Wendy Geus: Chris Luxon Becomes More Forthright as National’s Star Rises

The politician emerges showing his pragmatism

National party leader Christopher Luxon kicked off his ‘Get NZ back on track’ tour with his first meeting at the Birkenhead Bowling Club on Auckland’s North Shore, surprising Spinoff writer Stewart Sowman-Lund with his emerging political skills.

This also coincides with a new One News Kantar poll which shows National and Act could govern alone. Could their stars be finally aligning?

I have watched some of Luxon’s speeches, far superior to Labour’s two most recent leaders, as he knows them by heart and speaks to the audience with real conviction, not off an auto cue or notes.

A politician can always get my attention when he agrees with my point of view, and so it is with his most recent utterances. There was much to like.

As Sowman-Lund indicated, it was more the question time that revealed Luxon’s point of view emerging on a number of political issues previously he has been a bit coy to discuss.

Confidence is an attractive quality and he showed that at this meeting, quick to answer even the curly questions authoritatively, not missing a beat, just like Hipkins.

Firstly he prefers the name ‘New Zealand’, not the other iterations which the liberal left has been forcing on us through a compliant media, saying,

“Personally I’m not up for changing the name of New Zealand. We are a trading country and to go change your brand name for eight billion people to try and navigate and work out who we are, I just don’t think that helps.’

This was met with applause.

I agree: the current mish mash gives the impression we are having an identity crisis!

Also, his thoughts were clear on te reo appearing everywhere and causing confusion for the 95% who don’t speak it,

“I think it’s incredibly difficult to navigate our government at the moment. I think that in a country where everyone speaks English and people can’t distinguish between Te Whatu Ora, which is Health New Zealand, or Waka Kotahi, which is the transport agency, or Te Pukenga, which is the polytechnic – that is really difficult.”

When asked was te reo being ‘forced’ on us through costly bilingual road signs, he replied,

“How dumb is that. We’re going to spend all our money on doing dual language signs rather than fixing potholes?”

His blunt response shows a politician who is a pragmatist and uses common sense, logic and reason, not stupid ideology without thinking of the ramifications like accidents being caused when people get confused by unnecessary dual signage.

This is also reflected in his approach to all the Maori signage. He would not get rid of it but put English first with Maori underneath. My thoughts exactly.

The expression ‘unforeseen consequences’ cannot be used as an excuse for this Government’s myriad cock ups, as their radicalism blinds them and prevents them from applying tools to avoid the ‘unforeseen consequences’ in the first place: tools such as strategic thinking, following best practice, applying a SWOT analysis for each policy, (examining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), which any government should be doing when handling billions of dollars of the public’s money.

Luxon insists he is not ‘dog whistling’ on race.

“I think that’s really unfair to make that accusation. I’ve lived in countries with multilingual languages, and you have to be really clear. The people need to be able to navigate their government. I don’t care what it sounds like. I’m just being pragmatic about an actual reality for our citizens to be able to navigate their government.”

(Common sense, not senseless ideology)

This sounds like fighting talk to me and not something that is easy to do in a country ruled by virtue-signalling ideologues who govern by coercion and social justice priorities, quick to employ the race card to anyone who tries to criticise or block their agenda. (Think Three Waters).

This new improved Luxon is more confident to take on the radical left. His first big moment was announcing he could not form a government with the Maori party, which was called ‘dog whistle politics’ by some of the media. He (rightly) stood his ground on that and his party has gone up 3 points in the polls, indicating many New Zealanders agree with his move.

On the subject of free speech:

New Zealanders are entitled to their views and what they are entitled to is a straightforward response to those questions that they ask me,” Luxon said. “I am happy to disagree with them, but I think we can do it in a tone and a manner that doesn’t mean we become deeply polarised and personal.”

A better approach than the left’s ‘deeply polarised and personal’ name calling and threats when someone disagrees with their opinion; the ‘unsafe comments’ of others are ‘weapons of war’ according to Jacinda Ardern, Michael Wood and their flock of followers, many of whom form part of our media.

The battle has begun but a more confident Chris Luxon is more than a match for Mr Hipkins. Chris Hipkins’s position is rather more precarious. With his dodgy history of causing chaos in every ministerial portfolio he has managed, his chances of managing a Coalition of Chaos look slim.

Luxon’s not a ‘career politician’, but he’s starting to sound more like one | The Spinoff

Wendy Geus is a former speechwriter and generalist communications advisor in local government. She now writes for the pure love of it. This article was first published HERE