Source: Radio New Zealand
Prime minister Christopher Luxon says he has the full support of his caucus. RNZ / Mark Papalii
The prime minister says he has the full support of his caucus, as National MPs gather in Wellington for the first time in nearly three weeks.
Parliament’s first sitting day since 2 April comes after a 1News-Verian poll showing the government would be out of power, and a New Zealand Herald report the prime minister had evaded National’s chief whip, who was trying to tell him that caucus support was flagging.
Christopher Luxon has denied he was avoiding Stuart Smith, and was unaware he had been trying to get in touch.
“He hasn’t reached out to me. There has been no engagement with Stuart Smith from my office or with him,” Luxon said.
The pair were together in North Canterbury last Tuesday and Luxon said it was not raised, and he had not spoken with Smith over the weekend either.
“If there’s any issues that he had, he would have raised them with me,” Luxon said.
“I talk to my backbenchers all the time. I was with a number of them over the course of the weekend at a number of events. I reassure you, I have the confidence of my caucus, period.”
As they arrived at Wellington Airport ahead of a Cabinet meeting on Monday, ministers Mark Mitchell, Simeon Brown, Chris Penk, and Paul Goldsmith all defended Luxon.
Chris Bishop, Todd McClay, and Nicola Willis have also put their support behind Luxon in interviews in recent days, while Erica Stanford, stood next to Luxon at the post-Cabinet media conference, said she had not had any conversations with caucus colleagues about whether Luxon should stay on as prime minister.
“I think he’s doing an exceptional…” she began to say, before Luxon cut her off to ask if anyone had any other questions.
On Monday morning, Luxon told Newstalk ZB there were “probably five people” that were “moaning and frustrated”, a number he later walked back on by Monday afternoon.
The number, Luxon insisted, was in response to media reports he had seen.
“My comment was just in reaction to your media reporting quoting a number of sources that you said you had.”
Responding to the polling numbers and his personal approval ratings, Luxon was “absolutely” confident he would still be prime minister after the caucus meeting.
“I appreciate I’m not going to be the person that everyone wants to go to a beer with, but they know that I’m actually leading a government that is a great custodian of this economy. And in difficult and tough times, that’s what’s needed now: strong economic management and stable coalition government, and that’s what we’re delivering.”
Asked whether the matter would be raised at the caucus meeting, Luxon said there would be “pretty good” conversations, given the media interest that had been “sparked” over the last few days.
He would not expand on what would be talked about in caucus, but said the party had a good culture, and it had been “rebuilt and unified” over the last two-and-a-half years.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
