politics
As the election approaches, the National Party leader is embarking on a mission to determine policy, writes political editor Jo Moir
Christopher Luxon is in the final stages of announcing his campaign team for next year and which MPs will hold on to the election.
A campaign chair, campaign director and social media partner have all been appointed and will be announced in the coming months, as well as selection processes for voters across the country.
Jacqui Dean, Waitaki MP, has already announced that she will retire at next year’s election, and she will not be the last with Luxon telling Newsroom: “There will be others”.
Each of National’s MPs will be preparing for another round of performance appraisals in the second half of this year, but that will not be the catalyst for a reshuffle.
Unlike the Prime Minister, who has already announced she will make a major reshuffle at the beginning of next year, Luxon says its MPs are constantly being reviewed.
“We’ll just make the adjustments as we have to go … if there’s a problem or someone’s not shooting the right way, they get the feedback, we get the coaching in them, we get it sorted,” Luxon said. told Newsroom.
He is happy to move MPs in and out of portfolios at any time, which he accepts is not how things are usually done in politics.
“I just think if you do not have the right person on the right assignment, or you think there is another emphasis you want to place on it, you change it just the way you should.”
Luxon says it follows the same approach to policy and will propose ideas in response to what is happening locally, or internationally, while also working on more in-depth policies before the election.
That broader policy work will get him flying to Singapore next week, and then to Dublin and London for a 10-day mission to gather new ideas.
“There’s no substitute for getting on a plane and going around and seeing people and building relationships – that’s what the job is.” – Christopher Luxon
He wants all his MPs to come from Wellington.
“This is not where things are going to happen honestly.”
For this reason, he fully supports Jacinda Ardern’s ongoing struggle of overseas travel and involvement and wants to see Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta join her.
“In the case of the Prime Minister, we want her in the world as our number one sales person.
“I supported her a lot to get out, it’s necessary because we are far behind the eight ball in terms of our relationships.”
He said Mahuta should also be more active in the region.
“There’s no substitute for getting on a plane and going around and seeing people and building relationships – that’s what the job is,” says Luxon.
For National, it is a case of finding policy ideas in other parts of the world Luxon says he can “proudly steal”.
In Singapore, he plans to study how his infrastructure program is planned and executed.
A visit to Dublin will focus on how Ireland’s technology and foreign direct investment embrace to attract new firms.
“In Ireland, I would look at it from the perspective of an agricultural economy with a large tourism sector that has now gotten much higher GDP per capita by adopting technology well over the last 15 years,” says Luxon.
His last stop in London will be focused on school visits and meeting school principals and government ministers in the education sector to understand how Britain has withdrawn its education rankings over the past five or so years.
Luxon intends to “cut and steal” everything it can from countries that do it better than New Zealand.