The Prime Minister of New Zealand, Christopher Luxon gave his State of the Nation address to the Auckland Chamber of Commerce today.
It was a bunch of “managerial mumbo jumbo” said Opposition Leader Chris Hipkins.
Indeed, it may seem so.
But not only that, the speech, which was exclusively focussed on the economy, failed to address a question that New Zealanders are soon going to want hard answer for: what day is the 2026 General Election? Mr Luxon promised that this question will be answered shortly.
No new policies were announced either. Although it might seem strange to launch the year with new policy, there would have been good reasons to do so for Mr Luxon, not least to distract from the continuing negativity around the matters that matter most to New Zealanders.
Nor is there any sign of a Cabinet overhaul, though that could be useful given the polling results show several Cabinet ministers in danger of losing their seats if current polling proves accurate come election day.
Instead, going into 2026 it seems to be very much a case of “more of the same”, from a Prime Minister whose strength seems to be talking corporate mumbo jumbo to audiences who want more straight forward dialogue. How long that lasts depends on how long it takes National Party M.P.’s to pluck up the courage to tell Mr Luxon he has a realistic possibility of not only being the leader National’s first 1-term Government, but also their first 1-term Prime Minister.
Not surprisingly there was nothing mentioned about worker concerns, despite the Council of Trade Unions conducting a survey that recently painted an overwhelmingly negative picture.
One thing Mr Luxon did make clear was that 2026 will be another year of savings, no extravagant budget and no extravagant election promises. He mentioned that the focus will be on the up coming R.M.A. reforms, the overhaul of KiwiSaver and of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (something that I generally have no time for – but am not sure anything from National or Labour in their current editions would have a demonstrably useful effect on education).
Given that New Zealanders are starting to see through the blueprint of neoliberal austerity Christopher Luxon-style, this is an extremely bold statement to make for a Prime Minister that presumably wants a second term. It is bold to think that New Zealanders will continue to tolerate bland austerity, cuts to services, increases in costs of living, continued violent crime and a defiantly ho-hum attitude to a world that looks grimmer by the day.
Corporate mumbo-jumbo it might have been to Mr Hipkins. Bland, boring and predictably Luxon-esque it was to this writer.
Normally the Leader of the Opposition replies to the Prime Minister with their own State of the Nation address within days or weeks. If that holds true in 2026, I now wait with baited breath to see how Labour reacts to this, and what Mr Hipkins will say in his response.
Leftist Kiwi Writes 