The Country 24/09/25: Christopher Luxon talks to Jamie Mackay

The Prime Minister ponders his personal popularity and the performance of the economy. Plus, what is Winston Peters up to in New York?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wednesdays on the Country, the fifteenth most effective cabinet minister
in the land kicks off the show. He's also known
as Prime Minister Christopher Luxen. Were you disappointed in how
the boardroom rated Youpm?

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Look, I think you've got to acknowledge it's been a
pretty tough time, and I think yes, as you look
across any group of people and across the society, there'll
always be some people who support the approach, numbers that don't,
and yeah, something very much on board of what we're doing.
We've also been very much about pro competition and a
lot of sectors of the economy as well. But you know,
the one part of society we take feedback from every corner. YEP.

(00:33):
We've got to make sure that we continue to listen
and work with them as we create the conditions for growth.
It's those businesses that then create that growth. So you know, look,
I appreciate its difficult time, but you know, we've got
to keep charging ahead and actually get the country turned
around and sort of now.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
I read an interesting piece on our n Z this
Morning Read Radio doing some good work here on how
the New Zealand economy is tracking after last week's gloomy
GDP because Christopher Luckxon, I don't know whether you've seen this,
but it ranked all the financial indices since you've taken
office and whether they've gone up or down, and let
me just run through these. Unemployment is a negative for you.

(01:09):
Inflations are positive. Retail volumes is a negative GDP negative,
manufacturing activities a big negative, construction a big negative. Interest
rates are positive. For your current account deficit are positive.
Government deficit a negative. Exchange rate are positive, although that
isn't really necessarily in your control. Commodity prices obviously a positive.

(01:32):
Terms of trade off the back of those commodity prices
are positive as well, because when you took office in
late twenty twenty three, I bet you a dime to
a dollar that you never thought it would be this tough.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
No I did. I mean, I'd been talking about it
in an opposition. When you lose control of inflation, that has
massive consequences in economic history. You just go to go
around the world, look at it, look at New Zealand's
own history. And that was the first time in thirty
five years we had a government actually teenagers that were
basically running the joint of babysitters and they really lost
formation economically and as a result, when you don't manage inflation,

(02:08):
it has huge implications as you see on interest rates,
on growth and one employment. And that's why I always
keep saying, if you care about low and middleworking class
New Zealanders, you've actually got to manage the economy incredibly well.
So you know, the most important thing is to get
inflation gripped up and under the three percent band, which
we've done. As a result, that's bringing the inflation interest
rates down. That's what sparks growth. You've seen in the

(02:29):
back half of last year and early this year. Yes,
Q two was difficult because we had a real break
supplied with confidence and sentiment around the Trump tariffs, but
we're now growing again. Well, we're going to be growing
even stronger as we go into Christmas in that last quarter.
And you know, we've got potentially two more interest rate
cuts coming and more people getting their mortgages refixed. We've

(02:50):
got a lot of infrastructure investment coming, We've got tourism
coming back. You've had record years in primary industries, so
you go look at farmer confidence that's at an all
time high since twenty seven there's.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Not many farmers who vote.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Though business confident.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
I'm just kidding, yeah, I get those positives.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
From a list of metrics, to be honest, all right,
not all those metrics are.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Equal, right, you know, I totally get that right. There's
one hundred and fifty chief executives took part in this
boardroom survey and they rated the top thirty three politicians. Well,
that's as far as my list goes, dominated not unsurprisingly
by a cent by the center right politicians. Interestingly, when
it comes to labor, Barbara Edmonds, who's a bit of

(03:31):
a standout, it would be fair to say she's at ten,
Karen McNulty at nineteen, Chris Hipkins at thirty one. Everyone's
putting the knife into you at the moment. Is Hipkins
under threat?

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Oh look, there's a qretion for them. I'm just going
to stay very focused on what we're doing. You know,
we've got the right long term plan. We've got a
two speed recovery happening right now. I know that's been
difficult for Auckland and for some of those businesses that
the CEOs are leading and the directors are involved with,
but you know, we've got to keep pushing on and
actually get the recovery now flowing through Auckland and to
Wellington and people feeling it. And that's the real focus.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Why is Winston dancing on the head of a pin?
Basically when it comes to recognizing Palestine, we're going to
do it, or assume we're going to do it. Why
the big song and dance.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
Well, again, we've been as we've been very clear about it.
We've said we've got in a process. We want to
be transparent about that. The cabinet's considering a range of things.
It's a very complex issue and you know he's in
you in week this week and you know, listening to
other world leaders and engaging with other leaders and foreign ministers,
and you know we've going to announce our position, you know,
on the weekend, which will be you know, as it

(04:38):
should be. But it's a you know, he's been leading
us through that process in a very considered way, very
cautious and comprehensive way to make sure that we get
to a decision that you know, we think is the
right decision.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Hey, he's the second highest ranked cabinet minister, Erica Stanford,
who is a standout and on the face of it,
doing a very good job trying to reshape education. She's
a few National Party leader. You'll be hoping it's just
not too near in the future.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
Oh look, Jamie, we've got a team. I just say
to you. Look, you know, I'm proud of it. As
the Prime Minister, my job is to make sure I
put the team together. I make sure I've got the
right people on the right assignments, with the right level
of clarity and expectation about what we expect them to deliver.
And I'm actually proud of what we've done, proud of
what we've done and rebuilding a National Party which was
pretty hopeless a few years ago to where we are today.

(05:28):
I'm also very proud of the fact that we've made
a coalition work and given strong and stable government to
New Zealand at a very difficult account. Oh I am
you know. I think I'm pretty pleased about that. Yep.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
And I'm pleased that Todd McLay, your Minister of Agriculture
and Trade, is sitting at four on the list because
he has done a good job.

Speaker 2 (05:43):
He's done a great job, as I keep saying, and
he's working incredibly hard. It is in a brilliant, brilliant
job and continues to do so and again. Yeah, there's
a good example. You put the right person on the
right assignment to get on with it with a clear brief.
He and I work well together, and awhere we go
and make sure that we're doing that doesn't swing New Zealand,
and I think that'll be one of the you know,
we're on track to doubling our exports. If you look

(06:05):
at the progress of exports around the world from New Zealand,
we're in good shape. So you know, we've got to
keep that, keep that going, and.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
All we need to lift the mood of the nation
is an all black victory at Eden Park. I'm sure
you'll be there. Enjoy your weekend. We'll catch you back
next week.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
Take care, Jamie, see ya bye.