By Anna Whyte and Mandy Te
Under pressure and having to bat away questions over his leadership while up against a leaky caucus, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon moved a formal motion to confirm his leadership on Tuesday.
"That motion was passed, confirming what I have been saying. I have the support of my caucus as their leader," Luxon told reporters after he and Finance Minister Nicola Willis emerged from a caucus meeting that lasted hours, with the unusual attendance of the Speaker, Gerry Brownlee.
Luxon said he moved a formal motion of confidence in his leadership "to put media speculation to rest."
This motion of confidence occurred at National's caucus meeting, and it was the first time National MPs gathered together in weeks. It also comes as Luxon's leadership has been under question (though not for the first time). This resurfaced last Friday after reports of discontent in his caucus began to circulate and polls showed a sharp decline in public confidence.
In a short prepared statement, Luxon told reporters there had been intense media speculation about his leadership and "about who said what to whom."
"Our caucus had a good, honest discussion. Our team is more determined than ever to serve Kiwis and to win the election."
"The caucus has answered clearly and decisively. It has backed my leadership. That matter is now closed, and it won't be, and I won't be commenting further on it."
Luxon also called out the media, saying: "A free press is important. In a democracy, you give citizens the chance to know the truth about their countries and their governments and hold the leaders like me accountable, and I welcome that.
"But if the media want to keep focusing on speculation and rumour, I am not going to engage."
To show he would not engage, Luxon did not answer questions from media.
12 Comments
Well that's that. Any further noise starts to look like media beat-up/clickbait.
Yea, assuming the polls don’t get any worse.
There's always that, it is Politics after all. Would add any change now six months out would be silly.
I have no doubt the polls will worsen. This guy has no answer to the ever increasing problems this country is facing.
Worse than that he tried to lead backwards history-wise.
Never works.
It is for now. But I still think he's on thin ice and only one big slip up away from being ousted.
All the noise is media beat-up/clickbait. They want their PIJF back.
The real question is do they understand why their polling numbers are falling? I suspect not.
They need to understand Kiwis are seeing other governments around the Asia Pacific region and perhaps other places, taking actions to alleviate the stress from increased fuel prices for everyone, but not here. They are not being seen as acting for us.
They were falling way before that. I'd say its because they told us austerity would fix the economy and they were wrong.
Will be an interesting election. The coalition should be goneburgers with their flagship economic performance, but the left aren’t exactly inspiring. Will be interesting to see what Hipkins is keeping up his sleeve.
He is a simple person with no vision, so probably just his elbow.
Meanwhile he has to somehow swallow the pay equity rat.
Maybe he will try to hide that up his sleeve.
"swallow the pay equity rat" - yeah that won't go down well...
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