Christopher Luxon, Chris Bishop Press Fondness For Hutt Valley In Show Of Party Unity

Lillian
Hanly Political Reporter

Russell
Palmer Political reporter

Prime
Minister Christopher Luxon and Chris Bishop – one of his
ministers accused of trying to topple him last week – were
all smiles at a public meeting in the latter’s electorate on
Tuesday night.

Leadership squabbles
escaped any mention, with just one veiled reference to
politics being a
“tough sport” in opening remarks.

“It’s a rough
game, we know that.”

About 250 people turned out on a
wet Tuesday evening the Fraser Park Events centre in Avalon,
Lower Hutt where a brick near the entrance is adorned with
the words: Chris Bishop MP for Hutt South.

It’s a
title the Attorney-General, Minister for Housing,
Infrastructure and Transport will want to retain in this
year’s election – particularly given a combination of low
polling and high numbers of electorate wins could turf him
out of Parliament altogether.

Bishop
praised his party leader, calling Luxon the man in charge of
National’s plan who was doing “an outstanding
job”.

He
said Luxon had got into politics and Parliament for the
right reasons, “dedicating his life to public service to try
and make a difference for all of us”.

Luxon in turn
gave acknowledgement to “the great Chris Bishop”.

“If
you cut him, he bleeds the Hutt. That’s what he believes. He
eats, breathes, sleeps it. He’s talking about it every
Tuesday in our caucus room.

“So, mate, thank you for
your public service because you’ve been a dedicated public
servant and representative for this region for some time,”
he said, later praising his third-ranked MP for his work on
the Resource Management Act reforms.

Luxon’s speech
warned the world was at an “inflection point” of mass
change.

“Turn on the six o’clock news and you see
things like countries that used to be friends with each
other actually squabbling and fighting … wars in Ukraine
in the middle of Europe, but also in the Middle East, we see
trade wars flaring between countries that we thought were
friends and alliance partners.

“We had a similar
experience after World War I; after World War II; certainly
after the fall of the [Berlin] Wall in 1989; and I put it to
you, since 2024. The world has been changing in terms of how
it deals with each other and works together or
doesn’t.”

He pitched himself as an “outside
politician” who had “watched them for years just boil the
ocean, lots of bumper stickers, lots of promises”, when
people wanted “delivery”.

Several questions Luxon
answered effectively but with the usual party lines, or
asking audience members to “watch this space” for future
party policy announcements.

FENZ
in firing line

Perhaps the most heated was about why
– given Labour sorted union negotiations out with
firefighters after the first ever nationwide strike –
National hasn’t done the same after 54; and why a community
centre burned down about 550 metres from the previous fire
station that got shut down.

Bishop said Fire and
Emergency (FENZ) was a “shocker” at managing their
assets.

“I have been pushing them and the Minister of
Internal Affairs, Brooke van Velden, very hard to say what
is the plan around the Hutt City fire station, and I just
get crickets in response because you’ve got an incompetent
governence and management there … I’m furious about
it.”

Luxon said the “bottom line is, they have money.
They have enough money”.

The
prime minister refused to commit to not lowering funding for
kindergartens, but again said there would be more policy to
come.

When asked how National could help conservative
voices in local government to oppose Labour and Green
councillors, Luxon said “if only 30 percent of you bother to
vote in a local body election, you kind of get what you
deserve”.

In response to questions about removing
climate change from curriculums, he said the first thing was
getting kids to school, then teaching them to read and do
maths, before giving them the foundations to engage in
science and climate change.

Bishop kept the last
question for himself to ask Luxon about his connection to
the Hutt Valley, saying few people may know he began at
Unilever in Petone.

“I am a Crusaders supporter, you
know that and we’ve just lost the whole room now,” Luxon
quipped.

“That business, they had a big factory down
the bottom end of Jackson Street and so I came here as the
brand manager for Sunlight dishwash liquid, Jif cream
cleanser and Handy Andy … as a 22, 24 year old.

“It
was an amazing place to live, and I’m really grateful for
the start that business gave me, but also the city gave me
that then led me to live overseas for 16 years doing some
other things with that same business.”

He finished
with a joke about hearing a “massive rumble” after moving to
Sydney and getting under his desk thinking it was an
earthquake, but the Australian marketing director said it
was just a truck from the factory.

Luxon and Bishop
then spoke to those in attendance and took selfies for about
another half hour.

Those in attendance had mixed views
of the discussion, with some National supporters saying it
was great, and good to hear from the prime minister with
full context rather than in soundbites.

Several
undecided voters who spoke to RNZ remained unconvinced,
saying their votes had not been swayed at all.

Luxon
and Bishop alike will surely be hoping to have changed some
minds at least, and to have put talk of party disunity and
leadership challenges to
bed.

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