership – was the “best custodian of the economy” during tough times.
Simeon Brown at Wellington Airport on Monday morning. RNZ / Russell Palmer
National ministers stress unity and discipline
Arriving at Wellington airport on Monday morning, National campaign chair Simeon Brown declined to speculate on how many of his colleagues were leaking to the media, but he said Luxon had his full support.
“We have a great leader,” he told reporters. “As a caucus, we must come together and work as a team, back our leader and deliver for New Zealanders.”
Brown dismissed the findings of “one poll”, saying National was focused on the 7 November election.
“As the leader has said, we all want to do better. We’re very focused on supporting him and making sure we’re focused on the issues that matter to New Zealanders.”
Senior National MP Mark Mitchell said the party would only hurt itself by changing leader by demonstrating a lack of discipline, focus and unity.
He “absolutely” ruled out putting himself forward to take over as prime minister and said he had no idea which MPs were speaking out of school.
“I’m not going to speculate on disgruntled back benches,” he said. “There is no witch-hunt going on.”
Mitchell went on: “Quite simply, there will be a talk, I’m sure, on Tuesday around the importance of unity and discipline.”
He insisted nobody had called him over the weekend about leadership.
“I haven’t had MPs ringing me saying that they’re frustrated or they’re upset, or they’re doing numbers, or there’s a coup, or there’s anything like that happening at all.”
National’s Paul Goldsmith. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
His colleague Paul Goldsmith told reporters he was “absolutely not” one of the MPs moaning about the prime minister and had “no idea” who they were.
“If you’re a caucus of 49, there will always be one or two discontented people, but we’re absolutely rock solid behind the prime minister.”
Asked about the five or so MPs allegedly leaking, newly appointed Cabinet minister Chris Penk said the perfect number would be zero.
“Anything more than that shows that people aren’t focused on what they should be doing, which is, you know, working hard for New Zealand.”
Penk said all National MPs needed to do better in talking about the important issues “as opposed to ourselves”.
“I hope we’ll have a discussion about caucus discipline [on Tuesday], because clearly at least one colleague and maybe a few need to be reminded of that.”
ACT leader David Seymour. RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
ACT leader and deputy prime minister David Seymour told reporters he was not worried about National’s polling.
“There’s been four polls this week, and one of them is bad, and three of them are good. So I guess we’ll just keep working, huh?“
Asked whether the coalition could collapse if Luxon was ousted as prime minister, Seymour said that was just “mindless media speculation”.
“It’s not on the table right now.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
