National’s campaign chairperson Simeon Brown has denied any caucus unease about the party’s leadership, telling Q+A the Prime Minister is “an absolute asset” after another bruising week for Christopher Luxon. <\/p>\n
Brown stood behind his leader after a rocky fortnight for the PM.<\/p>\n
Last week Luxon apologised<\/a> after remarks to an audience of small businesses, launched an MMP referendum policy<\/a> on talkback radio, and struggled to rein in his Foreign Minister over comments that he called “racist”<\/a> and attracted diplomatic attention.<\/p>\n Asked whether that had been the plan for the campaign, Brown said: “The plan is to get out there with New Zealanders, listen to their concerns, hear from them, and talk about the work we’ve done and the work we’re going to do for this country.”<\/p>\n Q+A interviewer Jack Tame asked Brown multiple times whether anyone in the National caucus had raised concerns with him about the PM’s performance in the past two weeks.<\/p>\n National Party leader adamant a proposed four-year parliamentary should include a review of our electoral system.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n Brown first said the party had “been focused on making sure we do what we’re doing in government”, then that he talked to the PM “regularly” about “the issues of the day”.<\/p>\n He added: “I talk to my colleagues all the time about a whole range of issues, and what we’re all focused on doing is making sure we deliver for New Zealanders.”<\/p>\n Tame suggested Brown hadn’t answered, and asked again if any MPs believed National had a better chance at the November 7 election without Luxon as leader.<\/p>\n “I said before I talk to my colleagues all the time, and we’re all focused on winning with our prime minister to deliver for New Zealand,” Brown replied.<\/p>\n “I’m not going to go into all of the conversations I have with my colleagues, but I can tell you each one of them is focused on how we win for New Zealand’s sake.”<\/p>\n Asked the question again, he answered: “No. And they’re focused on winning.”<\/p>\n Prime Minister says, if re-elected,\u00a0he\u2019d\u00a0have a referendum to test support for continuing the electoral system.\u00a0 (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n The latest 1News Verian poll would see National lose 10 or 11 MPs from caucus. Asked about the possibility, Brown refused to engage, saying he would not be “drawn into a hypothetical question” about if MPs \u2014 including possibly senior ones \u2014 could go.<\/p>\n The campaign chairperson defended Luxon’s standing without hesitation when asked whether the two-term East Auckland MP was an asset or a liability.<\/p>\n “He’s an absolute asset to our campaign,” Brown insisted. <\/p>\n “He’s our prime minister, and he’s working every single day, getting out there, listening to New Zealanders, talking to them, and holding public meetings up and down the country.”<\/p>\n Asked why voters should believe Luxon was an asset, Brown pointed to his record.<\/p>\n Labour accuses the Prime Minister of using the Defence Force as a “personal taxi service” for campaigning purposes. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n “He has pulled together a three-party coalition, which has done a huge amount of work to address many of the challenges this country is facing.”<\/p>\n Brown then cited work by ministers, saying Luxon empowered them to act.<\/p>\n “He has delivered a National Party team where he’s empowered us,” he said.<\/p>\n “Look at the work Erica has been doing in education around school attendance, fixing our reading, writing, and maths. <\/p>\n “The work Mark Mitchell’s done, 85% reduction in ram raids on our streets. People feel a lot safer under Christopher Luxon than they did under Chris Hipkins.”<\/p>\n On the apology to small business owners, Brown said Luxon had “apologised for the remarks” and that National “100% back our small business community”.<\/p>\n Brown said the election would present voters with “a stark choice”.<\/p>\n Rotorua Business Chamber president Paul Ingram told Breakfast the “parent-child” comparison didn’t land in a room of resilient owners. (Source: Breakfast)<\/p>\n “A government which is focused on the issues that matter to New Zealanders, or an alternative government of four parties which want to radically tax New Zealanders and destroy our economy.”<\/p>\n Q+A with Jack Tame is made with the support of New Zealand On Air<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National’s campaign chairperson Simeon Brown has denied any caucus unease about the party’s leadership, telling Q+A the Prime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11508,11507,111,43,139,69,135],"class_list":["post-563361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-christopher-luxon","tag-national-party","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563361","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=563361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}