New Zealand Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, is one of the most interesting politicians in New Zealand’s history. A businessman by trade, who came to fame by running one of New Zealand’s largest companies, since 2023 he has served as the 42nd Prime Minister of New Zealand. Who is this man and what does he believe?
Early life and career
Born on 19 July 1970 in Christchurch to a Roman Catholic family, Luxon moved with his parents to Auckland. They later moved back to Christchurch, where he attended Christchurch Boys High School and gained a Master of Commerce (Business Administration) degree from Canterbury University. In 1993, he became a trainee with Unilever. Working his way up internally, he was awarded the impressive position of Global Deodorants and Grooming Category Director. He then became head of Unilever’s Canadian operations.
In 2011, Luxon was appointed a group general manager of Air New Zealand. The following year, he became its Chief Executive Officer. Luxon’s leadership of Air New Zealand saw increasing revenues and high customer satisfaction. During this time the NZ Government, led by Prime Minister John Key, reduced the Government’s holding in Air New Zealand from 71% to 51% in a privatisation drive. Air New Zealand won a series of Consumer Choice awards during his tenure, and Luxon was seen as a pragmatic and successful corporate leader.
Entering Parliament
In 2019, Luxon resigned from Air New Zealand and hinted at a career within the centre-right National Party – along with Labour, one of the two main parties in New Zealand.
He was selected for the safe National seat of Botany in South Auckland. At the peak of then Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Covid popularity, 2020 was a terrible year for the National Party. Labour won nearly twice as many seats as National, a huge blow to their electoral fortunes.
Following Judith Collins’ resignation as National party leader, Luxon stood to replace her. His initial competition was the younger and more politically experienced former minister Simon Bridges, though he soon dropped out due to lack of support. National members recognised that change was necessary following such a defeat. Hence, two months after entering Parliament for the first time, Luxon became Leader of the Opposition.
Faith and politics
In his first speech to Parliament, Luxon spoke about the positive roles in society which Christians such as Kate Sheppard and Martin Luther King Jr. had fulfilled, as part of a defence of the role of Christians like himself in public life. He said: “It has become acceptable to stereotype [Christians] as being extreme.”
Luxon is most certainly the most openly religious New Zealand Prime Minister in modern times. Faith dictates many of his positions. His views on abortion came to light after he became National Party leader. In the 2023 leaders’ debates, Christopher Luxon promised that though he personally disagreed with abortion, his government would make no changes to its legal status.
2023 general election
Labour was now under Chris Hipkins, who had replaced Jacinda Ardern nine months before the 2023 election, and dwindling in the polls. Luxon was in a strong position when campaigning began.
The National Party campaign focused on developing economic growth through less government spending, fewer taxes, and improved infrastructure. The main campaign slogan was “Get Our Country Back on Track”.
The results were not as good as they could have been for National. The 2023 New Zealand general election would be better described as a landslide against Labour – which was reduced to 34, the same number of seats as National had won in 2020 – than a landslide for National. National won 48 out of 123 seats. Many of Labour’s lost seats went to right-wing populist New Zealand First (NZF) and the Green party, following trends in Europe.
Prime Minister Luxon
As 62 seats are required for majority in the New Zealand House of Representatives, a coalition was required. This was formed with the right-wing Association of Consumers and Taxpayers (ACT) party and NZF. There remained the question of who would serve as the prestigious though powerless Deputy Prime Minister – the customary job for the leader of the junior coalition partner. It was agreed that NZF leader Winston Peters would be Deputy Prime Minister for the first 18 months of the three-year term, and ACT leader David Seymour would serve for the second..
Underpinning most of the coalition’s major policies was a desire to reinvigorate economic growth, something which has been more elusive in New Zealand than in many other OECD countries. Luxon lowered taxes and axed over 9,500 public sector jobs. Another initiative sought to upgrade New Zealand’s outdated infrastructure, focusing on roads and the ferries which journey between the North and South Islands.
However, there was many controversies. Perhaps the most notorious concerned a series of protests against the Treaties Principle Bill. The Treaty of Waitangi is the founding document of New Zealand, signed in 1840. Through design or incompetence, the translation of the Treaty was such that the English version dictated the sovereignty of New Zealand was to be ceded from Māori to Queen Victoria, whereas the Māori version suggested a much looser alliance and trading arrangement.
Naturally, the English-language version was largely accepted – until the 1970s, when a large protest movement sprung up advocating for the Māori version. That started a process whereby governments, over time, gave symbolic victories to the Māori protest movement, particularly by increasing the use of the Māori language in the New Zealand Government.
Fault lines
A longstanding ACT policy was to hold a binding referendum on the Treaty, outlined in the Treaties Principles Bill. The Bill aimed to stop Māori from having rights and privileges such as Māori electorates (constituencies consisting only of Māori people).
Christopher Luxon and NZF leader Winston Peters had agreed in coalition negotiations only to support the Bill on a first reading, beyond which they gave no guarantees. At first reading, all National, ACT, and NZF MPs voted for it, while all other parties (Labour, The Green Party, and Te Pati Māori) voted against.
The fact that the government had supported such a measure, regardless of Luxon’s commitment not to vote it into law, sparked huge protests. As many as 42,000 people protested outside Parliament.
As agreed, the Bill – which critics claimed used the non-Māori majority in the electorate to roll back hard-fought-for Māori rights – was voted down 112-11 at the second reading. However, many suggested that any support for such a policy at any stage had damaged race relations in New Zealand and the Government’s standing. Politically speaking, the damage was done.
“Coalition of chaos”
The Treaty clash between Luxon and ACT leader David Seymour, along with disagreements with NZF over taxes, inspired Labour Opposition leader Chris Hipkins to brand the Government “the Coalition of Chaos”.
The term was first coined by UK Prime Minister David Cameron, describing a potential Labour-SNP coalition in the run up to the 2015 UK General Election, and was subsequently used by Luxon himself to describe a possible Labour-Green-Te Pati Māori pact during his 2023 campaign.
The numerous disagreements, the fact that this was the first three-way coalition in New Zealand’s history, and the unique Deputy PM swap which had been required to pull the whole thing together meant the phrase stuck.
Lack of charisma
Many critics also claimed that Luxon himself was a talentless politician, perhaps suffering from a similar affliction to Sir Keir Starmer in the UK, with a dull, corporate persona. Uncharismatic technocrats often have a hard time in the modern world, and it seemed to be something he could not change.
Some have also called his communication skills into question. He is a little too good at not answering questions, leaving his audience dissatisfied and unconvinced too often.
The perceived policy failures, disagreements between the three parties, and a lack of excitement about Luxon as a leader have led to some lacklustre recent polling for the National Party. We are now past the halfway point of the Sixth National Government of New Zealand. The Deputy Prime Minister swap has taken place.
The Government continues to set out its plans for New Zealand. What the future holds for New Zealand politics, the National Party, and Luxon himself is yet to be decided. Could he boost his dwindling popularity and fight and win the next general election, or could this be the first one-term national government in New Zealand’s history? Only time will tell.
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