Francesca Rudkin: Luxon's State of the Nation speech sounded like he’s found his groove

If you didn’t pick up on Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nations speech yesterday, the Prime Minister is looking to grow the economy, because the country desperately needs economic growth. 

I am being a little facetious. Actually, I thought the Prime Ministers' performance yesterday was good – both the speech and afterwards during the press conference.  

Sure, he still stuck to his message like a self-help guru trying to manifest an outcome. But after taking a while to look comfortable or natural as a politician, yesterday he sounded more authentic, like he’s found his groove.  He’s confident in the direction he’s taking the country, and he’s not trying to appeal to everyone.  

For a speech designed to set the tone for the year – he did a good job. 

Last year we saw the coalition government repeal and reform everything from education to water, and health to grey hound racing. While there is still a way to go with some of these, this year the Prime Minister has made it clear it’s about dialing up the volume on creating competition, allowing more foreign investment, and pushing for government organisations to be more future focused.  

The Prime Minister also suggested we need to grow up and shake off our culture of saying ‘no’ and start saying ‘yes’ – to things like expanding the Port of Tauranga and more concerts at Eden Park.  

Luxon also used the speech to make some announcements - the creation of Invest NZ – an agency to attract foreign investment, major reforms to Crown Research Institutes, and the disestablishment of the Callaghan Innovation, which Judith Collins bluntly said at the post speech press conference “had had it’s day”  

The new announcements are needed. National Party MPs have been sounding very well media trained recently - sticking to their messaging, avoiding answering questions with detail, you know the drill - and as a result they’ve been sounding a bit empty.  

When there is a lot of talking but nothing is really been said it’s easy to lose interest. But what struck me yesterday was how well the Prime Minster was across questions thrown at him. Instead of reverting back to the big picture bland key messages he can often fall back on, he threw out details and examples.  

There will be push-back to some of his ideas, such as mining and gene technology. Making money is one thing, but many New Zealanders will still want the government to balance their pragmatic approach with consideration and respect for affected communities, the environment, and the Treaty.  

There is also a perhaps wishful sense from the Prime Minister that tax cuts, lower inflation and a falling OCR mean New Zealanders can move on from focusing on the cost of living. I doubt he’ll be let off the hook that easily, rises in rent, rates, insurances, and other costs are still impacting household budgets.  

Making New Zealand a great place to live in years to come is important – love me some vision - but that doesn’t mean we should lose sight of today.  

But hey, if the state of the nation speech is about getting out the message it’s all about economic growth so we can all have better lives – then got it, loud and clear. Job done.  

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you didn't pick up on Christopher Luxen's State of
the Nation's speech yesterday, the Prime Minister is looking to
grow the economy because the country desperately needs economic growth.
Just in case you missed that, And yes, I am
being a little facetious. Actually, I thought the Prime Minister's
performance yesterday was good, both the speech and afterwards during
the press conference. Sure, he stuck to was message like
a self help guru trying to manifest an outcome, but

(00:22):
after taking a while to look comfortable or natural as
a politician, yesterday he sounded more authentic, like his founders groove.
He's confident in the direction he's taking the country, and
he's not trying to appeal to everyone. For a speech
designed to set the tone for the year, he did
a good job. Last year we saw the coalition government
repeal and reform everything from education to water and health
to greyhound racing. While there is still a way to

(00:45):
go with some of these, this year, the Prime Minister
has made as clear it's about dialing up the volume
on creating competition, allowing more foreign investment, and pushing for
government organizations to be more future focused. The Prime Minister
also suggested we need to grow up and shake off
our culture of saying no and start saying yes to
things like expanding the port of Totonger and more concerts

(01:05):
at Eden Park and unloading the dishwasher. Nope, that was
just me talking to my children. Luxon also used the
speech to make some announcements, the creation of invest New Zealand,
an agency to attract foreign investment, major reforms to Crown
Research Institutes, and their disestablishment of the Callahan Innovation, which,
due to Collins bluntly said at her post speech press conference,

(01:25):
had had its day. The new announcements are needed. National
Party MPs have been sounding very well media trained recently,
sticking to their messaging, avoiding answering questions with detail and
you know, the drill. As a result, they've been sounding
a little bit empty. When there's a lot of talking
but nothing has really been said, it's easy to lose interest.
But what struck me yesterday was how well the Prime
Minister was across questions thro anidom. Instead of reverting back

(01:49):
to the big picture, bland key messages, he can often
fall back on who throughout detail and examples. There will
be some pushback to some of his ideas such as
mining and gene technology. Making money is one thing, but
many New Zealanders will still want the government to balance
their pragmatic approach with consideration and respect for affected communities,
the environment, and the treating There is also perhaps wishful

(02:10):
sense from the Prime Minister that tax cuts, lower inflation
and falling ocr mean New Zealanders can move on from
focusing on the cost of living. I doubt he'll be
let off the hook that easily rises and rents, rates,
insurances and other costs are still impacting household budgets. Making
New Zealand a great place to live in years to
come is important. Love me some vision, but that doesn't

(02:32):
mean we should lose sight of today. But hey, if
the Side of the Nation speech is about getting out
the message, it's all about economic growth so we can
have better lives than got it loud and clear. Job done.
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