It’s been a year since National, ACT and NZ First realised they would likely be negotiating a coalition government together. 1News looks back at a process that was marked by “looney tune texts”, supposed meeting “snubs”, and a lack of clean shirts.
A year ago today, New Zealand woke up to the knowledge that Christopher Luxon would be the Prime Minister of a National-led government. What nobody knew then was which parties would be a part of that government.
The former Air New Zealand CEO promised to take a different approach to negotiating a coalition.
“I’ve watched New Zealand elections play out over many years. I’ve been pretty unimpressed with the process, in terms of how that gets done,” Luxon told reporters.
But any hopes he might have had for a swift coalition negotiation would soon be dashed – first, by the need to wait for official election results, and second, by the need to negotiate with two parties led by two politicians who had publicly clashed several times before.
A waiting game
National and ACT held the slimmest of majorities as a two-party coalition with 61 seats following the preliminary election results – but both parties knew the special votes yet to be counted usually swung left, meaning they would probably need a third party to make up the numbers.
So, as the country waited three weeks for those special votes to be tallied, the three likely coalition partners delicately began their political courtship – while keeping their cards very close to their chest.
One desperate reporter asked him for a wave as Peters was whisked away in a taxi from Wellington Airport. (Source: 1News)
Official confirmation
The official election results on November 3 confirmed National would need the support of both ACT and NZ First to form a government, meaning Luxon would be negotiating with both David Seymour and Winston Peters just a couple of months after Seymour told political podcast Gone By Lunchtime, “we’re not going to sit around the Cabinet table with this clown” – that “clown” being Peters.
Three days later, Luxon said coalition talks were progressing at “great speed”. He added that Peters and Seymour were due to meet without him before “final talks”.
Seymour told reporters that he had reached out to Peters but was yet to hear back. Reporters asked Peters why he hadn’t responded to Seymour’s texts.
“For the most obvious reasons, I had so many looney tune texts,” Peters said.
“You might not believe this, but I do, and I can show you if you want to see them. I decided I’m going to find out who I’m dealing with before I answered.”
Seymour and Peters eventually met on November 10. An insider told 1News the 15-minute meeting had been “fine”. Seymour was more effusive, describing the meeting as “congenial and hopeful and promising”.
1News senior political reporter Benedict Collins said he would have “loved to have been a fly on the wall” when the leaders of ACT and NZ First met to progress coalition negotiations. (Source: Breakfast)
The talks drag on
As National, NZ First and ACT continued their negotiations, the small matter of running the country eventually needed addressing.
The caretaker government being led by Chris Hipkins and his Labour ministers was originally only meant to be in place until November 12 but needed to be sworn in again as the country continued to wait for its new administration.
Luxon also accepted that he would have to miss the APEC meeting happening in San Francisco. Labour MP Damien O’Connor attended the summit instead as Luxon continued to finalise his coalition deals.
Luxon and Seymour given the runaround?
By November 14, the three coalition leaders were still yet to all meet together.
Luxon and Seymour met in Wellington, while Peters was in Auckland. Luxon and Seymour both flew to Auckland later that day, following suggestions Peters had snubbed their Wellington appointment.
Seymour told reporters at Auckland Airport that his party “had great meetings with the Nats today”.
“Not everyone showed up but hey, what can you do?” he quipped. “We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
Peters later denied snubbing the Wellington meet-up, saying it had never been on his agenda.
“I don’t know why I’m hearing all this nonsense,” he said.
Peters said a supposed meeting with Christopher Luxon and David Seymour in the capital earlier this week wasn’t on the agenda. (Source: 1News)
The three leaders finally meet
A post on Winston Peters’ X account on November 15 confirmed he had sat down in an Auckland hotel meeting room with Luxon and Seymour.
Luxon posted the same photo, saying it had been a “good meeting”.
With all three parties in Auckland, coalition negotiations continued, with three days of promises that the parties were “closer than we’ve ever been” to a deal and “down to [a] final set of issues”.
The length of the coalition negotiations clearly caught out National MP Chris Bishop, who said he had run out of clean shirts and was having to borrow one of Luxon’s. The shirt situation likely wasn’t helped when Bishop had to take an e-scooter to the negotiations one morning and managed to crash it, spilling coffee all over himself.
By November 19, Luxon said there were fewer than three issues left to be discussed. There were whispers those three issues were ACT’s proposed referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi principles, National’s foreign house buyers’ tax, and the role of the Attorney-General.
Choosing a deputy
The final days of the coalition negotiations also focused on who would act as Luxon’s Deputy Prime Minister.
By November 22, National’s deputy leader Nicola Willis said she wasn’t in that race.
But the issue of deputy PM was eventually resolved with National, ACT and NZ First confirming on November 23 they had reached an agreement to form the next government.
Finally, 40 days and 40 nights after the general election, those coalition deals were revealed to the nation – including the provision for Peters and Seymour to job-share the role of Deputy Prime Minister.
