The prime minister has apologised for his comments to the Rotorua business community last week, saying he was sorry they “did not properly acknowledge the challenges that many small business owners are facing”.
“I know many small business owners are doing it tough right now,” Christopher Luxon said on Monday at the post-cabinet media conference, where he also confirmed he’d spoken to his Minister of Foreign Affairs following “racist” remarks.
Watch the post-cab conference here:
At a Rotorua Business Chamber event last week, its chief executive Melanie Short told Luxon some were questioning how long they could hang on as they grappled with escalating costs.
Luxon told the audience some businesses had a “parent-child mentality” and too often looked to the government for help.
In reference to his comments today, he said “I got that wrong” and that he could have expressed himself better.
“I didn’t want to cause any offence. That’s not what I intended to do.”
Luxon began his media conference with opening remarks about the Northland Expressway, before discussing business confidence.
He said the government’s job was to keep “backing that confidence” with a long-term economic plan that supports the economy to grow.
“That’s why it’s good news that the economy is forecast to grow on average 2.7 percent a year for the next four years,” Luxon said.
He then added: “On that note, I do want to take this opportunity to apologise for my remarks at the Rotorua Business Chamber breakfast last week.
“I know many small business owners are doing it tough right now. They’re working long hours. They’re managing financial pressures, looking after their staff, and doing everything they can to grow their businesses.”
Luxon said he had enormous respect and admiration for people who are out there “backing themselves, taking a risk, and building a business”.
He said small businesses were the “backbone of our economy”, that they create jobs and support families and are making an “enormous contribution to communities right across New Zealand”.
“So I am sorry if my comments did not properly acknowledge the challenges that many small business owners are facing, and that I got that wrong.”
Asked by reporters what made him change his mind, after he did not apologise for the comments during an interview on Morning Report, Luxon said he had considered the transcript and thought he could have expressed himself better.
Asked if he’d had feedback from his caucus colleagues, Luxon said: “I’ve had a couple of comments,” but most of the comments came from the media.
He said they weren’t “deep conversations” with colleagues, and that he himself could read the headlines and social media feedback.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis, who was also speaking at post-cab, said she believed the prime minister was “absolutely” in touch with the experience of business people. She said she had not had feedback from business leaders directly on the comments.
Luxon earlier told Morning Report he acknowledged businesses were doing it tough, but his point to the Rotorua audience was that they and the government needed to work together.
Rotorua Chamber of Commerce chair Paul Ingram told Checkpoint it was good to hear an apology.
“I trust that behind that apology is some genuine reflection, and some increased understanding of the continued challenge that is small business.”
Ingram said businesses in Rotorua were working hard to innovate and use new technology to improve how they operated.
“Many of those are the things that are already being undertaken by our businesses, so to hear that in the form of a lecture was what didn’t land so well.”
It had been a tough six years for businesses, Ingram said.
“There’s been lots and lots of challenges, from pandemics through to cost of living crises. We’re getting less people through the door, our costs are increasing and we can’t pass all of those on.”
But Labour’s campaign chair Kieran McAnulty called Luxon’s comments a “weak apology”.
“Just this morning, he was defending his comments, and now, after quite clearly getting an earful at cabinet, he’s managed to bring himself to say that he’s sorry if he caused offence.”
McAnulty said that was what somebody says “when you’re not really sorry”.
“It’s like the weakest form of apology. It’s like one level up from shrugging your shoulders and saying ‘whoopsie’.”
McAnulty said that was why Luxon “never answers a question”, because when he finally does, “he says what he thinks and nobody likes what he says”.