Against a backdrop of ramped-up coup rumours, the National Party took its first step onto the 2026 campaign trail with a promised increase to KiwiSaver contributions, and a backing of its leader.

“Fixing the basics, building the future”: get used to that phrase, because it may just be the new “back on track”. With not much to show from New Zealand’s year of growth, plus poor polls making any hopes of ditching its warring coalition partners to govern alone next term looking increasingly unrealistic, the National Party has marked the two-year anniversary of its governance by looking ahead to next year’s general election. And in the focus on “fixing the basics”, any supposed rumblings at the top level were taking a backseat.

About a year out from the 2026 election, in one of the posher parts of the Hutt Valley, on Sunday prime minister Christopher Luxon attempted to set the mood for National’s campaign. Finance minister Nicola Willis was the opening act, telling party supporters the “stakes are higher than ever” in the lead-up to 2026. It wasn’t as easy to run a country with three different coalition partners in charge than it was to run it alone, Willis reminded the crowd – “wouldn’t it be better if we did?”

With sunshine and smiles abundant at Silverstream Retreat, the day’s biggest revelation wasn’t a change in leadership, as some political commentators have been predicting. Instead, the party has built on its Budget 2025 plans of lifting employee/employer KiwiSaver contribution rates by promising a 0.5% yearly increase until 2032, if it’s re-elected. The idea is to have New Zealand match Australia’s compulsory super, set at 12%. 

As Willis acknowledged, there are significant differences between New Zealand and Australia’s schemes. Ours will remain voluntary, the government isn’t looking to backtrack on lowering its contributions and, unlike in Australia, our universal superannuation is “here to stay”, Willis said. Modelling of the contributions included an example of a 21-year-old on a salary of $65,000 being able to bank $1m by the time they hit 65 – though just how many 21-year-olds are actually earning a starter salary of that level is unclear.

Raising the superannuation age – a policy championed by National in the last three elections, only to be squashed by coalition partner NZ First in 2023 – is also on the cards. However, means testing super is something “we’ve got no interest in”, Luxon told reporters – having recently introduced means testing for 18- and 19-year-olds on the Jobseeker benefit. “New Zealanders just need a lot more certainty that it’s there if they need it,” he added.

And in a few weeks’ time, a “shake-up” will be coming to local government when RMA minister Chris Bishop’s reforms are announced, Luxon said. This is believed to include an amalgamation of local government’s two-tier structure by scrapping regional councils to form a unitary authority, following regional development minister Shane Jones in June saying he doubted there would “be a compelling case for regional government to continue to exist” once the reforms came in.

Though talk of the caucus rolling its leader has been keeping the Wellington rumour mill running since the start of the year, the past week has seen the whispers escalate, a backdrop against which National’s champing at the 2026 bit was firmly set. 

Luxon’s supposed successor – Bishop – certainly performed better than his leader at a post-cabinet press conference last week. Focused scrutiny of the housing and transport minister by the Labour Party in question time also seems to point to the belief that Bishop will be the one holding the National Party reins come election time. But bigger than the noise around recent polls is the loyalty much of the caucus has towards its leader, as well as a strong preference to keep things slow and steady to win the race – after all, it’s not just Luxon’s job on the line.

“I don’t take [leadership rumours] seriously, because I’ve seen those stories before,” Luxon told The Spinoff. “All I’m doing is focusing on my job, and my job, frankly, is to keep fixing the basics.” So goes the National Party’s new but still unofficial slogan: “fixing the basics, building the future, and smiling through the pain.”