National is polling at 28.4% but its leader won’t leave. Where is the ambition for outcomes? The growth mindset?
Christopher Luxon began 2025 lamenting New Zealand’s culture of no. The prime minister accused the country of spending too much time complaining about all and sundry, from a port of Tauranga expansion to the prospect of music at Eden Park. It needed to course correct its wet, whiny, inward-looking mindset and focus on delivery, he argued. “We need larger ports. We need more concerts,” he said. “The bottom line is we need a lot less no and a lot more yes.”
Ever since making that state of the nation speech, Luxon has been pursing his lips and making fart noises in the direction of a litany of plans, proposals and concepts. He’s said no to his housing minister’s demand for heaps of housing in Auckland. No to taking any stance at all on the Iran war. No to the rain falling on the silver locks of New Zealand-born NRL tsar Gary Weiss.
Lately, the nos have escalated into a cacophony. After the release of a Taxpayers’ Union-Curia poll showing National on 28.4%, Luxon has been saying no in almost every interview, media stand up and press conference. “Absolutely not,” he said, when asked by Newstalk ZB’s Heather du-Plessis Allan if he’s considering standing down. “No,” he repeated, when asked a follow up question by Newstalk ZB’s Heather du-Plessis Allan on if he should consider standing down. “No, absolutely not,” he told RNZ’s Ingrid Hipkiss when asked again if he’s considering stepping down. “Absolutely not,” he told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking if he spent any time over the weekend considering his position. “No, not at all,” he told 1News political editor Maiki Sherman, when asked if he’d been talking to people within the party about his leadership.
So far, Luxon’s National party comrades have joined the prime minister in the chorus. “No, of course not,” said education minister Erica Stanford when asked if she was happy with the poll result, before also saying “no” to the idea of taking over the leadership. “No, no intentions”, said Māori development minister Tama Potaka, when asked if he’d step up and depose Luxon instead. “Luxon is ama3ing,” wrote Takanini MP Rima Nakhle on a hastily put together sign.
According to some well-informed commentators, these MPs are sticking by their boss mainly because they’re worried things could get even worse. “All too many of them wear the scars of losing not two but three leaders in 2020 and the subsequent 25.6% drubbing National received at the polls,” wrote The Post columnist Janet Wilson, who had the pleasure of serving as press secretary for both Todd Muller and Judith Collins during their brief stints leading the National party. “There’s simply no appetite for any of the party’s front bench to sacrifice their future now.”
With respect, where is the focus on outcomes? Where is the growth mindset? Where is the willingness to say a lot less no and a lot more yes? Less than a third of voters currently plan to support the party that self-identifies as the natural party of government. A majority of New Zealanders say the country is on the wrong track and have thought so for some months now. Things have gotten so dire, Americans have been sending over unsettling butter to cheer us up.
Despite that, National and its leader seem to be stuck in the delivery gate, unable to move forward for fear of going backward. That’s the kind of negative mindset Luxon has warned is holding us back. If the prime minister has taught us anything, it’s that you need to focus on moving the big rocks first if you want to achieve your goal. The more ambitious National MPs may well ask themselves what bigger rock there is than a prime minister with a personal approval rating of -25%. Perhaps sending it rolling down the hill could get them back on track.
