# Premiership of Christopher Luxon

Christopher Luxon's tenure as Prime Minister of New Zealand began on 27 November 2023 when he was sworn in by Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro.

## Premiership
### Domestic politics

In late November 2023, Luxon announced the Government's 100-day plan, which consisted of 49 economic, cost of living, law and order, and public service issues the coalition government would focus on. In early December 2023, Luxon along with Cyclone Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell and Transport and Local Government Minister Simeon Brown, visited Hawke's Bay to meet with local leaders and local National MPs Katie Nimon and Catherine Wedd to discuss government support for post-flood and Cyclone Gabrielle relief efforts in the region. During the visit, Luxon confirmed that the Government would pause work on restoring the Napier-Wairoa railway line to focus on repairing State Highway 2.
In mid-December 2023, Luxon acknowledged using public funding allocated to his budget as Leader of the Opposition to pay for Māori language (te reo) lessons. Earlier in the month, the National-led coalition government had considered discontinuing incentive payments for public servants to learn the Māori language. Luxon defended using taxpayer money to pay for his Māori language lessons, stating that "developing better skills in te reo was highly relevant to his role as Opposition leader and a potential Prime Minister. Labour leader and Leader of the Opposition Chris Hipkins accused Luxon of hypocrisy while the New Zealand Taxpayers' Union's campaigns manager Connor Molloy urged Luxon to pay back the cost of the lessons.
On 11 February 2024, Luxon and Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced that the Government would contribute NZ$63 million to aid the removal of sediment and debris caused by Cyclone Gabrielle in the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne District. On 13 February, Luxon lowered the spending cap on ministerial cars from NZ$85,000 to NZ$70,000 as part of the Government's public sector cost cutting measures. A spokesperson also confirmed that Luxon would not be purchasing a ministerial car himself. Luxon delivered his first State of the Nation address on 18 February, where he blamed the previous Labour Government for the precarious state of the economy. Luxon also stated that his Government would focus on restoring the economy by reducing public spending and "red tape" while also finding a balance between economic growth and environmental protection. That same day, Luxon attended the annual Big Gay Out festival in the Auckland suburb of Point Chevalier but left early after encountering opposition from transgender rights and Palestinian solidarity protesters.
On 2 April 2024, Luxon announced a 36-point full second quarter action plan for the next three months, focusing on the economy and cost of living, law and order, and public services. Notable policies and priorities have included reducing wasteful spending, investing in "frontline" services, legislating on income tax relief, childcare tax credit, improving the rental marketing, and reintroducing charter schools, keeping agriculture out of the Emissions Trading Scheme, reversing the ban on offshore gas and oil exploration, restoring three strikes legislation, reviewing the firearms registry, establishing a Youth Serious Offender Category, improving teacher training and school attendance, and replacing mega polytechnic Te Pūkenga. Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said that the Government's action plan contained no "meaningful solutions" in the Government's "bingo card for environmental destruction and trickle-down economics".
In late April 2024, Luxon stripped Melissa Lee of her Media and Communications ministerial portfolio and Penny Simmonds of her Disability Issues portfolio during a cabinet reshuffle. Lee had faced criticism for her response to Warner Bros. Discovery New Zealand's closure of Newshub while Simmonds had faced criticism over her handling of changes to disability funding and services. Lee was also relieved of her Cabinet position. Luxon appointed Paul Goldsmith to the Media and Communications portfolio, Louise Upston to the Disability Issues portfolio and promoted Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts to the Cabinet.
At the end of the same month, a 1 News-Verian poll was released, showing the National-ACT-New Zealand First coalition government convincingly behind the left bloc of Labour, the Green Party and Te Pāti Māori. The poll put National down 2 points to 36 points, ACT down 1 to 7, and New Zealand First on 4%, below the 5% threshold needed for a party without constituency seats to enter Parliament (but within the margin of error). The poll showed that a fairly comfortable Labour-led government would be formed, with 64 seats. It also cast doubt on the strength of Luxon's leadership compared to that of his coalition partners Winston Peters and David Seymour, with only 51% of respondents believing Luxon was the decision-maker in the government.
A subsequent poll by Talbot Mills for their client Labour put a Labour-led government on the bare majority of 62 seats, while Roy Morgan found 54% of those they surveyed believed New Zealand was heading in "the wrong direction", with just 35% believing it was in the right direction. These result were widely considered to have been unprecedented, or at least highly unusual, for any government so early in its first term. The poll reportedly marked the first time in modern New Zealand history that a government had less popular than all the opposition parties combined within that time frame, according to TVNZ. As early as February, Luxon was noted to have experienced no "honeymoon bump", as newly incumbent prime ministers tend to, especially immediately after successful elections, but rather held steady, according to 1 News. Luxon dismissed the polls, saying "what we're here to do is not always easy and nice, but we're here to make the tough and necessary decisions". In June, a poll showed Luxon fall behind opposition leader Chris Hipkins in net favourability for the first time.
On 5 May 2024 Luxon, Local Government Minister Simeon Brown and Mayor of Auckland Wayne Brown jointly announced that Auckland would avoid a 25.8 percent rates increase as part of the Government's Local Water Done Well plan. On 6 May Luxon and Police and Corrections Minister Mark Mitchell announced that the Government would allocate NZ$1.9 billion from the upcoming 2024 New Zealand budget to training 470 new corrections officers and adding 810 beds to Waikeria Prison.

### Foreign affairs

On 20 December 2023, Luxon made his first state visit as head of government to Sydney where he met Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Luxon's trip to Australia was complicated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Boeing 757 VIP airplane needing repairs. Prior to becoming Prime Minister, Luxon had advocated using commercial aircraft for state visits over ageing Air Force aircraft, which needed repairs and maintenance. During his visit, Luxon affirmed New Zealand's nuclear-free policy but expressed openness to joining the non-nuclear pillar of the AUKUS agreement. He also stated that New Zealand was keen to do its share of "heavy lifting" in the Australia-New Zealand defence relationship. Luxon and Albanese also talked about the contribution of New Zealander Australians to Australia.
On 30 January 2024, Luxon announced that New Zealand would be suspending its annual NZ$1 million aid to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East) following allegations that several UNRWA workers had participated in the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel. His announcement followed a decision by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade to review New Zealand's aid to UNRWA. On 29 February 2024, Luxon announced New Zealand's designation of Hamas in its entirety as a terrorist entity.
On 15 April 2024, Luxon and Foreign Minister Peters issued a joint statement condemning the Iranian airstrikes against Israel. In mid-April 2024, Luxon undertook a tour of Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines as part of a "very deliberate" foreign policy reset meant to shore up Southeast Asia's strategic and commercial importance to New Zealand. In Singapore, he met with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his designated successor Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong to discuss bilateral defence, trade and security cooperation. On 16 April, Luxon met with Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin to promote bilateral business links and trade, and encourage travel and tourism in Thailand.
On 18 April, Luxon along with Filipino-New Zealander MP Paulo Garcia met with Philippines President Bongbong Marcos to discuss bilateral defence, trade, people-to-people, and climate cooperation.
In early June 2024, Luxon visited Premier of Niue Dalton Tagelagi. On 5 June, Luxon announced an agreement to enhance the free association relationship between the two countries and that New Zealand would invest NZ$20.5 million into a new large-scale renewable energy project on Niue.
In mid-June 2024, Luxon and Governor-General Cindy Kiro hosted Chinese Premier Li Qiang during his state visit to Wellington and Auckland. During the visit, China agreed to extend visa-free travel to New Zealanders while New Zealand agreed to support Chinese language training and cultural exchange programmes provided by local Confucius Institutes.
In mid-June, Luxon led a business and media delegation consisting of representatives from Air New Zealand, ANZ Bank, Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, Zespri and Rocket Lab on a state visit to Japan. The RNZAF Boeing 757 jet carrying them sustained two broken fuses while refuelling at Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea. Following the breakdown, Luxon took a commercial flight to Tokyo while Air New Zealand diverted a plane to carry the rest of the delegation to Japan. During his visit to Japan, Luxon met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and signed a bilateral information security agreement to improve intelligence sharing between the two governments.