John MacDonald: NZ First - What should Christopher Luxon do?

Does Christopher Luxon know something we don't? Because that's the only reason I can think of, for him being so cagey.

Did you hear him talking to Mike Hosking this morning? I thought it was Monday when I woke up - but no, it’s Groundhog Day.

Another day and the National Party leader still has his head in the sand. Just like he did yesterday. Just like he did on Saturday. Just like he did on Friday. And I’ve got no idea why he can’t bring himself to say ‘yay or nay’ when it comes to NZ First.

There he was again this morning, banging on about NZ First not being in Parliament and, because of that, he’s not going to think about them until they are.

He seems to be ignoring some of the recent polls which have had NZ First polling high enough to get into Parliament. And was going on about the National Party’s internal polling painting a different picture. But who cares?

Public sentiment doesn’t rise and fall on the back of internal polling. Public sentiment is influenced by the polls that you and I see on the TV news. And those polls are pretty much saying that NZ First is back and on the path to Parliament. Four of the last seven polls have had them over the 5 percent threshold.

I don’t know who’s advising Luxon but, when I heard him on the radio this morning, I thought “Yep, you’re sounding just like the inexperienced politician your opponents like to say you are”.

In fact, I’d go further than that. I thought Luxon sounded this morning like someone almost in complete denial of the MMP system. And time and time again, he’s showing that he just doesn’t get it.

He doesn’t get it that people want to know whether a vote for National means a potential coalition government involving Winston Peters and NZ First.

Chris Hipkins gets it. That’s why he came out yesterday and said there’s no way in hell that he’d form a coalition government involving NZ First after October’s election.

David Seymour gets it too. He’s made it very clear that he has no interest in doing any deal with Winston Peters.

But Luxon was just amateur hour this morning. And he seems to think he’s going to get away with doing the same thing for the next six-and-a-bit weeks until the election.

Chris Hipkins, though. Complete opposite. Although, I did think Hipkins went a bit too far yesterday when he was talking about NZ First but then went on and started portraying the National Party and its supporters as a bunch of extreme conservatives.

I agreed with Luxon when he said yesterday that it was all sounding a bit desperate from the Labour leader or the Prime Minister - or whatever hat Hipkins was wearing yesterday.

But then Luxon went and blew it completely this morning with this ongoing ploy of keeping us all guessing as to whether NZ First would be part of any coalition government he might pull together after October 14.

He seems more than capable of somehow knowing what New Zealanders are thinking about everything else, doesn’t he? Because, like every politician, he tells us what we’re worried about, what’s keeping us awake at night, and how he’s going to fix it.

But the old ESP system runs out of batteries when it comes to what we might be thinking about NZ First. Because he seems to think we don’t care whether Winston Peters and his cronies end up in government again.

Christopher Luxon is dreaming if he thinks we don't need to know, or don't want to know, before election day whether or not he would form a government involving NZ First.

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