Source: Radio New Zealand
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at a media briefing in Christchurch today. RNZ / Louis Dunham
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has brushed off criticisms of his government after days of heated speculation about his leadership.
In a media standup at HamiltonJet Global in Christchurch on Friday morning, Luxon brushed off businesses’ concerns about a lack of funding to bring SailGP back to Auckland.
He has also joked about losing votes in Auckland as a result of his support for the Crusaders, and avoided saying much about a National Party dinner where guests could pay $10,000 to sit next to him.
Auckland events boss Nick Hill told Morning Report he was “very disappointed” at the loss of SailGP, saying it was “significant loss” for the City of Sails and blaming a lack of buy-in from the government.
Luxon said the proposal for funding Sail GP in Auckland did not stack up, but distanced himself from it – acknowledging he was not across the details.
“Yeah, look, um, you know, we’ll continue our conversations with Auckland Council and SailGP but the proposal we received just frankly didn’t stack up,” he said.
He was unsure how much money the government was being asked to provide.
“I can’t remember what the proposal specifics was but when we run it through our evaluation criteria, just didn’t stack up.”
He said Tourism Minister Louise Upston would know about the specifics.
“I’m just well aware that when we looked at the cost-benefit ratio, it didn’t meet the criteria … it just didn’t meet the criteria, is all I know.”
He rejected the suggestion from Auckland businesses the government was working against them.
“Ah absolute rubbish. This is a government that’s backed State of Origin into Auckland, it’s a government that’s put a whole bunch of major events into Auckland, it’s invested in the New Zealand International Convention Centre, invested in the CRL, and we’ve made big investments and big support programmes into Auckland.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon at the stadium’s opening last month, with former All Black Dan Carter and Christchurch mayor Phil Mauger. RNZ / Nate McKinnon
He was in Christchurch [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/sport/593268/christchurch-stadium-opening-te-kaha-opens-after-15-year-wait ahead of the first Super Round at the city’s new stadium Te Kaha, when 10 of the Super Rugby Pacific’s 11 teams would all play at the same venue.
Having grown up in the city, he said it was “tough” to say whether Te Kaha had overtaken Eden Park as the national stadium.
“I gotta say, it’s a world class stadium. It was a pleasure to open it three or four weeks ago. I’ll be there tonight,” he said.
Leadership woes
Luxon has been under pressure in recent weeks over poor polling numbers and leaks from who he has described as disgruntled MPs.
Coalition tensions turned up a notch this week too, as New Zealand First’s Winston Peters criticised Luxon’s decision to call a confidence vote in himself without informing coalition partners, saying that was unwise and would lead to instability.
Luxon and his deputy Nicola Willis in turn criticised Peters in the media – the first time they have been willing to do so directly and publicly.
Despite all that, he joked about losing support in Auckland, where he holds the seat of Botany.
“I’ll be in my Crusaders kit, I’ll lose 5000 votes in Auckland – but that’s okay, because I’m a Crusaders guy through and through.
“If I’m honest with you, in terms of scale and size, Eden Park’s obviously large and can accommodate certain activity, but I can tell you, I’m going to be coming to Christchurch a lot to see a lot of things down here.”
He said it was important to draw international events like Robbie Williams to New Zealand, as every dollar spent on attracting them was “getting $3.20 back into the local economy here”.
“So it’s fantastic, so exciting and it’s honestly – I don’t know whether you guys have been inside it – but it’s amazing. It’s incredible. It’s covered. We’re so close to the action, you’ll be able to hear the lineout calls, it’s just going to be brilliant.”
Christopher Luxon at HamiltonJet today. RNZ/LouisDunham
Christchurch ‘a role model’
He said Christchurch was a “real role model for how we want New Zealand to ultimately look and feel like”.
“You’ve got incredibly modern, reliable infrastructure. You’ve got a fantastic airport, awesome university, great schools, fantastic infrastructure now with the stadium and the redevelopment that’s taking place, and it’s growing very quickly.
“It’s an affordable city, more affordable city than many other parts of New Zealand, and so things like our planning laws are changing in order to be able to increase the supply of housing across the rest of New Zealand.”
In the four years after the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes devastated the city centre, the John Key-led government provided an estimated $16.5 billion, with about half coming from insurance payouts from the then-Earthquake Commission.
Luxon said there was “plenty of cash around” from private capital, but “whether the government needs to be involved, government doesn’t need to be involved in everything. It’s quite good if we’re not in many cases”.
The ongoing fuel crisis that has resulted from the US and Israel conflict with Iran has been putting additional pressure on government finances after high spending under Labour that aimed to keep the economy growing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Support for businesses and those struggling with high fuel prices has been limited to “targeted, timely and temporary” spending, with the main component being a $50-a-week increase for working families earning tax credits.
Luxon said New Zealand had managed to secure supplies and there was no disruption there, “but, you know, the world needs peace to be breaking out there”.
He said rhetoric like US President Donald Trump’s was not needed.
“We don’t need escalation.”
Christopher Luxon speaking today. RNZ/LouisDunham
More weather concerns
Luxon’s comments were made shortly before news of more heavy rain lashing the country – causing landslips in Auckland and prompting people to evacuate their homes.
He was asked about a new report out from the Climate Change Commission pointing to a risk before 2030 of a shortfall of Emissions Trading Scheme units possibly resulting in volatile price spikes, but said his main concern was “growth over and above everything else”.
He said the country was “determined to deliver on our climate change commitments, net zero 2050 … and we’re on track to do exactly that”.
“Last quarter this country generated less emissions than we’ve ever had, ever since we started recording in 2010 – and that’s because we’ve got a government that doesn’t just do bumper stickers and slogans and words, we actually do action and investment, as illustrated by our big investments in the renewables energy boom that’s taking place.”
The government’s push towards renewable energy has largely been focused on planning changes.
Luxon was also questioned about a National Party fundraising dinner, where property developer Matthew Horncastle paid $10,000 for a ticket to sit next to the prime minister and his wife, Amanda.
When Luxon was asked about how things had gone at the dinner on Thursday, he initially said “with who?”
After the name was repeated, he said “oh, there was a National Party event I was at last night, yeah. But yesterday I was also at a company called Zethos, which was pretty exciting because that’s a startup that’s come out of the engineering school that’s recycling critical minerals here in Christchurch”.
Horncastle has previously said that if he entered politics he would aim to be a National Party prime minister by winning the Christchurch Central seat – which has been a Labour stronghold, with just one National MP holding it since 1946.
Asked if Horncastle was the kind of person he wanted in National, Luxon only said it was a “broad church, and if people want to support us from all sorts of work, as it does for every political party, uh, it was just a party event last night”.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
