I think we bullied Christopher Luxon a bit too hard.
I never thought I’d say that, but after all the jokes about him avoiding questions, he’s really started to speak his mind. If you think that’s a good thing, then what I’d say to you is that what’s going on in his mind is not exactly helpful.
Christopher Luxon has officially ruled out working with the “true centrism has never been tried” Opportunity party because of party principles.
Opportunity has previously said they are open to working with either National or Labour, and Luxon did not let that slide.
For the first time in his political career, Luxon made his position clear, telling reporters “We wouldn’t be in business with people who want to increase taxes”. Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong argued that under their proposed tax policy, 70% of New Zealanders would experience a tax cut.
Given that the tax relief experienced by most New Zealanders this government has been eloquently described as “fuck all”, Luxon’s fierce opposition to Opportunity brings into question who he really stands for. This announcement comes in tandem with Luxon telling Rotorua business owners to be “adult” as he scolded them for wanting government support. He compared running a small business in Rotorua to working as a regional manager for Unilever, ranting about how he “didn’t sit there in Chicago and say, ‘I wonder what the government thinks? He then went on to say that in New Zealand, business owners have a “parent-child mentality”.
Luxon later apologised for his comments, but did so in the classic National Party manner of backtracking. In saying “I just feel that I could have expressed myself better in the way my comments were interpreted”, he’s not really addressing the issue behind his statements. He’s just putting his hands in the air and saying “my bad gang” to get his voters back.
It wasn’t long before he made another flub, telling an interviewer on Newstalk ZB that if re-elected, he would hold a referendum on abolishing MMP. This would change New Zealand’s entire election and government system, and is not something to be campaigned on lightly. When reporters asked his MPs about if this was party policy, they seemed to be just as shocked as we were.
To cross off another one of his key stakeholders on his people-to-piss-off list, Luxon reasoned that abolishing MMP would help him avoid working with “some yahoo numpty” outside of the National Party in cabinet. Those yahoo numpties… are his current coalition partners. That National will undoubtedly need to form a government.
He also didn’t mention how abolishing MMP and basically establishing a two-party system would benefit the public. That’s because very few people want MMP to be abolished. MMP has been voted for twice, and with the way things are polling, New Zealanders want smaller, diverse parties in parliament. NZ First, ACT, and Greens are garnering more support, while the big Red and Blue go down in the polls. Opportunity is creeping up to the 5% threshold as a part of the general trend towards small parties. To talk about abolishing MMP when the polls are like this seems like a desperate grasp at the reins of power.
With all these news stories coming together within a week, it comes to question what the fuck Luxon is doing. He’s not just getting himself into trouble in the way Winston Peters does. He’s showing just how out of touch he is with his voter base, otherwise known as the very people keeping him in the job.
