Written By:
- Date published:
12:13 pm, April 17th, 2026 - 12 comments
Categories: Christopher Luxon, national -
Tags: Luxon leadership, National Party coup
If rapidly rallying reports are true this morning, Luxon is on his way out.
The latest news reports and anecdotes are that Luxon has already lost the numbers, but a successor has not yet been agreed on.
Time is short, and National Party insiders are leaking like a sieve – as Mickey Savage writes on The Standard this morning.
But what is of greater interest to me today is the thought that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer person.
If NZ PM Luxon finally falls, he can rest assured he did his best to run the country like a corporation, seeing donors as Boards to please at all costs, and citizens & human being as customers and chess pieces to extract for his own gain. His reputation at Air NZ was similar – a man who seemed hyper focused on short term results and at the expense of workers and long term prosperity.
Yet the PM is also a man who was bolstered and promoted by John Key, the same National Party leaders who speaks highly of Donald J Trump. And Rupert Murdoch media was also a fan, writing in 2024, that Luxon was the right man to “steady the shaky isles” and calling him “positive” and energetic.
But Luxon was anything but effective or competent, let alone positive. Calling Kiwis “whiny” and the poorer “bottom feeders,” Luxon has been afraid to front Q&A and only appeared comfortable around NZME hosts. He has been a disaster for the country in every way flanked by an incompetent Finance Minister and promoting a culture of dishonesty and form over substance.
And under his “negotiation” prowess, he let the two minor party leaders run rings around him while he was too afraid to speak up or pull them in – no matter how far they went, paving the way for MAGA NZ First populism and David Seymour’s libertarian ambitions in the same vein as Donald Trump from both ends of the minor parties.
Even if Luxon survives, the drums of discontent are clearer than ever. And regardless of when or if he goes, he will have left a legacy of loss and regression that will take years to recover from.
Let’s take a moment to remember Luxon’s KPI outcomes: 12-15 year business failure high, 10-15 year unemployment high, record job beneficiaries, record gang numbers & surpassing police #, higher sexual assaults & record domestic violence, 3500 cancelled state homes while 20,000 wait while selling prime land & houses to developers in lolly scramble (Bishop), funding global tobacco companies to kill 5000 Kiwis yearly while defunding scientists and public health, slashing environmental & freshwater (Bishop again) protections and going all in on fossil fuels, allowing NZ First to slash marine protection & bring back deep sea trawling, increasing debt tracking to $100b with no global pandemic but simply to fund landlords & corporates, allow Ministers to break Ministerial rules without any repercussions, refusing to front Q&A, acting as if he’s a CEO etc There’s more but that’s enough, Prime Minister, thanks for nothing.
Post- Script: After arriving 20-30 minutes late to his press conference, Luxon repeats: “I have the full support of my caucus”. As the successive leadership coups rise and fall, National increasingly has egg on its face, and it’s clear Luxon has no intention of leaving and only a definitive internal vote would force him to.
Luxon is the best bet for the COC, I don't think they have a Rock Star like Jacinda Adern to get them over the line, I don't think Willis or Bishop, is the answer, Simeon maybe ???
Literally any of the possible contenders would be better for National. (Which is not the same as better for the country, obviously).
Simeon? No. he looks like a small bloke with a big mouth. no great public support for simeon, I doubt he would be the revival national are scrambling for
Luxon has been schooled by the infighting backstabbing sorted entitled gaggle of a caucus."Who is it?" he asks… a pregnant silence follows. Fair weather friends.
Luxo's
epitaphlasting memory..for us. And also burnt in, that he was sir Keys'…chosen man. Classic !I note that sorted Luxon has appeared with other World Leaders. The mind boggles at what he would say to them…And their impression of same?
Keep on keeping on Luxo. And Nat infighting…. is sweet.
"meets" in this case refers to a video link. He probably didn't speak. He hopefully didn't speak.
In a video link it’s easy to appear calm & confident sitting at your desk while his feet under the desk are frantically kicking the woodworks masking his inner panic. Rumour has it that Luxon wears shin pads because of all the kicks he’s receiving from his minders and Nicola.
Well…yes. As much as Luxo might have really liked to jetaway from the problems back
homehere, whoever is riding shotgun for him, (not the ones aimed at him : ) probably said…that it wouldnt have been taken too well by the bottom feeders.He probably dreams about those good old days at Air NZ : )
What about the almost total rolling back of climate change action and a pretence that Aotearoa will reach its Paris Accord commitments by doing zilch?
Tipping points or turning points? A(t)las, the CoC is not for turning.
Another "Shocking New Warning"? Like Mr Trivago says: “Do I really have to say it again?”
We don't know how lucky we are, and were.
Not sure if you have seen any of the many previous Posts by The Standard Authors on these ? Incl Mountain Tui et al….
Luxo was the
dickfigurehead, but it was certainly a combined Coalition NACT1 effort. IMO Climate Deniers to a man/woman.Let's not get excited about Luxon getting dumped. His being pm is the best chance of giving the country a change for better.
I think Luxon wants a gong, and I think his chances of that depend on whether his strategy of doing nothing to respond to Hormuz works for him.
Luxon said he knows things the rest of us don't know but what we can assume is that Australia knows what Luxon knows and they aren't sitting idle, so my feeling is Luxon is playing with the high rollers and we will see if he has the cahones he thinks he has.