But Luxon\u2019s transition from CEO to Prime Minister hasn\u2019t been a smooth one, and what was initially seen as his great strength is often described now as his weakness.<\/p>\n
Focus on his leadership is often negative, the result of falling support for National and\/or preferred Prime Minister ratings, bad interviews or press conferences, his apparent inability to shake off his CEO language and style, or irritating sayings and habits.<\/p>\n
His confirmation last night that National would not work with the Opportunity Party followed a press conference in which he would not commit one way or the other.<\/p>\n
While there are clear signs of improvement in Luxon, you\u2019ll hear a roll-call of Luxon\u2019s offences in Auckland pubs or Wellington dinner parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always says \u2018I say to you …\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s too robotic.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has no self-awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wears suits that are too small.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe buttons up his suit jacket.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy does he keep saying he doesn\u2019t need the job?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe sounds like a CEO, not a politician.\u201d<\/p>\n
Writer, publisher and former Act MP Deborah Coddington reflects on Luxon\u2019s irritations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like when your marriage starts going sour, you can\u2019t even bear listening to them clean their teeth,\u201d she tells the Herald.<\/p>\n
When a politician is popular, she says, people don\u2019t care about their little faults.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they\u2019re not popular, those are the things that drive us insane. We can\u2019t look at them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The story of Luxon\u2019s polling popularity goes something like this: in the first year in office, both National and Luxon as preferred Prime Minister were ahead in most polls.<\/p>\n
In the second year, he and National were fairly evenly matched with Labour and its leader Chris Hipkins, and in this, his third year, more often than not, he and National are lagging behind, even in polls that show the centre-right bloc ahead.<\/p>\n
Luxon has also been copping it recently \u2013 not just from the Opposition \u2013 but from friends and supposed political allies.<\/p>\n
When he gave an all-out effort to be an outstanding host to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Auckland this month, coalition partner Winston Peters referred on Herald NOW to Luxon\u2019s \u201csubservience and obsequious behaviour\u201d, an astonishing thing for a Foreign Minister to say of a Prime Minister, and which he repeated again this week on Breakfast.<\/p>\n
Two weeks ago, when broadcaster Paul Henry was announced as an Act candidate, he claimed not only that Luxon was \u201cnot clicking\u201d with the public, but that he was not being his genuine self.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Christopher has found it very hard to get a voice with ordinary people,\u201d Henry said on Breakfast. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe is not a John Key. I think he spent a lot of time trying to be a John Key. You\u2019re better off concentrating on communicating yourself genuinely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sir John Key says people should stop constantly wanting Christopher Luxon to change. Photo \/ Greg Bowker<\/p>\n
It is a point that Key himself, a former Prime Minister, and a good friend of Luxon and Henry, strongly disputes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s 100% genuine,\u201d says Key in a conversation from Scotland, hours before the Nash incident.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount of time he puts into people, the genuine concern he has, I sit back and think \u2018Wow, he\u2019s doing such a better job than I did when I was Prime Minister\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we need to stop constantly saying Christopher needs to change and realise he\u2019ll have a certain style. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be a bit different to other people. But does that mean it\u2019s wrong? No. And does that mean he needs to work on crisper, clearer communication? Yes. But a lot of what he is doing is really good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key did point, however, to Luxon\u2019s early communication problems, which he characterised as him not embracing the media right from the formation of the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said: \u2018Right, we\u2019re not going to communicate, we\u2019re just going to get on with it\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what actually happens is you leave a void, and that void has to get filled, and it got filled by others.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key said the Opposition did a good job of saying that Luxon was \u201cvery corporate\u201d and presented an image that was \u201cuncaring\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, he\u2019s had a lifetime of living in that world and communicating in that style, but that doesn\u2019t mean that\u2019s the way he actually addressed things.\u201d<\/p>\n
And if Luxon tried to change his communication style to something more like Key\u2019s, people would say he was fake; \u201cthat\u2019s not who this guy is\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you try to do something you\u2019re not, but it\u2019s just no longer authentic, people see through that as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luxon came to politics in 2020 after 26 years as a corporate leader, 18 years at Unilever and eight at Air New Zealand.<\/p>\n
His appointment as Air New Zealand chief executive in 2012 gave him instant profile in New Zealand. <\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon at his post-Cabinet press conference in the Beehive on Monday. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n
When he resigned in 2019 and made it clear he was interested in politics, he had no problem finding a home in the seat that former disgraced National MP Jami-Lee Ross had held. <\/p>\n
But it was his 18 years at consumer-goods giant Unilever that allowed him to exercise management and branding skills at an international level, as former National MP Katherine Rich pointed out in a column on Newstalk ZB during the coalition negotiations in 2023. <\/p>\n
It was shortly before she became chief executive of Business New Zealand, but she had worked with the likes of Unilever for more than a decade as the CEO of New Zealand\u2019s Food and Grocery Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t become President of Unilever Canada by winning the job in a raffle,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n
And she believed his \u201cUnilever DNA\u201d would be a powerful asset for political management and success. <\/p>\n
They were among the companies that were \u201cthe best in the world for training talent in every facet of management and leadership through a career\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rich identified several aspects of \u201cthe Unilever Way\u201d she believed would influence his leadership, including being purpose-driven, having skills in negotiation, strategic planning, performance, marketing, branding and communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe values, management training and leadership needed to succeed globally in Unilever are valuable skills for leading a small country, particularly one that needs what the Prime Minister-elect described as a \u2018turn-around job\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
She also pointed to the skill of \u201cstaying on message\u201d acquired during two decades of consumer goods marketing but acknowledged it came across as \u201cbland\u201d during the campaign.<\/p>\n
Much of what Rich predicted has come to pass, not necessarily in a positive way, but she declined to comment for this article.<\/p>\n
Luxon\u2019s ability to \u201cstay on message\u201d has been interpreted as him being too robotic or unable to answer straight questions, such as the famous interview last year with Mike Hosking in which he wouldn\u2019t say if he would have sacked Andrew Bayly as a minister if he hadn\u2019t resigned.<\/p>\n
But he is driven by performance and outcomes, not least because National campaigned strongly against what it described as the previous Government\u2019s lack of delivery.<\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon at a public meeting in Feilding last week. Photo \/ Adam Pearse<\/p>\n
The Government has set public service targets across health, education, housing, welfare, justice and environment and set up a delivery unit with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to monitor them.<\/p>\n
Of course, the fact that Luxon had to do a deal with two experienced and colourful party leaders, in Peters from New Zealand First and Act\u2019s David Seymour, has likely accentuated his image as a bland centrist.<\/p>\n
Coddington is cutting about Luxon: \u201cI think he is just shallow\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not populist. He\u2019s not authoritarian … he\u2019s very blancmange really. He\u2019s just vanilla. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t figure out what he really wants to be. Does he just want to please everyone? You know, you just can\u2019t please everyone because you end up pleasing nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was similar to comments by Paul Henry. He said he was enormously disappointed with National.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens if you run a party that wants everyone to vote for them, is you end up doing nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luxon is often compared to Key, as Henry did in suggesting Luxon was trying to be him. Others point to the fact that the conditions and numbers within the current Government arrangements are quite different from the previous National-led Government.<\/p>\n
Key was seen as a statesman for inviting the M\u0101ori Party into Government in 2008, despite having enough support from Act and United Future to not need the M\u0101ori Party.<\/p>\n
Key himself points to Luxon\u2019s early challenges as Prime Minister, in having to deal not only with a coalition of three parties, each of which has a veto over the others, but with Act\u2019s Treaty Principles Bill. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis challenges have been made so much greater because he had to manage a coalition with two strong and experienced politicians,\u201d says Key.<\/p>\n
Agreeing to support the Treaty Principles Bill to select committee but no further was a compromise after Act had campaigned vigorously to hold a referendum on its bill. <\/p>\n
It was finally voted down nearly halfway through the term of the Government.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo sometimes the Government follows a policy which would not be one of the National Party\u2019s making,\u201d says Key.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though people understand MMP superficially, they don\u2019t realise that you can\u2019t bully a coalition partner. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you push hard enough, the coalition by definition breaks apart, so it\u2019s not an easy task.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is evidence this year that Luxon is working on some of the things that irritate people and is trying to change. He still uses corporate buzz words such as optionality and additionality, but fewer of them.<\/p>\n
When he last appeared on TVNZ\u2019s Q and A, in 2024, the Spinoff critiqued his performance, and noted he had said \u201cwhat I say to you …\u201d or variations of it, no fewer than 26 times. <\/p>\n
Speaking at his public meeting in Feilding last week, he said it just once.<\/p>\n
He has brought experienced broadcaster Rachel Smalley on to his staff as an adviser. He is using senior adviser Joe Ashcroft to help craft some better speeches. He appears more at ease in giving political answers, not just defensive ones, or answers that suggest he knows it all.<\/p>\n
He appears to be caring less about offending coalition partners, NZ First in particular, in counteracting some of the party\u2019s apparent anti-immigration positioning. <\/p>\n
He has been impassioned in defending immigrants to New Zealand being used as political fodder by politicians akin to Pauline Hanson in Australia and Nigel Farage in Britain.<\/p>\n
In his response to the Stuart Nash furore last Wednesday, he did not hesitate to say he would rather have his own MPs around the Cabinet table than \u201cnumpties\u201d from other parties.<\/p>\n
Key has noticed a change in Luxon as well, but at closer quarters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually think he is getting better and better,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile you don\u2019t see all of it, and it\u2019s not obvious to people who aren\u2019t close to him all the time, I think he has dramatically changed,\u201d says Key.<\/p>\n
Christopher Luxon is 100% genuine, says John Key. Photo \/ Sylvie Whinray <\/p>\n
The pair spent a couple of hours together a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it\u2019s just obvious to me, the way he was talking, the way he was considering issues, his mindset has changed dramatically from what it would have been three years earlier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key made particular reference to Luxon\u2019s actions in April when he decided to shut down talk about his leadership by putting it to a caucus vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when there was some talk about a leadership change, I suspect he had a good look at himself and said \u2018if I really want this, I\u2019ll have to fight for it\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd you\u2019ve seen quite a different Christopher Luxon as Prime Minister in the last three months, in my view.\u201d<\/p>\n
When you come into the job with an economic focus, Key said, the aim was to get the books in better shape because once that had happened, you could afford the policies that the public wanted.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut now he is starting to think a lot more about those social issues and about the fact that it\u2019s not really just always about money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that he doesn\u2019t want to be popular. I think he does. And it\u2019s not that he doesn\u2019t realise [he needs] to drop a few of the things that are a corporate way of speaking. He does.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just saying he is changing and it\u2019s hard for people to see that change because they often come with a preconceived view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Key says Luxon should largely continue what he\u2019s doing, which is to do the very best you can to get the job done \u201cbecause there\u2019s no question that the economy is turning\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is easy to find fault with people, he says, but the question is whether there is anyone who would be better to lead National in Government today.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the simple answer is not a person and not a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"But Luxon\u2019s transition from CEO to Prime Minister hasn\u2019t been a smooth one, and what was initially seen…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1443,534,4608,138,3500,16426,129476,39539,48338,71,142211,269615,76,22504,685,63033,16427,27983,6096,6722,3607,13795,3556,111,139,269616,69,16348,415,140606,544,6723,7364,61,3764,686,10119],"class_list":["post-548966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-about","tag-amid","tag-awkward","tag-business","tag-ceo","tag-christopher","tag-delight","tag-expressed","tag-fallout","tag-from","tag-handled","tag-illjudged","tag-issue","tag-katie","tag-last","tag-laziness","tag-luxon","tag-luxons","tag-message","tag-minister","tag-napier","tag-nashs","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nimons","tag-nz","tag-outrage","tag-prime","tag-privately","tag-some","tag-stuart","tag-text","tag-to","tag-transition","tag-week","tag-within"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=548966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/548966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=548966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=548966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=548966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}