Question for the right honourable Christopher Luxon: name three players.
Not for the first time in his prime ministerial career, Christopher Luxon has said something to set off alarm bells among the gatekeepers of New Zealand sporting fandom.
Back in 2024, the Christchurch-born prime minister told the AM Show he had supported the Crusaders since he was “a little boy”. The Crusaders played their first game in 1996, when Luxon was 25. While some saw this as evidence of a slippery snake oil salesman lying through his teeth, others simply saw a casual sports fan erroneously conflating the Crusaders (Super Rugby franchise) with Canterbury (provincial rugby union).
This week, announcing the news that Eden Park will host a State of Origin match in 2027, he said the following:
“We are super excited to be hosting State of Origin here in New Zealand. For many of us, kids like me, we grew up in the 80s and 90s watching some absolutely fantastic battles. We remember those heroes even today, those great players we got to watch on TV. Mum and dad would let us stay up late and watch it, it was absolutely fantastic.”
Almost immediately, bulldust detectors around the country began flickering again. Has the prime minister been caught in a lie?
The facts
State of Origin as we know it began in June 1982, when Luxon (b. July 19, 1970) was 11. It was not broadcast on New Zealand television. The first time any Origin match was shown on television here appears to have been in 1985, when highlights were shown as part of Saturday afternoon’s Sport on One, airing at approximately 2.15pm.
The first example of State of Origin being shown on New Zealand television at night was in 1988, when highlights were shown alongside Wimbledon coverage on One at 10pm.
The first time a State of Origin match was broadcast live in New Zealand was in 1989 – the year Luxon started university.
The defence
It is possible that the future prime minister’s parents let him stay up to watch State of Origin on these occasions, if only because he was in his late teens and likely no longer subject to an enforced bedtime.
A close reading of his statement reveals an almost total absence of singular first-person pronouns, suggesting he may have deliberately been using the “royal we” in an attempt to speak on behalf of all New Zealanders, or at least the millennials who grew up in rugby league’s early-90s golden era, like his former sports minister Chris Bishop.
According to an in-depth history of New Zealand’s obsession with State of Origin published by RNZ, prior to the event being broadcast live here “you’d have to trek off to the video store and rent it on VHS a week later”. There is a chance that a young Luxon rented State of Origin videos and was allowed to stay up late to watch them.
It’s also possible, of course, that he was talking about rugby league in general. But the majority of league on New Zealand television during the 1980s was shown as part of Sport on One or Sunday Grandstand, and both of these were broadcast in the afternoon. Regular late-night rugby league coverage didn’t appear until the 1990s, when Luxon was in his 20s.
The claim: Christopher Luxon’s parents let him stay up to watch State of Origin as a kid.
Verdict: Highly unlikely.
Does it matter: Not really, but if you can’t trust a man when he says his parents let him stay up to watch State of Origin as a kid, when can you trust him?
