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Christopher Luxon, Winston Peters and David Seymour to finally meet – at least that’s the plan
The leaders of National and ACT are on their way home to Auckland, where they will meet with New Zealand First leader Winston Peters on Wednesday.
The first meeting between all three is a significant step forward in their ongoing efforts to form the next government.
National leader and incoming Prime Minister Chris Luxon and ACT leader David Seymour were in the capital on Tuesday, while Peters remained in Auckland.
Speaking at Wellington Airport, Luxon told RNZ it had been a “good” day with “productive conversations”.
“We’re making progress but there’s more to do.”
Asked if he had expected Peters to be in Wellington as well on Tuesday, Luxon said: “There were good, productive meetings at all levels and good intensive conversations – it’s been great.”
Seymour was on the same flight out of Wellington, and told RNZ they had had “a couple of meetings with our colleagues in the Nats [National Party]” in Wellington.
“Obviously, we’d hope to meet with our colleagues in New Zealand First but they were in a different city, nonetheless, here we are.”
It was a “risky business” to assume where Peters was “these days”, said Seymour, but he confirmed ACT would meet “with the Nats more tomorrow in Auckland”.
He was reluctant to go into any details about whether the meeting would include New Zealand First: “We’ll have a meeting, and the location… we’ll see.”
There were “a series of further meetings booked to, again, just keep sharpening those pencils, improving that agreement so we get the best agreement and the fastest agreement possible”.
“Let me just say it’s in a secure but undisclosed location, and that’s not trying to be tricky – it’s just that we really do want to get this done as quickly as possible.”
NZ First leader Winston Peters and Darroch Ball departing ACT headquarters. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
Peters had “not given a reason” for not coming to Wellington on Tuesday, “but there could be many reasons that I think we should leave to him”, he said.
In Peters’ absence, Seymour said there had been “a lot of good work”.
“We’ve continued to work through with National on areas of agreement and disagreement. We want a solid, public policy-heavy agreement because the challenges New Zealand is facing are large.
“And the government’s response is going to have to be nimble, detailed and decisive, and that’s what we’re working towards.”
Today marked a month from the general election, and Seymour acknowledged “everyone, everywhere wants everything all the time to be better and faster, there’s no question about that”.
“All I can say is I think ACT has been first up and ready to deal with whomever; we’ve reached out first and we’ve been engaging first in order to get to the result that we want and I think we’ve played a good role in it so far.”
Asked how far negotiations had progressed, Seymour said “there are areas where we’re certainly, I guess you could say, dotting the i’s, there’s areas… of substance that we still have to work out”.
“But what’s important is that we are not going to get the fastest agreement, but we’re going to get the best agreement – and I think that’s an important distinction.”
All of his dealings with Peters had “actually been very professional”, he said.
“That’s all I can say. Obviously it’s helpful to be in the same city but there’s clearly been some miscommunication there and I’ll leave it to him to explain his location.”
ACT leader David Seymour leaves NZ First’s offices after a brief meeting with Winston Peters. Photo: RNZ / Craig McCulloch
Seymour said he’d been in Wellington “primarily” to meet with National and “thought [Peters] would be here too”.
A potential threesome in the capital had turned into a twosome today, but Seymour joked it “could be worse – we could be in a foursome, but at least that’d be good for playing golf”.
RNZ understands Peters was presented with a proposal by National at the end of last week, but found it unacceptable – so meetings and calls with both of the other leaders continued over the weekend and throughout Tuesday.
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The chief executive of the Parliamentary Service is confident there will be enough room to accommodate the increased number of MPs and their staff coming into Parliament.
On current numbers, up to 131 MPs could be sitting in the Chamber following the election, brought on by a record overhang result.
Clerk of the House of Representatives Dr David Wilson told the Spinoff that currently the debating chamber had enough chairs to seat 124 MPs – including the Speaker of the House – and work was being done to accommodate more by altering the seating arrangement.
In a statement, Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said planning for a larger Parliament had been going for “some time”.
“Now that the election results have confirmed an increase to the number of members we are looking at several options.
“We are confident we will be able to accommodate all members within the Chamber.”
VNP / Phil Smith
Gonzalez-Montero said office accommodation for members and their staff would be “stretched” for a short time, but the new Members’ Building was only a few months away from “practical completion”.
That building – located behind Parliament – was due to be ready to occupy in April next year and had capacity to accommodate around 30 backbench MPs.
“All members should be in fit-for-purpose accommodation from that point,” Gonzalez-Montero said.
Following the 2023 election, 123 MPs sat in the Chamber – a record number at the time. That decreased to 122 following the resignation of National MP Judith Collins.
Collins held the seat of Papakura and stepped down in May and Parliament voted against holding a by-election because it was too close to the election.
The election result also meant high-ranking National Party MPs like Chris Bishop, Paul Goldsmith, Nicola Willis and Gerry Brownlee – Speaker of the House and an MP for 30 years – would likely not make it back into Parliament.
Only resigning or retiring MPs were permitted to give a valedictory speech meaning none of them would get the chance to give a valedictory statement.
Asked if their would be special allowances for valedictories, Wilson said in a statement that normally only MPs were allowed to speak in the House but the House could suspend its own rules or temporarily alter them.
“It could do so to allow former members to address the House.”
Wilson said no such arrangements could be made until the next Parliament opened and members sworn in.
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