There was a short yet informative article from Radio New Zealand on Friday, after a week of coalition negotiations. It said much if you know and understand what is going on. Let me educate you.
Incoming prime minister Christopher Luxon is heading back to Auckland after a busy week of talks in the capital.
Negotiations to form a government have wrapped up for the week, with little word on how close the country is to getting an answer.
There have now been individual meetings between the leaders of National and potential partners ACT and New Zealand First, but deals have not yet been nailed down.
Luxon told reporters at the airport he thinks they’re making “great progress”.
“In the space of seven days since the vote was counted, we’re working progressively, productively – we’ve got a lot more to do but we’ll keep working as hard as we can.”
When asked if he was concerned about how much ACT’s David Seymour and and New Zealand First’s Winston Peters were meeting, perhaps teaming up against him, Luxon said “no not all”. [sic]
“It’s very positive, we want to make sure – all three leaders – that we have a very strong, stable government that we’re going to work hard to do.’
Once National has agreed deals with ACT and New Zealand First separately, the three parties will meet together.
The next step would be consulting their respective boards and caucuses.
RNZ
Yes, Christopher, you have much to do, and here’s why.
Luxon and his team of wet and woke wombles believed they’d have enough heft after the election – enough to govern by themselves or just with a weakened ACT Party.
They set a target of getting north of 40 per cent and fell short. Consequently, all of their thinking has turned out to be seriously wonky.
Then ACT and NZ First realised what I’ve known for quite some time, and have said as much, that National didn’t want to do anything much of any consequence. But neither ACT nor NZ First want National to be the party of the status quo, when that is actually all National knows what to do. They’ve met and quietly agreed that Luxon needs to be dragged kicking and screaming into committing to some serious work to reverse many of the things that have vexed New Zealand over the past twenty years under successive governments.
They don’t want to be part of a coalition that merely manages the decline in New Zealand, albeit just a bit slower. They want demonstrable and necessary change.
Luxon for his part is extremely gun shy of Maori protests and so Willie Jackson’s calculated threats and intimidation have made him very squirrelly. ACT and NZ First are not squeamish at all and are up for massive protests because they see that as a way of increasing their support while witnessing National’s assumed hegemony as the largest party suffer a much-needed decline because National are afraid of doing and saying the hard stuff.
If there are to be massive protests by Maori then ACT and NZ First are both saying ‘Bring It’.
Both ACT and NZ First rightly perceive Luxon, Bishop and Willis as weak and vacillating. They aim to exploit that, hence the cheeky grins after David Seymour and Winston Peters met on Thursday. Luxon is in no real position to be domineering in negotiations, and Seymour and Winston know it.
So, yes there is more work to be done, mainly because National thought they’d just be able to toss a few baubles on the table as bribes without realising that Winston Peters actually means business and so does David Seymour.
National better get serious and quick smart. They need to drop their born-to-rule attitude and start negotiating like grown-ups, not churlish and spoiled brats.
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