New Zealanders long wait for a new government finally ended on Wednesday 27th November with Christopher Luxon taking oath as 42nd Prime Minister of the country. The seemingly never-ending negotiations between the three coalition partners that went on for over three weeks finally reached to an agreement acceptable to all three parties. According to the agreement, New Zealand First Party leader Winston Peters was appointed Deputy Prime Minister for the first half term till 31st May 2025 and ACT Party leader David Seymour from 31st May 2025 to the end of this government’s term in September 2026. Along with the Prime Minister and Dy. Prime Minister, 20 Cabinet Ministers, eight ministers outside cabinet and two Parliamentary under-secretaries also took oath at the Government house in Wellington before Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro.
This is first time in the history of New Zealand that a coalition of three parties will be running the government and all New Zealanders are looking forward to it. The biggest concern for everyone about this new government was the unpredictable nature of its third alliance partner, Winston Peters of New Zealand First party. He didn’t disappoint sceptics in the first week itself and he fired his first salvo on media funding by the previous Labour government. Winston Peters said the independence and the impartiality of these state funded media outlets may have been compromised during the previous rule. He termed the funding as a bribe by the government to media outlets as they cannot remain neutral after receiving the money. This put the newly elected Prime Minister in a ticklish situation who defended himself saying Winston has a right to express his opinion on any matter. The three parties’ coalition makes a right to centre government and they have a lot of public expectations to fulfil in next three years. The Parliament is expected to sit next week and begin working on new policies including a new central bank mandate and lifting ban on oil and gas exploration.
Former Prime Minister and now the opposition leader Chris Hipkins, is already flexing muscles to demonstrate being a formidable opposition. He started questioning the government even before the new Prime Minster could conduct his first Cabinet meeting. We can expect a fiery parliamentary session when the 54th Parliament starts on Wednesday 6th December. In his first ever cabinet meeting Prime Minister Christopher Luxon outlined plans for first 100 days with 49 most important tasks to work on priority for being ‘ambitious for New Zealand’. These 49 points includes election promises by the coalition partners ACT party and New Zealand First party. PM Christopher Luxon said people of New Zealand have voted for change of government, change of policies and a change of approach.
To action and deliver on 49 points in 100 days is very ambitious and it certainly will set the tone of action in the remaining tenure of this government. The new leader of the house, Chris Bishop said the new Parliament would get started with usual ceremonial matters. This includes election of the speaker a day before the formal delivering of speech by the Governor General laying out the agenda of the government. Understandably, the most talked about issue of ‘cost of living crisis’ is slotted to be addressed first. The first bill to introduce is a bill to return the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to a single mandate, a single focus on fighting inflation. A few important bills lined up to be repealed like Fair Pay legislation, Ute Tax-Clean Cr Discount and Natural & Built Environment Act. Government also wants to extend 90 days trial period for all businesses.
As they say, its better late than never and the new Prime Minister appears quite upbeat about his 100 days ambitious plans. Christopher Luxon says his government is going to do more in 100 days than the last government did in six years. As per Prime Minster his plan resolves around three focus areas: the economy, law and order and public service. Let’s hope it all works as per the plans. -Yugal Parashar