Jo Moir
Political editor
National’s
Chris Bishop and Rima Nakhle have thrown their full support
behind Christopher Luxon as his leadership comes under
renewed pressure.
The Prime Minister last week endured
days of mishaps
and missteps and started this week inadvertently talking
about three
taxes the National Party may introduce if back in
government.
He and his deputy, Nicola Willis, had
called a press conference on Sunday to put pressure on
Labour to sign up to its Budget responsibility rules, yet by
his Monday morning media round Luxon was instead explaining
that a fuel excise tax, bed tax, and bank tax would be on
the table under a future National-led government.
On
Monday night the NZ Herald reported National MPs had spent
the day on the phones with one confirming they had fielded
“several” phone calls about a potential leadership
change.
“There’s going to be change in the top job.
It’s just a question of who is going to be it”, the NZ
Herald reported the MP to have said.
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Bishop, who was
opening a pedestrian bridge at a railway station in Auckland
alongside local MP Rima Nakhle, confirmed the party caucus
would hold a meeting on Zoom tonight, as earlier reported by
RNZ, but he denied Luxon’s leadership would be on the
agenda.
“I’m not talking to you about the internal
machinations of what time the Zoom appointments are, but
there is a meeting tonight.”
He said it wasn’t unusual
to hold a meeting during a recess week.
RNZ spoke to
about ten MPs on Monday night and received a mixture of
responses.
Some said they wouldn’t comment, while
another said they couldn’t comment, and others denied there
were any leadership murmurings or that they knew about
them.
One MP said the direct quotes in the reporting
suggested there must be some truth to it, and at least one
MP said it was nonsense.
Often tipped to be a
leadership contender, Bishop has previously denied plotting
a challenge, insisting late last year that Luxon remained
the best person to be prime minister.
He dismissed the
suggestion there were phone calls on Monday about the
National party leadership, saying he talked to caucus
members “all the time about a whole range of different
things.”
“Yesterday was a cabinet day, so you know
clearly there were conversations between ministers and
between MPs.”
Bishop said it was “unhelpful” MPs were
speaking to media and encouraged his colleagues not
to.
“All I would say is you know people people
shouldn’t be talking to media like that.”
Bishop said
he was “getting on with the job”, but then continued to
answer questions from media about the leadership
issue.
He said he hadn’t spoken to Erica Stanford –
also considered a contender – about the leadership, nor had
he spoken to any of his colleagues.
Nakhle also backed
Luxon saying he was “the man and the boss” and she backed
him “150 percent”.
Luxon says his caucus backs
him
On Saturday it was put to Luxon whether the
confidence vote he called on his leadership back in April
had resulted in a caucus split of 27 votes to 22.
He
responded, “I have the support of my caucus – I’m very
confident in my leadership.”
On Tuesday Bishop told
RNZ it wasn’t worth speculating on the leadership vote, as
only “two or three” people in the country know the results
for certain.
“I don’t know where that reporting came
from. The caucus vote is secret, and I don’t know what the
result was,” he said.
It was speculation about whether
Luxon was up to the job and had the backing of his caucus to
stay on as leader that prompted him to test his support with
a vote in April.
At the time Luxon said that had put
the rumour to bed and he had his caucus behind
him.
Just four months later MPs appear to be musing
about the prospect of changing leaders again.
While
some spoken to by RNZ on Monday night said they supported
Luxon, it wasn’t unanimous.
There has been agitating
since late last year from some MPs concerned Luxon’s lack of
personal popularity was also dragging the party vote down,
and some MPs would lose their seats in Parliament if he
didn’t improve.
The latest RNZ-Reid
Research poll in July had National down 2.1 points to
28.7 percent, its fourth consecutive decline in the Reid
Research series and its weakest result since Luxon became
leader in November 2021.
While Luxon’s confidence vote
win looked to have given him some reprieve, his performance
in recent weeks has done little to convince concerned MPs
they’ll be safe come November 7.
Last Monday Luxon
apologised to leaders from the Rotorua Business Chamber
after he criticised them for having a “parent-child
mentality” and relying on government too much.
He also
faced questions about his foreign minister Winston Peters,
and why he wasn’t doing anything to reprimand him after
labelling his comments about another MP,
“racist”.
Luxon then had to justify his use of a New
Zealand Defence Force plane flying him home from a National
Party fundraising dinner, and on the same day unemployment
hit a record 11-year high.
On Thursday he was using
talkback radio to make a captain’s call to hold a referendum
on MMP, which blindsided his own caucus.
While the
National Party leader announced the list for the upcoming
election on Saturday with little disappointment or upset –
keeping senior MPs and new talent happy with high enough
spots to make it back to Parliament – Luxon now faces his
caucus on Tuesday night with fresh
concerns.
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