December 21, 2025 • 13 mins
It's been an up-and-down year for National, seeing success in some areas and struggles in more.
However, the slowly recovering economy is an early Christmas gift ahead of next year's election.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon joins Andrew Dickens to discuss the key talking points of the year in politics, and discuss what Kiwis can expect to see from the government as we head in to the new year.
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
A year that was marked by political uncertainty, from tariffs
to the Treaty of the Economy and the Environment, and
one man is in charge of the whole lot, and
that is Prime Minister Christopher Luxen. And we've made it
to Christmas. The wheels are still in the car, the
doors are still in the hinges, and it's all not
that bad really A So joining me now a bit
later than normal on a Monday, is our Prime Minister
(00:38):
Christopher Luxon.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Good morning to you, Laury Andrew. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm well, I'm well. Merry Christmas. By the way, you
got an early Christmas present. GDP is rising again, just
in time for an election year. You must be chugh,
that's the best present ever. So can I ask you why?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
It is?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Because many of the bigger economic reforms that you've started
over the last two years not really in play yet.
The fundamentals haven't radically changed, with the exception of some
interest rates and holiday laws. So this rise in GDP
did New Zealand just get their mojo back?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Look, I think we had some growth happening in the
quarter four last year, a little bit more into Q
one this year. Actually we started very well at the
beginning of the year, but then obviously we had Q
two and that was the Trump tariffs that caused massive
investment uncertainty, massive consumer loss of consumer confidence, and you
remember the very negative sentiment we were dealing with through
winter and coming out of winter, and you know, we
(01:28):
knew that, you know, we're doing the right things. We've
had massive growth in our exports and think trades up
twelve billion dollars, and we had record years across all
of our sectors internationally, and we've put a big getting
out of e fit there frankly as well in around
FTAs and around expanding our trading arrangements internationally and raising
our profile internationally. So that's been the bit that's leading
New Zealand through. And then what was good in the
(01:48):
GDP numbers you know last week, was that I think
fourteen or sixteen sectors that are measured actually you know
that a very job richlight construction and business services and
those sorts of sectors actually came back really well, which
was fantastic. And that's just a function of getting some
of those infrastructure projects out the door that we talked
about and low that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But you said the word sentiment. In a couple of
weeks ago, Simon Bridges said it as well. In fact,
Simon said, the older and older I get, the more
I realize that sentiment and confidence is one of the
most cruci crucial drivers of an economy. So what would
you say to New Zealanders about how they should feel
right now? And how about stuff?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Well, look, I think New Zealanders can see that they're
even the media now report on more positive stacks and
nicative stacks, which is great and actually what we want
to do is I want to see have more people
feeling that. So there's no doubt about it. As I
said earlier in the year, it's been too speed. If
you are in primary industries, South Island, christ Church other places,
you've been experiencing growth this year that we've had, as
(02:47):
I said, very strong results in those sectors. But equally
if you're in Auckland, it's been really challenging, really difficult
because a lot of it was tied up with building, construction, property, manufacturing,
those kinds of things, and that's a function of high
interest rates and inflation, and so that's why you need
to be able to deal with those issues and to
get inflation down, to get interest rates coming down, and
(03:07):
then to see the benefits transmitting through to people. And
so at the moment News Islanders saying, yeah, something that shifted.
I I'm feeling more positive, more optimistic about it. I
can see these positive statistics coming through, but I want
more and more of them to actually feel it themselves
in their own situation. And that's the challenge for a
coming year.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So get to work. A result of the mild austerity
messures you've undertaken over the last two years means that
the poor and vulnerable feel that they've been affected disproportionately,
and they accused National of concentrating more and more on
the big end of town. Are you because that is
your basic core support?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
No, I disagree completely.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I think if you think about where the first government
that has given income tax relief and we focused it
on lower middle income working News Islanders, we had a
Labor Party that didn't even bothered to support that proposition,
which is an ideological It was actually just acknowledging in
a high inflation environment people had been pushed into higher
and hire text brackets, and so we adjusted the tax
(04:04):
brackets for lower middle income working News Islanders. That's given
them a huge amount of tax relief. We've gone to
small businesses who have and struggle and said, look, you
can write off twenty percent of the value of an asset.
And you're actually seeing that the GDP number last week
is that a big part of it has actually increased
investment in business as well.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But the thing, Prime minis the thing about that though,
Prime Minister, in doing that, you actually reduce your own revenue.
And therefore, no matter how much you cut the spending,
we still end out, you know, spending more than we
actually earn from the revenue because of the tax cuts,
because of the recession, because of everything. So in a way,
you actually you actually major your own position. The government's
books position work off.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Well, I think you know, look, if you're in my job,
there's there's three ways you look at it.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
You can come at it and say I can carry
on the labor approach of tax spend, borrow more. And
that's what caused inflation interest rates the recession. And so
we know that that doesn't work, That prescription doesn't work
just piling up the deed from the taxes. The second
thing is you can come the other way, which is
to say, right, we're going to throw the current to reverse.
We're going to be whenever roofless hard austerity, make messive
(05:07):
cuts across the system, causes more pain and suffering for
working news Islanders. Or you find the third way through,
which is what we're doing, which is saying, look, we
know there's money being spent, but it's actually a lot
of it's wasted. We're going to then stop the waste
we'll spending in the back office and we're going to
move it through to the frontline services. So we have
Andrew been able to hire twenty one hundred extra nurses,
we have been able to hire six hundred extra doctors.
(05:28):
We have been able to hire nine hundred.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Extra corrections officers.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
That's a function of actually being able to redeploy the
funds in the same way. A good example to me
last year was labor would spend money on classrooms. Well,
the average classroom cost New Zealand was one point two
million dollars. We've standardized it, we've hard the cost and
for the same amount of money we can deliver twice
as many classrooms.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Because all those new hires you talked about, you know,
they end up in the statistics and people turn around
and look at it and go, oh, look at this.
The public services getting bigger. I thought it was supposed
to get smaller. But you know it's a thing of balance,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well, it's about again understanding what you do with the money.
You know, you can actually get quite different outcomes with
the same amount of money if you had better management skills,
and I think we do have better management skills from
the last lot. You know, the classrooms is a case
in points. What we've done is the extra nurses and
doctors have come because we've been able to make savings
in the back office with all the policy people, all
(06:21):
the communications, all the things that just actually aren't adding
value to frontline services.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
We're one week gone from the terror attack at Bondai.
Do you feel that we have done enough to safeguard
all of our citizens from mass violence because Australia is
ripping itself apart.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Well, I think when you know, from day one, we've
spent a lot of time matchelling myself with the Jewish
community and also other communities and minorities here in EA Zeland.
I think you know we you know, we've done every year,
We've we've made sure that we've got the right police
support around protecting places of worship and interest. We've secondly
made sure that we've actually extended funding so that they
(06:56):
actually can continue to rent that up and that's what
they've been doing since the beginning of the year. And
the third thing is, I think the most important thing,
which I often see missing in other countries, engagement is
actually the engagement between communities.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I meet with them regularly.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Formerly in groups or individually, and actually I want them
to know that they deeply love, they're deeply supported, that
we're right behind them and that and so the actual
engagement means that we're well aware of the issues.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
There has been rising and antisemitism and seven.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
The trick is keeping your eye on the bad guys.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Christopher correct, Yes, no, that's right, and that's what we
use our intelligence agencies for and other risks that we
can see in you as you expect us to manage
those rests. And the risks are different in each country,
and the key thing is responding to those risks.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Okay, what is the policy you're most proud of in
twenty twenty five, I'm.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Actually most proud of the actually the work that we've
done to lift New Zealand's profile internationally. This is a
country where one and four of our jobs are tied
to trade into exports, and I actually felt we were
so myopic and so and we're looking and so slow
coming out of COVID relative to everybody else, that we
lost huge amounts of relevancy and attend and internationally, and
(08:10):
so we've put a full court press around that and
you're actually starting to see the results of that in
terms of trade, which is important.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Any policy you regret, like Tracy Treaty Principles or the
regular trus standard, anything you regret.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
What treaty principles bill as a consequence of a coalition
government in an MMP environment, that's the system New Zealanders
have chosen.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
They then don't.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You can't expect first past the post in an MMP environment,
no doubt about it. You know that caused you know,
frustration and tension. But you know, yeah, the real the
real challenges being you know, an economic challenge. That's what
it's all boiling down to. And that with the challenge
of that was Q.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Two and the thing about the thing about coalitions, a
pole came out last week. It is what it is,
will not reflect on the result next year. But one
trend is the rising support for minor parties that form
coalitions with either National and Labor. And if they end
up with the biggest slice of the vote they will have,
that will mean you will have to all Labor would
have to make even more compromises. So are we at
the end of the company left right joopily that we
(09:05):
are so used to.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Well, we're in a place we've chosen MMP as our
electoral system. It's no different from how Western Europe works.
If you look at Western Europe, as I said, you know,
a good example to me is Netherlands. They had an
election in late twenty three, couple months after us. They
take three hundred days to form a government with their
coalition government.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's take the four party four.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Party coalition government as emerged. They're in power for eleven
months before it fell apart as one of the parties
couldn't get on with each other and love hold it
back in elections. And now they take another thre hundred
days to form a new government. Now that is the
reality of Germany and France and many of those places,
and so MMP has matured. You cannot expect first part
of the post mentality in an MMP environment, rightly or wrongly.
(09:47):
That's what New Zealanders have chosen. So we all make
the case with our political brands. New Zealanders vote and
then we are forced to.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Make it work.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
And so you have to find a way to work,
and you have to find a way to compromise. And
so you know, that's what good coalition government's about, and
that's how you can give strong and stable government to
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That is reality exactly. Now you're famous for your Christmas
and your family got a new set.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
We have, actually I haven't had them on just yet.
I think they'll be making appearance this week. But my
wife and my daughter get very excited about Christmas quite early,
and so they go off and secure. And you said
a family pajamas. Then William and I are sort of
forced to wear them for a period of time.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So I'm sorry, it's really good.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
I'm sure family's have different routine and different traditions.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
For Christmas as well, but no, we we love.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Christmas because there's a chance for families to come together
and our kids come in on that.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You said, your daughter Olivia, she's coming back from Australia.
She works on social media over there, she lives over there.
So it's a family Christmas in christ Church. It'd be
lovely to have them all together. Do you miss having
a full house these days?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah, Amanda and I are emerging. You needs to phase now.
You know, our kids are twenty six and twenty four,
and Olivia's overseas and William's fall on with work and
so it's a different stage of life. But it's also
a fantastic stage life because you get to be the
friend rather than a parent, and you know, and then
neighboring all their friends over in our House's house have
(11:12):
always been sort of grand central station and there's lots
of comings and goings and we love that. So it's
just exciting. And you know, this Christmas we get to
hang out with me and this family and my family
and there's new nieces involved, and yeah, it's going to
be great. So it's going to be lovely.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So what's on the menu for the lux and Christmas
Lunch in christ Jurge or is it dinner.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
It's going to be lunch and my brother is a chef,
so it'll be it'll be good. And so actually he said, look,
i've got this son, I've got this one. So he's
got it sorted.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
So it'll be it will.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Do something incredible and amazing, which will probably be involving
some ham I hope, and it'd.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Be really good.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So it's just a it'll be very casual, very informal,
and it's just a chance for everyone to come together
and just shoot the breeze and catch up and the
politics free zone, which is lovely.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And when are you back on deck?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I'll be probably getting back into about the fourth of
seth So good man, I was sort of, yeah, I'll
keep working a little bit through that period of time,
but as I would you should expect. But I just
doll an hour two a day and then I'll be
back sort of and fall into mode about that time.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Christopher Luxon Prime Minister. The Coalition of Chaos is still together.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Ha haha.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's been a heavy twenty twenty five. It's hope for
a better twenty twenty six. And thank you so much
for your time today on the Summer Breakfast.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well Andrew, I say thank you for what you're doing,
and thank you for working through the summer and keeping
us all informed of the way that you are. And
to all the listeners out there, can I just say, look,
I just auing. Hope everyone gets a chance to refresh
and recharge and hang out with your loved ones and
make some new memories and fill up the cup before
hitting what will be a really great twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Thank you, thank you, good stuff. That is Prime Minister
Christopher Luxeon back on deck on the fourth or fifth
or sixth, so there sarbon bridges. We're not all buggering
off for summer. It is eight twenty two.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
For more from News Talk set B listen live on
air or online, and keep our shows with you wherever
you go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
A year that was marked by political uncertainty, from tariffs
to the Treaty of the Economy and the Environment, and
one man is in charge of the whole lot, and
that is Prime Minister Christopher Luxen. And we've made it
to Christmas. The wheels are still in the car, the
doors are still in the hinges, and it's all not
that bad really A So joining me now a bit
later than normal on a Monday, is our Prime Minister
(00:38):
Christopher Luxon.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Good morning to you, Laury Andrew. How are you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
I'm well, I'm well. Merry Christmas. By the way, you
got an early Christmas present. GDP is rising again, just
in time for an election year. You must be chugh,
that's the best present ever. So can I ask you why?
Speaker 3 (00:51):
It is?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Because many of the bigger economic reforms that you've started
over the last two years not really in play yet.
The fundamentals haven't radically changed, with the exception of some
interest rates and holiday laws. So this rise in GDP
did New Zealand just get their mojo back?
Speaker 4 (01:07):
Look, I think we had some growth happening in the
quarter four last year, a little bit more into Q
one this year. Actually we started very well at the
beginning of the year, but then obviously we had Q
two and that was the Trump tariffs that caused massive
investment uncertainty, massive consumer loss of consumer confidence, and you
remember the very negative sentiment we were dealing with through
winter and coming out of winter, and you know, we
(01:28):
knew that, you know, we're doing the right things. We've
had massive growth in our exports and think trades up
twelve billion dollars, and we had record years across all
of our sectors internationally, and we've put a big getting
out of e fit there frankly as well in around
FTAs and around expanding our trading arrangements internationally and raising
our profile internationally. So that's been the bit that's leading
New Zealand through. And then what was good in the
(01:48):
GDP numbers you know last week, was that I think
fourteen or sixteen sectors that are measured actually you know
that a very job richlight construction and business services and
those sorts of sectors actually came back really well, which
was fantastic. And that's just a function of getting some
of those infrastructure projects out the door that we talked
about and low that good stuff.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
But you said the word sentiment. In a couple of
weeks ago, Simon Bridges said it as well. In fact,
Simon said, the older and older I get, the more
I realize that sentiment and confidence is one of the
most cruci crucial drivers of an economy. So what would
you say to New Zealanders about how they should feel
right now? And how about stuff?
Speaker 3 (02:25):
You know?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Well, look, I think New Zealanders can see that they're
even the media now report on more positive stacks and
nicative stacks, which is great and actually what we want
to do is I want to see have more people
feeling that. So there's no doubt about it. As I
said earlier in the year, it's been too speed. If
you are in primary industries, South Island, christ Church other places,
you've been experiencing growth this year that we've had, as
(02:47):
I said, very strong results in those sectors. But equally
if you're in Auckland, it's been really challenging, really difficult
because a lot of it was tied up with building, construction, property, manufacturing,
those kinds of things, and that's a function of high
interest rates and inflation, and so that's why you need
to be able to deal with those issues and to
get inflation down, to get interest rates coming down, and
(03:07):
then to see the benefits transmitting through to people. And
so at the moment News Islanders saying, yeah, something that shifted.
I I'm feeling more positive, more optimistic about it. I
can see these positive statistics coming through, but I want
more and more of them to actually feel it themselves
in their own situation. And that's the challenge for a
coming year.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So get to work. A result of the mild austerity
messures you've undertaken over the last two years means that
the poor and vulnerable feel that they've been affected disproportionately,
and they accused National of concentrating more and more on
the big end of town. Are you because that is
your basic core support?
Speaker 3 (03:42):
No, I disagree completely.
Speaker 4 (03:44):
I think if you think about where the first government
that has given income tax relief and we focused it
on lower middle income working News Islanders, we had a
Labor Party that didn't even bothered to support that proposition,
which is an ideological It was actually just acknowledging in
a high inflation environment people had been pushed into higher
and hire text brackets, and so we adjusted the tax
(04:04):
brackets for lower middle income working News Islanders. That's given
them a huge amount of tax relief. We've gone to
small businesses who have and struggle and said, look, you
can write off twenty percent of the value of an asset.
And you're actually seeing that the GDP number last week
is that a big part of it has actually increased
investment in business as well.
Speaker 2 (04:20):
But the thing, Prime minis the thing about that though,
Prime Minister, in doing that, you actually reduce your own revenue.
And therefore, no matter how much you cut the spending,
we still end out, you know, spending more than we
actually earn from the revenue because of the tax cuts,
because of the recession, because of everything. So in a way,
you actually you actually major your own position. The government's
books position work off.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Well, I think you know, look, if you're in my job,
there's there's three ways you look at it.
Speaker 3 (04:46):
Right.
Speaker 4 (04:46):
You can come at it and say I can carry
on the labor approach of tax spend, borrow more. And
that's what caused inflation interest rates the recession. And so
we know that that doesn't work, That prescription doesn't work
just piling up the deed from the taxes. The second
thing is you can come the other way, which is
to say, right, we're going to throw the current to reverse.
We're going to be whenever roofless hard austerity, make messive
(05:07):
cuts across the system, causes more pain and suffering for
working news Islanders. Or you find the third way through,
which is what we're doing, which is saying, look, we
know there's money being spent, but it's actually a lot
of it's wasted. We're going to then stop the waste
we'll spending in the back office and we're going to
move it through to the frontline services. So we have
Andrew been able to hire twenty one hundred extra nurses,
we have been able to hire six hundred extra doctors.
(05:28):
We have been able to hire nine hundred.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
Extra corrections officers.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
That's a function of actually being able to redeploy the
funds in the same way. A good example to me
last year was labor would spend money on classrooms. Well,
the average classroom cost New Zealand was one point two
million dollars. We've standardized it, we've hard the cost and
for the same amount of money we can deliver twice
as many classrooms.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Because all those new hires you talked about, you know,
they end up in the statistics and people turn around
and look at it and go, oh, look at this.
The public services getting bigger. I thought it was supposed
to get smaller. But you know it's a thing of balance,
isn't it.
Speaker 4 (06:01):
Well, it's about again understanding what you do with the money.
You know, you can actually get quite different outcomes with
the same amount of money if you had better management skills,
and I think we do have better management skills from
the last lot. You know, the classrooms is a case
in points. What we've done is the extra nurses and
doctors have come because we've been able to make savings
in the back office with all the policy people, all
(06:21):
the communications, all the things that just actually aren't adding
value to frontline services.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
We're one week gone from the terror attack at Bondai.
Do you feel that we have done enough to safeguard
all of our citizens from mass violence because Australia is
ripping itself apart.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Well, I think when you know, from day one, we've
spent a lot of time matchelling myself with the Jewish
community and also other communities and minorities here in EA Zeland.
I think you know we you know, we've done every year,
We've we've made sure that we've got the right police
support around protecting places of worship and interest. We've secondly
made sure that we've actually extended funding so that they
(06:56):
actually can continue to rent that up and that's what
they've been doing since the beginning of the year. And
the third thing is, I think the most important thing,
which I often see missing in other countries, engagement is
actually the engagement between communities.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
I meet with them regularly.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
Formerly in groups or individually, and actually I want them
to know that they deeply love, they're deeply supported, that
we're right behind them and that and so the actual
engagement means that we're well aware of the issues.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
There has been rising and antisemitism and seven.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
The trick is keeping your eye on the bad guys.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Christopher correct, Yes, no, that's right, and that's what we
use our intelligence agencies for and other risks that we
can see in you as you expect us to manage
those rests. And the risks are different in each country,
and the key thing is responding to those risks.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
Okay, what is the policy you're most proud of in
twenty twenty five, I'm.
Speaker 4 (07:49):
Actually most proud of the actually the work that we've
done to lift New Zealand's profile internationally. This is a
country where one and four of our jobs are tied
to trade into exports, and I actually felt we were
so myopic and so and we're looking and so slow
coming out of COVID relative to everybody else, that we
lost huge amounts of relevancy and attend and internationally, and
(08:10):
so we've put a full court press around that and
you're actually starting to see the results of that in
terms of trade, which is important.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Any policy you regret, like Tracy Treaty Principles or the
regular trus standard, anything you regret.
Speaker 4 (08:21):
What treaty principles bill as a consequence of a coalition
government in an MMP environment, that's the system New Zealanders
have chosen.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
They then don't.
Speaker 4 (08:28):
You can't expect first past the post in an MMP environment,
no doubt about it. You know that caused you know,
frustration and tension. But you know, yeah, the real the
real challenges being you know, an economic challenge. That's what
it's all boiling down to. And that with the challenge
of that was Q.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Two and the thing about the thing about coalitions, a
pole came out last week. It is what it is,
will not reflect on the result next year. But one
trend is the rising support for minor parties that form
coalitions with either National and Labor. And if they end
up with the biggest slice of the vote they will have,
that will mean you will have to all Labor would
have to make even more compromises. So are we at
the end of the company left right joopily that we
(09:05):
are so used to.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Well, we're in a place we've chosen MMP as our
electoral system. It's no different from how Western Europe works.
If you look at Western Europe, as I said, you know,
a good example to me is Netherlands. They had an
election in late twenty three, couple months after us. They
take three hundred days to form a government with their
coalition government.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
That's take the four party four.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Party coalition government as emerged. They're in power for eleven
months before it fell apart as one of the parties
couldn't get on with each other and love hold it
back in elections. And now they take another thre hundred
days to form a new government. Now that is the
reality of Germany and France and many of those places,
and so MMP has matured. You cannot expect first part
of the post mentality in an MMP environment, rightly or wrongly.
(09:47):
That's what New Zealanders have chosen. So we all make
the case with our political brands. New Zealanders vote and
then we are forced to.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
Make it work.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
And so you have to find a way to work,
and you have to find a way to compromise. And
so you know, that's what good coalition government's about, and
that's how you can give strong and stable government to
New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That is reality exactly. Now you're famous for your Christmas
and your family got a new set.
Speaker 4 (10:10):
We have, actually I haven't had them on just yet.
I think they'll be making appearance this week. But my
wife and my daughter get very excited about Christmas quite early,
and so they go off and secure. And you said
a family pajamas. Then William and I are sort of
forced to wear them for a period of time.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
So I'm sorry, it's really good.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4 (10:28):
I'm sure family's have different routine and different traditions.
Speaker 3 (10:31):
For Christmas as well, but no, we we love.
Speaker 4 (10:34):
Christmas because there's a chance for families to come together
and our kids come in on that.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
You said, your daughter Olivia, she's coming back from Australia.
She works on social media over there, she lives over there.
So it's a family Christmas in christ Church. It'd be
lovely to have them all together. Do you miss having
a full house these days?
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah, Amanda and I are emerging. You needs to phase now.
You know, our kids are twenty six and twenty four,
and Olivia's overseas and William's fall on with work and
so it's a different stage of life. But it's also
a fantastic stage life because you get to be the
friend rather than a parent, and you know, and then
neighboring all their friends over in our House's house have
(11:12):
always been sort of grand central station and there's lots
of comings and goings and we love that. So it's
just exciting. And you know, this Christmas we get to
hang out with me and this family and my family
and there's new nieces involved, and yeah, it's going to
be great. So it's going to be lovely.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
So what's on the menu for the lux and Christmas
Lunch in christ Jurge or is it dinner.
Speaker 4 (11:31):
It's going to be lunch and my brother is a chef,
so it'll be it'll be good. And so actually he said, look,
i've got this son, I've got this one. So he's
got it sorted.
Speaker 3 (11:40):
So it'll be it will.
Speaker 4 (11:42):
Do something incredible and amazing, which will probably be involving
some ham I hope, and it'd.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Be really good.
Speaker 4 (11:47):
So it's just a it'll be very casual, very informal,
and it's just a chance for everyone to come together
and just shoot the breeze and catch up and the
politics free zone, which is lovely.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
And when are you back on deck?
Speaker 4 (11:58):
I'll be probably getting back into about the fourth of
seth So good man, I was sort of, yeah, I'll
keep working a little bit through that period of time,
but as I would you should expect. But I just
doll an hour two a day and then I'll be
back sort of and fall into mode about that time.
Speaker 2 (12:13):
Christopher Luxon Prime Minister. The Coalition of Chaos is still together.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Ha haha.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
It's been a heavy twenty twenty five. It's hope for
a better twenty twenty six. And thank you so much
for your time today on the Summer Breakfast.
Speaker 4 (12:25):
Well Andrew, I say thank you for what you're doing,
and thank you for working through the summer and keeping
us all informed of the way that you are. And
to all the listeners out there, can I just say, look,
I just auing. Hope everyone gets a chance to refresh
and recharge and hang out with your loved ones and
make some new memories and fill up the cup before
hitting what will be a really great twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
Thank you, thank you, good stuff. That is Prime Minister
Christopher Luxeon back on deck on the fourth or fifth
or sixth, so there sarbon bridges. We're not all buggering
off for summer. It is eight twenty two.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
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