Airline CEO-turned-politician Luxon to lead New Zealand to the right
Christopher Luxon, Leader of the National Party arrives at his election party after winning the general election to become New Zealand’s next prime minister in Auckland, New Zealand, October 14, 2023.
REUTERS/David Rowland
WELLINGTON - Just three years after entering politics, former businessman Christopher Luxon is set to lead New Zealand to the right as prime minister-elect, ending six years of Labour-led centre-left government.
The former Air New Zealand chief executive, Luxon became leader of the centre-right National Party at the end of 2021, boosting its popularity until winning Saturday's general election.
National won 50 seats and its preferred coalition partner, ACT New Zealand, won 11, securing a majority of one seat in the 121-seat parliament, according to provisional results from the Electoral Commission. Final results are due Nov. 3.
Luxon, who held senior roles at global consumer goods firm Unilever and delivered consistent profits running Air New Zealand from 2012 to 2019, has said he would use the skills he bought to managing businesses to improve New Zealand.
The 53-year-old has promised to curb historically high inflation and reduce government debt by cutting spending and narrowing the central bank's mandate to targeting inflation, in order to help financially stretched middle-income families.
"I want to bring the country together, I want to actually make sure that we are focussed on delivering outcomes for New Zealanders," Luxon told a press conference, dressed in an All Blacks jersey after watching the national rugby team win a dramatic World Cup quarter-final.
"I’m a person who likes to bring teams together and make sure that I get the best out of that team and use all the skills in that team, so that’s my mode."
In a country where almost half the people say they have no religion, Luxon has faced scrutiny for saying he was Christian and has had to defend stances such as personally opposing abortion. He has committed to maintaining legal abortion and supported same-sex marriage.
"Faith is deeply personal, but I am not there to act in the interests of one faith, one group, one person or one belief system. I'm there to represent all New Zealanders," Luxon told Reuters earlier this year.
A millionaire father of two with several homes across the country, Luxon is learning the Maori language and is a Taylor Swift fan, quoting her in televised debates and interviews.
Although well-travelled, he is largely untried on foreign policy. Luxon has strongly supported Ukraine in its invasion by Russia, in line with New Zealand's traditional allies. He has said there will be little change in New Zealand’s foreign policy.
WELLINGTON - Just three years after entering politics, former businessman Christopher Luxon is set to lead New Zealand to the right as prime minister-elect, ending six years of Labour-led centre-left government.
The former Air New Zealand chief executive, Luxon became leader of the centre-right National Party at the end of 2021, boosting its popularity until winning Saturday's general election.
National won 50 seats and its preferred coalition partner, ACT New Zealand, won 11, securing a majority of one seat in the 121-seat parliament, according to provisional results from the Electoral Commission. Final results are due Nov. 3.
Luxon, who held senior roles at global consumer goods firm Unilever and delivered consistent profits running Air New Zealand from 2012 to 2019, has said he would use the skills he bought to managing businesses to improve New Zealand.
The 53-year-old has promised to curb historically high inflation and reduce government debt by cutting spending and narrowing the central bank's mandate to targeting inflation, in order to help financially stretched middle-income families.
"I want to bring the country together, I want to actually make sure that we are focussed on delivering outcomes for New Zealanders," Luxon told a press conference, dressed in an All Blacks jersey after watching the national rugby team win a dramatic World Cup quarter-final.
"I’m a person who likes to bring teams together and make sure that I get the best out of that team and use all the skills in that team, so that’s my mode."
In a country where almost half the people say they have no religion, Luxon has faced scrutiny for saying he was Christian and has had to defend stances such as personally opposing abortion. He has committed to maintaining legal abortion and supported same-sex marriage.
"Faith is deeply personal, but I am not there to act in the interests of one faith, one group, one person or one belief system. I'm there to represent all New Zealanders," Luxon told Reuters earlier this year.
A millionaire father of two with several homes across the country, Luxon is learning the Maori language and is a Taylor Swift fan, quoting her in televised debates and interviews.
Although well-travelled, he is largely untried on foreign policy. Luxon has strongly supported Ukraine in its invasion by Russia, in line with New Zealand's traditional allies. He has said there will be little change in New Zealand’s foreign policy.
REUTERS
New Zealand PM elect Luxon expected to start coalition negotiations
Christopher Luxon, Leader of the National Party waves to supporters at his election party after winning the general election to become New Zealand’s next prime minister in Auckland, New Zealand, October 14, 2023.
REUTERS/David Rowland
WELLINGTON - New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon and his centre-right National Party are expected to start negotiations with the ACT Party Sunday, after the two parties won a slim majority in the general election.
Luxon, 53, a former airline executive who has only been in parliament for three years, said in his victory speech late on Saturday that the country had voted for change and that would be delivered.
"You have given us the mandate to take New Zealand forward," he said.
The conservative National Party won 50 seats and the ACT Party won 11, securing a majority of just one seat in the 121 seat parliament, according to provisional results from the Electoral Commission.
Chris Bishop, National Party Campaign Chairperson, said on TVNZ political show Q+A that Luxon had already spoken with ACT leader David Seymour and senior National members would meet this afternoon to discuss coalition negotiations.
While the two parties currently have the numbers to form a government, roughly 567,0000 of special votes or around 20% of the vote still have to be counted. The official result is due on Nov. 3.
Bishop said he expected National would lose at least one seat once these votes were counted.
If National and ACT do lose a seat they would not have enough seats to form a government and would need to reach an agreement with the populist party New Zealand First.
Under New Zealand’s mixed member proportional system it is very uncommon for a single party to form government, although Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government did in 2020.
WELLINGTON - New Zealand’s Prime Minister-elect Christopher Luxon and his centre-right National Party are expected to start negotiations with the ACT Party Sunday, after the two parties won a slim majority in the general election.
Luxon, 53, a former airline executive who has only been in parliament for three years, said in his victory speech late on Saturday that the country had voted for change and that would be delivered.
"You have given us the mandate to take New Zealand forward," he said.
The conservative National Party won 50 seats and the ACT Party won 11, securing a majority of just one seat in the 121 seat parliament, according to provisional results from the Electoral Commission.
Chris Bishop, National Party Campaign Chairperson, said on TVNZ political show Q+A that Luxon had already spoken with ACT leader David Seymour and senior National members would meet this afternoon to discuss coalition negotiations.
While the two parties currently have the numbers to form a government, roughly 567,0000 of special votes or around 20% of the vote still have to be counted. The official result is due on Nov. 3.
Bishop said he expected National would lose at least one seat once these votes were counted.
If National and ACT do lose a seat they would not have enough seats to form a government and would need to reach an agreement with the populist party New Zealand First.
Under New Zealand’s mixed member proportional system it is very uncommon for a single party to form government, although Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government did in 2020.
REUTERS
ByNatasha Frost
NYT
October 15, 2023 —
Auckland: After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand have ousted the party once led by Jacinda Ardern and elected the country’s most right-wing government in a generation, handing victory to a coalition of two conservative parties.
The new prime minister-elect is Christopher Luxon, a former CEO of Air New Zealand, whose centre-right National Party will likely lead a coalition with Act, a smaller libertarian party.
Prime minister-elect Christopher Luxon in Auckland on Sunday.CREDIT:GETTY
Addressing a euphoric crowd at his party’s victory event on Auckland’s waterfront, Luxon thanked supporters and promised a better and more stable future for the country.
“Our government will deliver for every New Zealander,” he said, to whoops and cheers. “We will rebuild the economy and deliver tax relief.”
The rightward drift ended six years of the Labour government that was dominated by Ardern, who stepped down early this year.
“She’s probably the most consequential prime minister we’ve had since David Lange [the Labour leader who came to power in 1984], and, from an international point of view, most charismatic,” said Bernard Hickey, an economic and political commentator in Auckland. “But this election is the landmark of her failure.”
October 15, 2023 —
Auckland: After an election campaign of fits and starts, in which neither major party appeared to offer much solace to a weary nation, voters in New Zealand have ousted the party once led by Jacinda Ardern and elected the country’s most right-wing government in a generation, handing victory to a coalition of two conservative parties.
The new prime minister-elect is Christopher Luxon, a former CEO of Air New Zealand, whose centre-right National Party will likely lead a coalition with Act, a smaller libertarian party.
Prime minister-elect Christopher Luxon in Auckland on Sunday.CREDIT:GETTY
Addressing a euphoric crowd at his party’s victory event on Auckland’s waterfront, Luxon thanked supporters and promised a better and more stable future for the country.
“Our government will deliver for every New Zealander,” he said, to whoops and cheers. “We will rebuild the economy and deliver tax relief.”
The rightward drift ended six years of the Labour government that was dominated by Ardern, who stepped down early this year.
“She’s probably the most consequential prime minister we’ve had since David Lange [the Labour leader who came to power in 1984], and, from an international point of view, most charismatic,” said Bernard Hickey, an economic and political commentator in Auckland. “But this election is the landmark of her failure.”
Chris Hipkins (right) became NZ Prime Minister after Jacinda Ardern resigned. He served the rest of her term but failed to win the election on Saturday.CREDIT:BLOOMBERG
For many voters, Ardern and her successor, Chris Hipkins, failed to deliver on the Labour Party’s promise of transformational change. In the weeks leading up to the election, New Zealanders, buffeted by the currents of global inflation and its larger Asia Pacific neighbours’ economic woes, overwhelmingly cited cost of living as the primary concern driving their vote.
The coalition is a return to form for New Zealand, which since moving to a system of proportional representation in 1993 has had only one single-party government – the Labour government elected in 2020 under Ardern. But it is the first time National, which last governed alone in the early 1980s, has been in coalition with a more conservative partner.
With most of the Saturday vote counted, support for the Labour Party, which won 50 per cent of the vote in 2020, buoyed by the country’s strong response to the coronavirus pandemic, has collapsed to 27 per cent.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, centre, speaks to media after conceding defeat at a party event in Wellington, on Saturday night.CREDIT:AP
The National Party won 39 per cent of the vote, up from 26 per cent in 2020. Among the smaller parties, the Green Party took 11 per cent of the vote, and Act won 9 per cent. But those results could shift slightly after “special” votes were counted, including those of overseas New Zealanders. That could potentially force Act and National into coalition with New Zealand First, a longtime kingmaker that played a role in Ardern’s ascent, to push the right-wing coalition over the halfway mark.
Addressing party members in Wellington, Hipkins said he had conceded the election to Luxon and celebrated Labour’s accomplishments on alleviating child poverty and navigating New Zealand through the pandemic, the Christchurch massacres and the White Island volcano eruption.
“We will keep fighting for working people, because that is our history and our future,” he said.
The National Party had campaigned on a platform of tax cuts, saying it would offer relief to ordinary families. Critics have questioned the funding for those cuts, which rely heavily on foreign ownership of New Zealand property, and some have said that they disproportionately favour some 300 New Zealand landlords while cutting benefits for disabled people.
Inflation, which was at 6 per cent in July compared with 6.7 per cent a year earlier, appears to be easing, according to the most recent government data, although New Zealanders will most likely endure pain for some time to come, as the country weathers high house and rent prices, a high cost of borrowing and the effects of global shocks.
“When it comes to the economy,” said Grant Duncan, a political scientist in Auckland, “we’re a cork bobbing around on an ocean.”
The new National-led government, despite being more conservative, was unlikely to make significant changes on many social issues, said Ben Thomas, a former press secretary for the National Party.
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“Nobody wants to re-litigate abortion or homosexual marriage,” he said. “Unlike the States, where there’s a constant battle to try and roll back progressive legislation, the conservative tradition in New Zealand is, ‘We’ve always gone just about far enough’.”
But Act may seek to push policy priorities of its own, including a referendum to reconsider the role of the Maori people play in policymaking.
“What they actually want is a referendum which defines away any kind of standing or rights guaranteed to Maori by the Treaty,” Thomas said, referring to an 1840 agreement that governs New Zealand legislation to this day.
He added: “What you might broadly call racial tensions – over race and policy, Maori policy, Treaty policy – are greater than at any point since 2005.”
At the same time, the country is still contending with a multibillion-dollar recovery from cyclone Gabrielle, which in February devastated swaths of the North Island, exposing dangerous infrastructure fault lines, said Craig Renney, an economist for the NZ Council of Trade Unions.
National had not announced any plans for how it would manage New Zealand’s climate vulnerabilities, Renney said.
“Where are we going to be in six years’ time? What are we going to do to tackle some of the really big issues, be it climate change, renting, employment security?” he said. “Those things haven’t been being debated because the country is tired.”
It was unclear whether the new government could easily solve these and other problems, said Duncan.
“I’m not saying they’re going to do a bad job,” he said. “I just don’t have any confidence in them doing a better job.”
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