Jo Moir
Political editor
The
Prime Minister has called for an “urgent-in person” caucus
meeting in Wellington on Wednesday morning.
It comes
amid renewed pressure on Christopher Luxon’s
leadership.
Luxon wrote on social media on Tuesday,
after postponing various prior arrangements, that it was
“clear from various media reports and conversations there is
increased speculation about my leadership”.
“It is my
firm belief that division and disunity are a major
distraction only 90 days out from the election.
“I
also believe this distraction is unfair to the New Zealand
people, and dedicated National Party candidates, supporters
and volunteers, when there is so much at stake.”
For
those reasons, he wrote, the issue “needs to be resolved
quickly”.
“I am calling an urgent in-person Caucus
meeting tomorrow at 9:30am in Wellington to resolve the
issue.”
Moments before the social media post was
published, Luxon’s team abruptly postponed an RNZ podcast
interview which had been scheduled for this
afternoon.
Earlier today, National’s Chris Bishop and
Rima Nakhle threw 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.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
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.
Mixed responses from MPs
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.
Bishop, who
was opening a pedestrian bridge at a railway station in
Auckland alongside local MP Rima Nakhle on Tuesday morning,
confirmed the party caucus would hold a meeting on Zoom
later in the day, 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.
It is not known if the Tuesday
Zoom meeting will still go ahead.
“Last week the PM
apologised for remarks about Rotorua, and obviously there’s
been a bit over the MMP call, but we back our leader, and
you know he’s made his position clear in relation to the MMP
referendum that we’ll be taking that to the election. It’s
not going to be the focus of the campaign, as he says in his
own words.”
RNZ spoke to about 10 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 Wednesday morning after calling for an “urgent-in
person”
meeting.
New Zealand’s public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries.
Radio New Zealand is a Crown entity established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. Radio New Zealand News are vital elements in our programming, providing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) provides listeners with exciting and independent radio programmes in accordance with the Radio New Zealand Charter.
