Four men in suits, Todd McClay, Chris Luxon, Shane Reti and Mark Mitchell, in front of a pink background with a big red X to symbolise a no
Todd McClay, Chris Luxon, Shane Reti and Mark Mitchell

OPINIONPoliticsFebruary 3, 2025

Chris Luxon is right about our culture of no

Four men in suits, Todd McClay, Chris Luxon, Shane Reti and Mark Mitchell, in front of a pink background with a big red X to symbolise a no
Todd McClay, Chris Luxon, Shane Reti and Mark Mitchell

Chris Luxon wants to eliminate the country’s culture of no. He could start with his own caucus.

Chris Luxon’s State of the Nation speech celebrated the government getting inflation down to Czech Republic levels and interest rates almost as low as those of Kuwait. It touched on its record investment in health and changing approach to literacy education. Most of all though, it was devoted to his seething hatred of a two-letter word. No, said Luxon, is holding this country back. Our habit of saying yes to no is blocking port expansion, job growth, and Post Malone concerts at Eden Park. “There’s always a reason to say no, but if we keep saying no, we’ll keep going nowhere,” said the PM. “The bottom line is we need a lot less no and a lot more yes.”

Luxon’s deputy Nicola Willis echoed the sentiment on X, admonishing people on the radio who raised concerns about changes to digital nomad Visa rules. “The naysayers have won for too long — we are switching to a culture of yes, a culture of ideas, a culture of solutions,” she said.

They have a point. Our government agencies often abandon building things to devote more time to their true passion: finding reasons why we can’t build things. Auckland Light Rail recently managed to produce $228 million worth of reports over six years without laying down a single metre of light rail. We’ve been arguing about how to cross the Waitematā Harbour for so long that some people are willing to accept any solution, no matter how stupid. Our business case to actual project ratio is approaching 362 to 1. Organisations regularly commission business cases which go on for 200 to 300 pages before concluding that more business cases are needed. 

The planners and consultants have a lot to answer for. But they still have nothing on the politicians they serve. Take National leader Chris Luxon, for instance. When developer Quarterdeck tried to turn a derelict garage near a school into 54 houses in 2020, he posted a video to Facebook arguing Howick should “always stay a single-dwelling zone”. In what could be interpreted as a slight departure from the sentiments of his State of the Nation speech, he said residents protesting the development deserved a medal for their commitment to saying no.

Chris Luxon in a blue National polo stands in front of a former Cockle Bay dairy. The sign on the dairy is cut off by his head and rather unfortunately just reads "cock"
Luxon on the site of the former Cockle Bay Store, where developer Quarterdeck wants to build 54 houses.

Luxon isn’t alone in his caucus. If there’s one thing National MPs love more than saying yes to growth, it’s saying no to state housing. Former health minister Shane Reti opposed a Kāinga Ora development at Pūriri Park in Whangārei, arguing the suburb is too upmarket and that the benefits of building aren’t worth the cost of demolishing an unremarkable 95-year-old house

Reti’s former colleague David Bennett organised a petition to oppose a 70-unit Kāinga Ora development in the Hamilton suburb of Flagstaff. “The petition is calling for the development to be stopped which is more of a starting point for negotiations,” he told Stuff back in 2020.

Further north, in the swanky new suburb of Millwater, Whangaparāoa MP Mark Mitchell successfully lobbied against what local media described as a 37-unit “social housing enclave”. Mitchell said opposition to the development wasn’t about Nimbyism, and that everyone wanted more housing —- sentiments commonly expressed by Nimbys. The development was scrapped.

Rotorua MP Todd McClay has, to his credit, said he wants to make emergency housing a priority in the city. But he has opposed efforts to move that housing from the theoretical realm to the real world, calling for a halt to an effort to turn reserve land into social housing and urging residents to submit against Kāinga Ora efforts to build apartment blocks with the dire warning that “after Friday it will be too late and a tall building could be coming to a section near you”.

The naysaying isn’t just limited to the largest party in government. In 2018, Act leader and future deputy prime minister David Seymour sent letters to local residents cautioning that a planned Kāinga Ora development would bring people with “mental health problems” to their conclave. 

Nor is the negativity limited to the public sector. Northcote MP Dan Bidois made sure to tell a journalist at a public meeting in Beach Haven he opposes a developer’s plans to build 81 houses near a rapid bus route after residents raised concerns about “bedroom commuters”.

Bidois’ colleague Simeon Brown has taken time out from saying no to cycle lanes, intersection upgrades including cycle lanes, and children playing on the street near cycle lanes, to chair a meeting for residents opposed to an 87-unit development near the Half Moon Bay Marina.

Meanwhile, former National MP Simon O’Connor once gloated about stopping tens of thousands of homes being built, telling his Facebook followers he’d successfully lobbied against a bipartisan housing accord which raised the terrifying spectre of apartments in Mission Bay.

In his State of the Nation speech, Luxon was scathing about those who react to any idea or proposal by saying it won’t work or shouldn’t be done. “It’s always easy for someone to find a reason to get in the way and find a problem,” he said. “But we need to shift our mindset and embrace growth.” His missive was addressed to a gaggle of business leaders, dignitaries, and local politicians gathered in the Great Room at the Cordis in Auckland. Perhaps it could more usefully have been delivered to the National Party caucus room at Parliament Buildings in Wellington. It’s justifiable to be fed up with New Zealand’s do-nothing negativity. But if Luxon and Willis listen closely, they might hear the loudest no is often coming from inside the house.

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