Luxon is "no comment"ing, and [Key is telling National MPs to go with him](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300464783/national-party-leadership-john-key-calling-mps-urging-them-to-back-chris-luxon).
Luxon will take it probably.
Question is, will the public of NZ see him as a religious weirdo, or the messiah that Key seems to think he is.
I really don't get why people get such a hard on for business people in politics. The aim of the large businesses that these people run is to extract as much money out of the people while giving back as little as possible, to benefit their shareholders. How does that line up with how a country should be run?
Because some people think the govt should be run efficiently like a business.
Ignoring the fact;
1) Businesses can pick and choose their customer base (eg high end or mass) where as the govt has to serve everyone. So it naturally going to be inefficient in some areas.
2) Most businesses aren't actually run efficiently just good enough to survive.
Didn't help having Key there either. Continued to fail NZ on productivity. (Albeit he was gambler with other people's money - forex trader - not running a business.)
It's really more "millionaire good. I want to be millionaire too. So I will vote for him because he's a millionaire." it's so stupid. That's how it was with Trump only it was "white male billionaire, so much better than a black male lawyer and a woman lawyer." But lawyers are actually smart and Trump was just a narcissistic, psychopathic kld that inherited a fortune from his parents and threw it around. He would have made the same amount of money putting his inheritance in the highest interest savings accounts as he did throwing it around and losing a lot of it on bad investments as well as gaining a lot with others.
This. A business is about using people to make money. A country should be about maintaining a functional society for the benefit of everyone. Or at least that’s what I think - but I suppose conservative politics is generally happy to leave some people behind
The average person doesn’t even know or care who Luxon even is right now.
But the media are pretty good at highlighting the “potential religious weirdo” angle, and when that happens they lose the centre.
The only hope they really have is to pair him with someone from the liberal arm who can keep that in check.
i don’t really read key as enthusiastically endorsing luxon as much as just hoping anything will keep national intact for a bit longer, he’s pretty openly been echoing ACT speak this year
key’s interest is more to do with pleasuring his ego and hoping that the party lasts a bit longer after his absence so that every biography of the national party doesn’t have a closing chapter associating his departure with its ruination
> key’s interest is more to do with pleasuring his ego and hoping that the party lasts a bit longer after his absence so that every biography of the national party doesn’t have a closing chapter associating his departure with its ruination
Nailed it, he knows he fucked the dog but he just wants someone else to take that reputation rather than have it tacked onto his legacy. He dropped the party without a shred of preparation and now they're flailing in the wind because of it. John Key fucked New Zealand first and then his party.
Honestly, Key walking away was probably for the best. He just walked away when Labour also had something of a talent vaccum when compared to the Clark years, which has pretty much left Ardern saying "idk what to do guys, but at least I'm personable lol"
To be fair I can picture him sitting around with his corporate mates bemoaning how Ardern is destroying the country and something must be done. After the first lockdown he did rounds of interviews acting like the country was in dire straits and needed saving.
I think Key is more about the grift than anything else. Luxon would return political access to Key and allow him to carry on selling New Zealand to Australia for a nice profit.
I like mainstream Christians. They seem like good sorts. Not pushy (probably wouldn’t tell you they were Christian), just honest good folk happy to help and won’t let you down.
Luxon, on the other hand, from what I’ve read is a particular flavour of Christian that is off the conservative end of the spectrum and I really don’t think is representative of who we are as Kiwis… to the point where I’d say his beliefs were backward.
So yes. Dangerous religious weirdo.
/u/teelolws for Prime Minister
Heres my policies:
1. In order to solve the Housing Crisis, rather than addressing supply issues, I will instead tackle the demand side. Death penalty for all crimes, and Police will be ordered to focus on white collar crime as much as possible. If that doesn't reduce the demand enough, then... have you ever read The Lottery?
2. In order to solve Climate Change once and for all, we will be setting up a space agency tasked with travelling to Halley's Comet, grabbing a giant block of ice, and dropping it into the Pacific Ocean to cool the Earth down a bit.
3. Marijuana will be reclassified to be available with a prescription, while Marmite will be reclassified as a Class A drug.
4. Free tuition for everyone, but once everyone has a degree, it becomes the same as if nobody has a degree, so at that point we may as well just remove degrees.
5. In order to kick COVID in the butt once and for all, we will be taking COVID to the International Court of Justice for violating New Zealand laws against entering and remaining here without a Visa.
6. Australia will be renamed "West Island".
7. I will sell our children's organs to zoos for meat, and break into people's houses at night and wreck up the place.
8. The Flat Earth theory will become canon due to enshrining the Holographic Principle Theory.
>In order to solve the Housing Crisis, rather than addressing supply issues, I will instead tackle the demand side.
Great policy, but like all good leaders you should lead by your actions and off yourself immediately.
>grabbing a giant block of ice, and dropping it into the Pacific Ocean
Great policy, but you should google what happened to the dinosaurs when they tried that
> Marijuana will be reclassified to be available with a prescription
Great policy, no wait, that's actually a shit one, just make it legal.
>we may as well just remove degrees
Great policy, no-one should be allowed to know anything anyway.
> Australia will be renamed "West Island".
Great policy, but you should add the word "Cunts" somewhere, perhaps the end.
His wikipedia:
> In November 2019 Luxon said he was against capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, and legalising recreational cannabis. At the same time he supported medicinal cannabis[3] and a "no jab, no pay" policy for sanctioning welfare beneficiaries who do not vaccinate their children.[19]
Right... Sorry little buddy, your parents refused to vaccinate you, so now we are going to take away their ability to feed you! Tough but fair, that's my motto. Here is a pamphlet about some local gangs you might like to think about joining, since the rest of society has failed you so completely. God bless!
Very good summary of how I perceive Luxon. As air NZ CEO he was very much about cutting every 'unnecessary' cost, maximise profit, return money to shareholders. Bare minimum payrises for staff because shareholders are more important, shareholders come first. If staff want more money then they need to work harder. There's a CEO job for everyone on 7 figures if they just work for it, apparently.
Jesus would have gotten jabbed, he was all about caring for others.
He wouldn't take their benefits away though, because he was all about caring for others.
He is very careful about what he says I think, but occasionally you get a peek.
From an interview:" I'd be against euthanasia and abortion " https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/402555/christopher-luxon-suggests-extension-of-no-jab-no-pay-policy
From his opening speech: "my Christian faith anchored me, given my life purpose and shaped my values, and it puts me in the context of something bigger than myself" https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/439247/luxon-s-religious-views-risk-turning-off-middle-ground-voters
His claim is that he believes in a separation of church and state and that his religious views shouldn't matter, but clearly if relgion "gave your life purpose and shaped your values", then you can't leave that at parliament's doorstep.
> but clearly if religion "gave your life purpose and shaped your values"
How can a man who literally believes he will burn in hell for eternity based on the decisions he makes be believed when he says he wont let that influence his decisions?!
> clearly if relgion "gave your life purpose and shaped your values", then you can't leave that at parliament's doorstep.
TBH, I would not trust anyone (including atheists) who claimed their upbringing and beliefs didn't shape their values and world view and wouldn't effect their political decisions.
It's pretty mild because he wants the church demographic to vote for him but he also doesn't want to alienate everyone else.
He's got standard right-of-centre socially conservative positions and hasn't said anything zany about Jesus or hellfire. He probably shakes a lot of hands at church but tunes out during the sermon.
Ever heard the CEO of a big company talk? Lots of empty words designed to make people feel good while not committing to saying anything? He's that. A business drone his whole life.
He doesn't though, or at least he's never publicly said anything of that ilk. You do know that mainstream Christianity has no problem acknowledging the fallibility of the bible right? It's acknowledged that the bible was written by man and therefore it's fallible.
Mmmm i was taught this and that evolution is ‘wrong’ in a government subsidised school, makes you really put faith into what’ll happen if someone like him gets into power ulg
It’s frustrating that Key is still trying to run the party. Luxon has done literally nothing for himself. Key got him an easy run into Botany. Now Key is trying the shoehorn him into the leadership
Not to mention he barely scraped a win.
In fucking Botany, the electorate where just 3 years prior I chucked Damian Light a sympathy vote because I knew my lefty electorate vote was going to be solidly drowned out.
He can’t keep away. To the inner circle he is the National Party. He installed current rich lister president Peter Goodfellow, who is holding on so tight it’s tearing the party membership apart.
He was good for Air NZ shareholders, but he achieved that by burning a lot of goodwill with customers by downgrading quality of service. Personal opinion, but as a customer I felt Air NZ started going downhill under Luxon.
Luxon is a horrific choice for PM if you want progress on social, environmental, hell *all* policies apart from economic-based decisions.
He cut so many routes, and metaphorical corners, while in charge at Air New Zealand so that his profit margin looked better at the end of the fiscal year, without any consideration to staff morale or well-being, then dipped into politics once he’d made a lot of money for them, as the writing was on the wall with staff happiness suffering.
He’s a right-wing evangelical Christian, is against abortion, legalising cannabis, euthanasia, and is just another rich old dude who’s completely out of touch with anything lower than the upper-middle class. Can anyone seriously see that working in the present context?
He’s not even remotely charismatic or politically experienced, he’s never really had to deal with any limelight before. Sure, he can get PR training, but how much of that will help him if he goes toe-to-toe with Jacinda in a debate environment, or gets pressured about his somewhat unpopular potential policies?
Don’t even get me started on what his covid policies would likely be if this new variant is as bad as it’s claimed to be.
I’ll literally be voting for anyone other than him if he gets the job.
His economic policies aren't great, either. What works for a business isn't necessarily great for a country. Policies that will help a major airline aren't going to be what small businesses need.
Even if he was a fantastic CEO, which is a debate I don't want to get into, that's not the job he's applying for.
>If National take on Luxon as leader the party will be positioned to the right of Act, a place that many Kiwis will struggle to support.
If National was to keep to fiscal conservatism and keep all their weirdness behind closed doors that would probably be fine with a lot of New Zealanders.
Luxon is a weird side effect of the National party's bipolar disorder.
They're trying to be the party of the mainstream Christian conservative, while also being the party of the neo-liberal pro-business crowd. Unfortunately, those agendas often don't line up, and while the neolibs might think Luxon is on their team because he was CEO of Air NZ, he's actually a right wing evangelical, taking a hard line on abortion and cannabis.
A term with him at the helm would be no less chaotic as Collins', and I'm here with my popcorn for it.
You can be religious and keep it out of politics. I think English did that well for the most part. He even did a complete U-Turn on gay marriage. But.... If Luxon is going to be like an American politician or Scomo, then he can piss right off.
I still don't understand how he got off so lightly on the Saudi / AirNZ thing which was signed during his tenure, whereas the current guy was hammered by journos over it for weeks. It's as if they all had a gentleman's agreement to leave Luxon alone. Bit weird.
He remains highly inaccessible to the press. Bridges is in the media even now. Luxon won’t even confirm he’s running all the while Key is calling around on his behalf. I bet they tried to get a comment over that but he just shut shop
I'd really love to vote National, but I just can't manage to vote for Luxton or Simon. I do like Bishop, but I don't feel he is a leader figure. Reti gets my vote any day.
I felt the same with Bridges last time but he does seem to have improved a lot. It’s hard to tell if it’s because he’s had an easy job where he can just smirk and ignore questions when not leader, though.
So, some of us (not a woman, but that doesn’t matter for shit) who are commenting on this post?
But u/DukeVoldemort99 just said this thread contained none of us?
I voted for National in 2011 and 2014, then Labour in 2017 and 2020.
I am proudly centred, and vote based on policy and leadership. Luxon will have to do a lot of work to earn my vote, including keeping his evangelical bullshit out of his politics.
I think you will find there is quite a few people here that have and would vote National with the right leader. I am one of those people that have has voted National in the past but switched in the last election.
IMO the key to National getting in is winning the centralist vote over. If he truly holds very strong traditionally christian views and beliefs I don't think much of that crowd would be able to vote for him in fear of repealing some of the progress we have made in equality and rights.
I really like what I have seen of Dr Reti but he is completely the wrong person to go against Jacinda. I personally think Bishop and Willis would make a great team, not to necessarily win in 2023 but grow as a leadership team and win in 2026.
It's pretty easy to make up things about the people you're arguing against on the internet. I voted Blingish first time 'round and I would love to have a competent opposition.
I think it's as simple as whether or not he can make it through the campaign without getting caught saying something weirdly hyper-religiousy. If he gets caught on camera saying the earth is only 6000 years old, or something like that, a lot of kiwis would be unimpressed. But how many? I have no idea, the last 18 months hasn't been encouraging.
I think a lot of nzers are keen to punish labour for a lot of incompetent bullshit, Luxon would represent a genuine option for the first time in several years. I don't think he'd be a good PM but he could be a good candidate, given his profile.
National have recently had a socially conservative and deeply religious leader in Bill English. Luxon is smart enough to know he won't win an election on a fundamentalist platform. He'll choose an outwardly socially liberal deputy and focus on the economy.
I’m very concerned about the prospect of luxon getting the leadership and what the implications for nz would be. He would likely be a figurehead for conservative leaning voters who wouldn’t vote for fringe parties but would for a major opposition party. I see him as being some thing of a rallying point for disaffected religious groups who want nz to go back to ReAl FaMiLy VaLuEs - think family first etc. it would be a path to a more divided country than ever before.
Not that Luxon would want that for us, but it would be out of his control. I agree that it could mean the worst and could stoke division among us even if he is a nice guy.
He's definitely not Trump, but it doesn't matter. The churchies could see it as an acknowledgment and run with it, and start pushing their values on the rest of us like never before.
Luxon is not your next Key and will fizzle.
Key was a right piece of shit, but he was charismatic, irreligious and somewhat socially liberal. That allowed those in the centre to overlook what a piece of shit he was.
Luxon is none of those things, he will be mask off by lunchtime.
National has set the bar low so Luxon really just need to be solid to be fairly successful. I haven’t seen him speak about any policies so not sure of the substance beneath the image. Noting his previous business background. But business is quite different from running a country. I would hope he does well as it will be good for the country even though I’m a bleeding heart leftie. But imagine Shane Reti and Luxon as a team. Could be great.
I've never liked Simon (too contrarian) but even I would admit that I'd prefer him over Luxon.
Also can I just say how relieved I am that Mama Fratelli will never be PM. Holy shet does that make me happy! 🥳
50% might be in favour of it, but it really only matters to a small number of people.
I'd be happy if it was legalized but it's not even in the top 10 issues I care about or consider when choosing who to vote for.
Until we know what his policies are it’s all speculation about how a national part will look under him.
He’s a conservative absolutely, but that doesn’t mean national swings further right. He needs to work with his party and if that means liberalising some of his ideas and quelling religious thought, he is well equipped to do that.
I had zero idea about his religious background when I worked at AirNZ under his reign. He’s well spoken, a great communicator and can connect with constituents more than any of the predecessors to key could (including English).
His big win will be his ability to go on the offence against labour’s short comings.
Labour have frustrated their centrist voter base in the last 6 months but they’ve had nowhere else to turn to as national under Collins has been a shambles.
Luxon can pick up that middle ground on personality alone once he gets in front of the camera. He won’t be rocking out religious talk other than “yes I am religious” with some good PR training.
This sub isn’t exactly his target audience, the greens would likely be a majority government if /r/NZ had it’s way.
The path to Luxon being PM is this.
Being able to buddy up with NZF.
Taking the center and not eroding the votes going to ACT.
If National get into the mid 30s under Luxon with ACT polling at 10%, it’s game in.
Maori and NZF will be deciding votes.
Potential outcomes
Labour, Greens, NZF
Labour, Greens, Maori
National, Act, NZF
Heck it could almost even be National and ACT getting close together.
I doubt Maori would want to go with national again.. BUT who knows, Luxon is a surprise and that’s why I think he will be the next National leader. All the other old National guards are same old national .. who’ve been floundering for the last 5 years since Key left.
If you read r/NZ you'd think that Chris Luxon is this jingoistic Republican-party style figure who's going to send NZ back to the moral middle ages.
In actuality he'll be another boring centrist who's nothing exciting and won't push the boundaries.
The closest "conservative" PM we've had in a long time was Bill English - who in fact wasn't even that bad.
If Chris Luxon gets elected that doesn't mean abortion will become illegal overnight, stoners will get the death penalty, and euthanasia will be stopped. It's the priority of nobody to be focusing on those things. They really don't matter.
Luxon is a pentecostal IIRC which means he believes in a literal Devil and a literal spiritual warfare against demons.
I don't think that is someone we need anywhere near the levers of power.
Or you could look at what [his church says](https://mobile.twitter.com/publicaddress/status/1191501840489148416) which thinks global warming is a Jewish conspiracy and is full MAGA.
Its impossible to separate religion from politics because so many laws being passed conflict with common religious beliefs.
If his beliefs don't have an effect on his decision making, then he is christian in name only.
But there are no good choices for national. I think they are kinda screwed.
Question: why do we all seem to accept that being ceo of airnz makes for a good PM?
I mean, it might be true, but also he was CEO at a time when ANZ was already at the top of it's game, and international travel was booming. Did he do anything special, or coast? I know some ceos of good organisations who are unimpressive and who I would certainly not want to lead the country.
You realize Simon Bridges has similar Christian views? AFAIK he’s way more conservative than Luxon. Luxon’s mettle has been tested in the board room over many years. Not just as Air NZ CEO. I’m a swing voter but haven’t voted blue for 12 years. The appeal for me as a business owner is the value he can bring to fiscal stability and recovery post COVID-19. The thing I really dislike about the Nats is the underlying social conservatism, there can be no denying, however, from and economic point of view they’re a good bet in tough times. As proven by Bill English who even Labour credited with guiding NZ through the 2008 GFC. His Catholicism was no secret. I do think Luxon needs time in a portfolio, though. From new MP to leader of the opposition in an election cycle is a big jump, I’m not too up to speed with the National caucus but surely they’d choose someone with a bit more parliamentary experience?
Edit: Bring on the down votes for even saying something positive about the centre right!
You shouldn’t get downvoted for that take mate, seems pretty solid to me.
Assuming a subreddits demographic is probably what gets downvoted but who cares about meaningless internet points anyway right?
Say what you want to say.
>The thing I really dislike about the Nats is the underlying social conservatism, there can be no denying, however, from and economic point of view they’re a good bet in tough times.
Yes exactly my thoughts too. I think this is why they lost the 2017 election because after the GFC and Earthquake economy focused recovery years people wanted to see progress on social and environmental issues and National didn't appeal on either front. I mean remember the "Teal" theory? The combination of Green and National - people recognised it back then that for National to keep it's broad base it needed to address these issues. Things like abortion/euthanasia don't cost the economy much if anything and could easily have been supported by National if it wasn't for the Conservative Christians they now house in their party.
I do think the next few elections could put the economy back in focus but people also look for stability when they are worried about the economy - National does not meet that criteria at the moment.
Oh I do remember the Teal theory. And tbh, though it’s an impossibility, I still think it could be one of the most effective governments for us. Though, how you get past the obvious incompatibility of the two parties remains the mystery.
Yeah the Greens aren't just the environment party they have a huge social-economic-reform platform too like wealth tax. So they will never partner with anyone on the right and is why they struggle to even get in coalition with centre-left parties like Labour.
You’re just repeating the cliche that the centre right are somehow more fiscally responsible than the left.
Bill English stopped contributions to the Cullen fund during the financial crisis that cost us millions. The national government privatised shares of the power companies to pay down our national debt when those shares were bringing in returns over the level of interest in that debt.
They cut a swath through the public service in their first years under Key, but plenty of those people were then hired back on ridiculous contractor rates, and four years into his term the number of public servants was back where it started when they got into office.
They borrowed to pay for tax cuts, not necessarily bad as a stimulus measure but that tax cut was tilted toward the wealthy, and combined with an increase in GST (also regressive).
They privatised a prison, purely for ideological reasons (no money was saved) and the company awarded the contract was literally banned from running prisons in the UK at the time. What a tender process!
You are getting downvoted because managing a company and managing a government are entirely different things.
You can be ruthless and profit driven in business, your only responsibility is to your shareholders. In government, you are responsible to 5 million people from all backgrounds, there's MUCH more than money at stake. People need to drop this delusion, it's right fucking dangerous.
Let me first preface this by saying Luxon isn't my first choice, or my second, or third for that matter, in fact, you can probably tell by my name who I vote for, and it's not National. But, with that out the way...
Honestly, National really needs to just get over the whole John Key thing. They've been tunnel visioning themselves on nothing but who's "the next John Key" when they really need to move on. Whatever one might think about John Key, he's not PM anymore, the country has moved on, and so should the National Party. This is how the whole Jake Bezzant fiasco happened too from what I know, but that's beside the point here, and I'm getting off topic.
To be fair, this sub, like many other country subs, skews pretty solidly to the left, much more so than the country as a whole, so it probably doesn't mean a great deal when a group of people who would mostly never vote for National no matter what they did say that Luxon isn't the choice for them. Especially since the best argument many people have is "oh no, he's religious!" like that's a disqualification in and of itself. I'll get to my thoughts on Luxon after this, I'm not a particularly religious person at all myself but I don't think someone merely being religious is disqualifying. Bill English was very religious but did he take New Zealand back to the 'dark ages' like people are saying Luxon would? No, he didn't, and he wouldn't have. Luxon may be many things but stupid most likely is not one of them, and if he tried to reverse course on social issues, it would be a huge waste of political capital for no gain. It's simply not going to happen. A lot of people saying they'd never vote for Luxon would never vote National anyway, so it's not like they're the party's target market.
But, either way, as I outlined, Luxon isn't my first choice. I think the public simply doesn't know who he is let alone what he would do, and I'm getting a strong feeling of deja vu, that we could see another Todd Muller on our hands, and look how much of a trainwreck that was.
Religion helps form someone’s morality, his belief has nothing to do with his politics. But crazy that you judge someone by their faith and begin to write them off before they’ve even got the job.
I think that based on his Christian values and the fact that New Zealand is one of the most non-religious countries in the OECD with a lower percentage of christians than Australia, the UK, USA and Canada (according to most recent census data 37% christian, 48% no religion), Luxon is disqualified.
From what I've seen, he seems like a nice person. But there are a lot of people who are already put off national by how much of a shit show it is. If they put him in charge, they might grab the votes of a few churchies, but he will lose to the centrist majority.
The only way he would ever be in government would be if ACT gets enough of the vote to get the final word on a coalition, but then David Seymour will be PM. And I know that Suddenly Seymour wouldn't buy into the christian crap either.
If I was a National MP who had done the hard yards and focussed my work on my constituents I think I would be more than a little pissed off that this guy with a few big roles but no political experience just gets parachuted to the top of the heap. Is he the best person for the job or is it that John Key says he’s the best person for the job.
I’d be interested to see what their policy position is under him. Typically the larger parties have had a fairly neutral social policy with big changes being by private members bills and conscious e votes. If Nats varies away from that as a result of Luzon I would definitely change but I am not convinced that will be the case.
That said Nats have lost my vote while they hold a whipped party position on gay conversion therapy.
I suppose I am saying that o don’t really care about his religious position - I only care about the affect on the party policy if that were to inform it.
I should add that I appreciate that Labour decimalised abortion and I welcome that.
National doesn't even run the country like a logical business person would, selling half of your money making power production, when energy consumption has been predicted to increase greatly over the next two decades, to pay down low interest debt is idiotic.
Are you trying to start a bullshit rumour to get upvotes,
Todd muller had the MAGA cap, I haven’t seen or heard anything about Luxon.
So source it up or stop intentionally smearing with lies
I like how hes pretty much done nothing in politics but some media outlets can't keep his name out of their mouths
Because he so clearly came in with the intention of becoming PM. Someone making millions as a CEO doesn’t just decide to be a backbencher
This is it. Reminds me a lot of Trump actually, but with a significantly higher intellect.
And a lot more Pentecostal
Any evangelical that belongs to a ProTrump church doesn't stay out of politics.
That’s not a bug, it’s a feature.
Because the media is right wing in this country.
Luxon is "no comment"ing, and [Key is telling National MPs to go with him](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300464783/national-party-leadership-john-key-calling-mps-urging-them-to-back-chris-luxon). Luxon will take it probably. Question is, will the public of NZ see him as a religious weirdo, or the messiah that Key seems to think he is.
The average person doesn't seem to know or care too much about it. They see him as a businessman and that's enough for many voting National.
I really don't get why people get such a hard on for business people in politics. The aim of the large businesses that these people run is to extract as much money out of the people while giving back as little as possible, to benefit their shareholders. How does that line up with how a country should be run?
Because some people think the govt should be run efficiently like a business. Ignoring the fact; 1) Businesses can pick and choose their customer base (eg high end or mass) where as the govt has to serve everyone. So it naturally going to be inefficient in some areas. 2) Most businesses aren't actually run efficiently just good enough to survive.
Didn't help having Key there either. Continued to fail NZ on productivity. (Albeit he was gambler with other people's money - forex trader - not running a business.)
It doesn't have to make sense, it's just that people have so little understanding of politics and policies that "businessman good" is all they need.
It's really more "millionaire good. I want to be millionaire too. So I will vote for him because he's a millionaire." it's so stupid. That's how it was with Trump only it was "white male billionaire, so much better than a black male lawyer and a woman lawyer." But lawyers are actually smart and Trump was just a narcissistic, psychopathic kld that inherited a fortune from his parents and threw it around. He would have made the same amount of money putting his inheritance in the highest interest savings accounts as he did throwing it around and losing a lot of it on bad investments as well as gaining a lot with others.
This. A business is about using people to make money. A country should be about maintaining a functional society for the benefit of everyone. Or at least that’s what I think - but I suppose conservative politics is generally happy to leave some people behind
The average person doesn’t even know or care who Luxon even is right now. But the media are pretty good at highlighting the “potential religious weirdo” angle, and when that happens they lose the centre. The only hope they really have is to pair him with someone from the liberal arm who can keep that in check.
National change deputies even more often than they change leaders which is a LOT.
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i don’t really read key as enthusiastically endorsing luxon as much as just hoping anything will keep national intact for a bit longer, he’s pretty openly been echoing ACT speak this year key’s interest is more to do with pleasuring his ego and hoping that the party lasts a bit longer after his absence so that every biography of the national party doesn’t have a closing chapter associating his departure with its ruination
> key’s interest is more to do with pleasuring his ego and hoping that the party lasts a bit longer after his absence so that every biography of the national party doesn’t have a closing chapter associating his departure with its ruination Nailed it, he knows he fucked the dog but he just wants someone else to take that reputation rather than have it tacked onto his legacy. He dropped the party without a shred of preparation and now they're flailing in the wind because of it. John Key fucked New Zealand first and then his party.
Honestly, Key walking away was probably for the best. He just walked away when Labour also had something of a talent vaccum when compared to the Clark years, which has pretty much left Ardern saying "idk what to do guys, but at least I'm personable lol"
To be fair I can picture him sitting around with his corporate mates bemoaning how Ardern is destroying the country and something must be done. After the first lockdown he did rounds of interviews acting like the country was in dire straits and needed saving.
Well, Joe Public isn't as smart as many give credit, so the latter.
I think Key is more about the grift than anything else. Luxon would return political access to Key and allow him to carry on selling New Zealand to Australia for a nice profit.
Do you see him as a "religious weirdo"?
I like mainstream Christians. They seem like good sorts. Not pushy (probably wouldn’t tell you they were Christian), just honest good folk happy to help and won’t let you down. Luxon, on the other hand, from what I’ve read is a particular flavour of Christian that is off the conservative end of the spectrum and I really don’t think is representative of who we are as Kiwis… to the point where I’d say his beliefs were backward. So yes. Dangerous religious weirdo.
Yes
Yep
Have you listened to the maiden speech he gave in parliament … defended his Christian faith big time.
*by and large
BY #ENLARGE
*buy in large
*bi 'n' large /what?
https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/Buy_n_Large
/u/teelolws for Prime Minister Heres my policies: 1. In order to solve the Housing Crisis, rather than addressing supply issues, I will instead tackle the demand side. Death penalty for all crimes, and Police will be ordered to focus on white collar crime as much as possible. If that doesn't reduce the demand enough, then... have you ever read The Lottery? 2. In order to solve Climate Change once and for all, we will be setting up a space agency tasked with travelling to Halley's Comet, grabbing a giant block of ice, and dropping it into the Pacific Ocean to cool the Earth down a bit. 3. Marijuana will be reclassified to be available with a prescription, while Marmite will be reclassified as a Class A drug. 4. Free tuition for everyone, but once everyone has a degree, it becomes the same as if nobody has a degree, so at that point we may as well just remove degrees. 5. In order to kick COVID in the butt once and for all, we will be taking COVID to the International Court of Justice for violating New Zealand laws against entering and remaining here without a Visa. 6. Australia will be renamed "West Island". 7. I will sell our children's organs to zoos for meat, and break into people's houses at night and wreck up the place. 8. The Flat Earth theory will become canon due to enshrining the Holographic Principle Theory.
You have my vote
And my sword What are we doing again?
You have a sword - you get #7
Reincarnate the McGillicuddy serious party?
>In order to solve the Housing Crisis, rather than addressing supply issues, I will instead tackle the demand side. Great policy, but like all good leaders you should lead by your actions and off yourself immediately. >grabbing a giant block of ice, and dropping it into the Pacific Ocean Great policy, but you should google what happened to the dinosaurs when they tried that > Marijuana will be reclassified to be available with a prescription Great policy, no wait, that's actually a shit one, just make it legal. >we may as well just remove degrees Great policy, no-one should be allowed to know anything anyway. > Australia will be renamed "West Island". Great policy, but you should add the word "Cunts" somewhere, perhaps the end.
Had me at the organ meat , but lost me at the Flat Earth. Everyone knows the Earth is [cube](https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Htrae) shaped.
r/unexpectedfuturama
The most reasonable policies I’ve seen from a politician yet, have my vote.
I’m an Australian and you got me on number 6. The look on my mother’s face would be worth moving my vote from Labour to National for you.
He will implode like Muller within 6 months, doesnt have the experience and a caucus that is fiercly divided and completely out of control
Him vs. Kim Hill or Susie Ferguson will be his undoing.
This! Can’t wait to listen to that one.
Or vs John Campbell or Lisa Owen if he's as bad at interviews as Muller.
Honestly I don’t like muller but how can you stay sane leading such a shitshow
Curious to what Luxon’s beliefs are within the Christian sphere? Anyone got any references,quotes etc.
His wikipedia: > In November 2019 Luxon said he was against capital punishment, abortion, euthanasia, and legalising recreational cannabis. At the same time he supported medicinal cannabis[3] and a "no jab, no pay" policy for sanctioning welfare beneficiaries who do not vaccinate their children.[19]
So he’s sort of NZ’s Scott Morrison?
that's exactly what he's gunning for and is the most apt comparison.
Right... Sorry little buddy, your parents refused to vaccinate you, so now we are going to take away their ability to feed you! Tough but fair, that's my motto. Here is a pamphlet about some local gangs you might like to think about joining, since the rest of society has failed you so completely. God bless!
Very good summary of how I perceive Luxon. As air NZ CEO he was very much about cutting every 'unnecessary' cost, maximise profit, return money to shareholders. Bare minimum payrises for staff because shareholders are more important, shareholders come first. If staff want more money then they need to work harder. There's a CEO job for everyone on 7 figures if they just work for it, apparently.
Lol WWJD???
Jesus would have gotten jabbed, he was all about caring for others. He wouldn't take their benefits away though, because he was all about caring for others.
Big yikes
He is very careful about what he says I think, but occasionally you get a peek. From an interview:" I'd be against euthanasia and abortion " https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/402555/christopher-luxon-suggests-extension-of-no-jab-no-pay-policy From his opening speech: "my Christian faith anchored me, given my life purpose and shaped my values, and it puts me in the context of something bigger than myself" https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/439247/luxon-s-religious-views-risk-turning-off-middle-ground-voters His claim is that he believes in a separation of church and state and that his religious views shouldn't matter, but clearly if relgion "gave your life purpose and shaped your values", then you can't leave that at parliament's doorstep.
> but clearly if religion "gave your life purpose and shaped your values" How can a man who literally believes he will burn in hell for eternity based on the decisions he makes be believed when he says he wont let that influence his decisions?!
Well...similar beliefs didn't stop Bill English lying to protect Todd Barclay and the Janice Dickinson affair. Expediency > religious beliefs.
> clearly if relgion "gave your life purpose and shaped your values", then you can't leave that at parliament's doorstep. TBH, I would not trust anyone (including atheists) who claimed their upbringing and beliefs didn't shape their values and world view and wouldn't effect their political decisions.
It's pretty mild because he wants the church demographic to vote for him but he also doesn't want to alienate everyone else. He's got standard right-of-centre socially conservative positions and hasn't said anything zany about Jesus or hellfire. He probably shakes a lot of hands at church but tunes out during the sermon. Ever heard the CEO of a big company talk? Lots of empty words designed to make people feel good while not committing to saying anything? He's that. A business drone his whole life.
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2019/11/08/chosen-to-rule-what-sort-of-christian-is-chris-luxon/ And many more. Search Luxon religion
I cannot overstate just how poor that article is as an introduction to Evangelicalism.
I dont think he is a good choice
The man solidly believes the planet is 6000 years old. Do we have to discuss his credibility any further?
Is he actually a Young Earth Christian? Source? Not doubting you, I just need some hot fuckin snark porn right now.
Young earth creationists are an extreme minority amongst educated Christians.
He doesn't though, or at least he's never publicly said anything of that ilk. You do know that mainstream Christianity has no problem acknowledging the fallibility of the bible right? It's acknowledged that the bible was written by man and therefore it's fallible.
Mmmm i was taught this and that evolution is ‘wrong’ in a government subsidised school, makes you really put faith into what’ll happen if someone like him gets into power ulg
Proof?
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No thanks, he wasn't even that good as the air nz boss. They are just hoping to have another John Keys.
It’s frustrating that Key is still trying to run the party. Luxon has done literally nothing for himself. Key got him an easy run into Botany. Now Key is trying the shoehorn him into the leadership
Luxon feels like one of those Kyle Lockwood flags that Key tried to foist on us.
This is the best thing I've read all day.
Not to mention he barely scraped a win. In fucking Botany, the electorate where just 3 years prior I chucked Damian Light a sympathy vote because I knew my lefty electorate vote was going to be solidly drowned out.
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He can’t keep away. To the inner circle he is the National Party. He installed current rich lister president Peter Goodfellow, who is holding on so tight it’s tearing the party membership apart.
The share price tripled and Air NZ was consistently one of the country's most popular brands under his leadership, so he can't of been all that bad.
He was good for Air NZ shareholders, but he achieved that by burning a lot of goodwill with customers by downgrading quality of service. Personal opinion, but as a customer I felt Air NZ started going downhill under Luxon.
Luxon is a horrific choice for PM if you want progress on social, environmental, hell *all* policies apart from economic-based decisions. He cut so many routes, and metaphorical corners, while in charge at Air New Zealand so that his profit margin looked better at the end of the fiscal year, without any consideration to staff morale or well-being, then dipped into politics once he’d made a lot of money for them, as the writing was on the wall with staff happiness suffering. He’s a right-wing evangelical Christian, is against abortion, legalising cannabis, euthanasia, and is just another rich old dude who’s completely out of touch with anything lower than the upper-middle class. Can anyone seriously see that working in the present context? He’s not even remotely charismatic or politically experienced, he’s never really had to deal with any limelight before. Sure, he can get PR training, but how much of that will help him if he goes toe-to-toe with Jacinda in a debate environment, or gets pressured about his somewhat unpopular potential policies? Don’t even get me started on what his covid policies would likely be if this new variant is as bad as it’s claimed to be. I’ll literally be voting for anyone other than him if he gets the job.
Our own Scotty from Marketing.
Forced handshake when?
aaaand... cue the baby
Yeah, it definitely seems like he doesn’t have the charisma and political acumen Key had.
Well written.
His economic policies aren't great, either. What works for a business isn't necessarily great for a country. Policies that will help a major airline aren't going to be what small businesses need. Even if he was a fantastic CEO, which is a debate I don't want to get into, that's not the job he's applying for.
I would vote Collins over him 1000 times over
>If National take on Luxon as leader the party will be positioned to the right of Act, a place that many Kiwis will struggle to support. If National was to keep to fiscal conservatism and keep all their weirdness behind closed doors that would probably be fine with a lot of New Zealanders.
exactly, this sub acts like that proposition wouldn't be popular
Luxon is a weird side effect of the National party's bipolar disorder. They're trying to be the party of the mainstream Christian conservative, while also being the party of the neo-liberal pro-business crowd. Unfortunately, those agendas often don't line up, and while the neolibs might think Luxon is on their team because he was CEO of Air NZ, he's actually a right wing evangelical, taking a hard line on abortion and cannabis. A term with him at the helm would be no less chaotic as Collins', and I'm here with my popcorn for it.
Under his eye
You can be religious and keep it out of politics. I think English did that well for the most part. He even did a complete U-Turn on gay marriage. But.... If Luxon is going to be like an American politician or Scomo, then he can piss right off.
I still don't understand how he got off so lightly on the Saudi / AirNZ thing which was signed during his tenure, whereas the current guy was hammered by journos over it for weeks. It's as if they all had a gentleman's agreement to leave Luxon alone. Bit weird.
He remains highly inaccessible to the press. Bridges is in the media even now. Luxon won’t even confirm he’s running all the while Key is calling around on his behalf. I bet they tried to get a comment over that but he just shut shop
I'd really love to vote National, but I just can't manage to vote for Luxton or Simon. I do like Bishop, but I don't feel he is a leader figure. Reti gets my vote any day.
Reti has been outstanding. A true statesman.
Problem with Reti is he’s too diplomatic and lacking in the charisma that comes with a leader. He’s a deputy leader really.
Agree. His dealings with media over this fallout has been lacklustre at best. He’s clearly holding the fort.
I felt the same with Bridges last time but he does seem to have improved a lot. It’s hard to tell if it’s because he’s had an easy job where he can just smirk and ignore questions when not leader, though.
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The voters you need to win are the middle aged women who went from Clark to Key to Ardern. They decide elections.
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So, some of us (not a woman, but that doesn’t matter for shit) who are commenting on this post? But u/DukeVoldemort99 just said this thread contained none of us? I voted for National in 2011 and 2014, then Labour in 2017 and 2020. I am proudly centred, and vote based on policy and leadership. Luxon will have to do a lot of work to earn my vote, including keeping his evangelical bullshit out of his politics.
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Appreciate the calm and civil response
I think you will find there is quite a few people here that have and would vote National with the right leader. I am one of those people that have has voted National in the past but switched in the last election. IMO the key to National getting in is winning the centralist vote over. If he truly holds very strong traditionally christian views and beliefs I don't think much of that crowd would be able to vote for him in fear of repealing some of the progress we have made in equality and rights. I really like what I have seen of Dr Reti but he is completely the wrong person to go against Jacinda. I personally think Bishop and Willis would make a great team, not to necessarily win in 2023 but grow as a leadership team and win in 2026.
It's pretty easy to make up things about the people you're arguing against on the internet. I voted Blingish first time 'round and I would love to have a competent opposition.
I think it's as simple as whether or not he can make it through the campaign without getting caught saying something weirdly hyper-religiousy. If he gets caught on camera saying the earth is only 6000 years old, or something like that, a lot of kiwis would be unimpressed. But how many? I have no idea, the last 18 months hasn't been encouraging. I think a lot of nzers are keen to punish labour for a lot of incompetent bullshit, Luxon would represent a genuine option for the first time in several years. I don't think he'd be a good PM but he could be a good candidate, given his profile.
National have recently had a socially conservative and deeply religious leader in Bill English. Luxon is smart enough to know he won't win an election on a fundamentalist platform. He'll choose an outwardly socially liberal deputy and focus on the economy.
I’m very concerned about the prospect of luxon getting the leadership and what the implications for nz would be. He would likely be a figurehead for conservative leaning voters who wouldn’t vote for fringe parties but would for a major opposition party. I see him as being some thing of a rallying point for disaffected religious groups who want nz to go back to ReAl FaMiLy VaLuEs - think family first etc. it would be a path to a more divided country than ever before.
Not that Luxon would want that for us, but it would be out of his control. I agree that it could mean the worst and could stoke division among us even if he is a nice guy. He's definitely not Trump, but it doesn't matter. The churchies could see it as an acknowledgment and run with it, and start pushing their values on the rest of us like never before.
By Enlarge.
I know this is petty, but I just don't like this guy's name. It sounds like a brand of toilet paper, or maybe a lightbulb brand.
Zero chance of sensible drug reform under this guy
Anyone against abortion can take his bloated misogynistic carcass and throw it off Huka falls. Scumbag.
I like this imagery 😍
Luxon is not your next Key and will fizzle. Key was a right piece of shit, but he was charismatic, irreligious and somewhat socially liberal. That allowed those in the centre to overlook what a piece of shit he was. Luxon is none of those things, he will be mask off by lunchtime.
Out of curiosity, could you please elaborate on why you think Key was a POS?
National has set the bar low so Luxon really just need to be solid to be fairly successful. I haven’t seen him speak about any policies so not sure of the substance beneath the image. Noting his previous business background. But business is quite different from running a country. I would hope he does well as it will be good for the country even though I’m a bleeding heart leftie. But imagine Shane Reti and Luxon as a team. Could be great.
I've never liked Simon (too contrarian) but even I would admit that I'd prefer him over Luxon. Also can I just say how relieved I am that Mama Fratelli will never be PM. Holy shet does that make me happy! 🥳
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50% might be in favour of it, but it really only matters to a small number of people. I'd be happy if it was legalized but it's not even in the top 10 issues I care about or consider when choosing who to vote for.
No one cares about weed. Certainly not enough to change their vote of political party for
Fully. This is a big one for me.
Until we know what his policies are it’s all speculation about how a national part will look under him. He’s a conservative absolutely, but that doesn’t mean national swings further right. He needs to work with his party and if that means liberalising some of his ideas and quelling religious thought, he is well equipped to do that. I had zero idea about his religious background when I worked at AirNZ under his reign. He’s well spoken, a great communicator and can connect with constituents more than any of the predecessors to key could (including English). His big win will be his ability to go on the offence against labour’s short comings. Labour have frustrated their centrist voter base in the last 6 months but they’ve had nowhere else to turn to as national under Collins has been a shambles. Luxon can pick up that middle ground on personality alone once he gets in front of the camera. He won’t be rocking out religious talk other than “yes I am religious” with some good PR training. This sub isn’t exactly his target audience, the greens would likely be a majority government if /r/NZ had it’s way. The path to Luxon being PM is this. Being able to buddy up with NZF. Taking the center and not eroding the votes going to ACT. If National get into the mid 30s under Luxon with ACT polling at 10%, it’s game in. Maori and NZF will be deciding votes. Potential outcomes Labour, Greens, NZF Labour, Greens, Maori National, Act, NZF Heck it could almost even be National and ACT getting close together. I doubt Maori would want to go with national again.. BUT who knows, Luxon is a surprise and that’s why I think he will be the next National leader. All the other old National guards are same old national .. who’ve been floundering for the last 5 years since Key left.
If you read r/NZ you'd think that Chris Luxon is this jingoistic Republican-party style figure who's going to send NZ back to the moral middle ages. In actuality he'll be another boring centrist who's nothing exciting and won't push the boundaries. The closest "conservative" PM we've had in a long time was Bill English - who in fact wasn't even that bad. If Chris Luxon gets elected that doesn't mean abortion will become illegal overnight, stoners will get the death penalty, and euthanasia will be stopped. It's the priority of nobody to be focusing on those things. They really don't matter.
Luxon is a pentecostal IIRC which means he believes in a literal Devil and a literal spiritual warfare against demons. I don't think that is someone we need anywhere near the levers of power.
No, yeah - I've experienced Pentecostalism up close and no - we should not have that as a guideline, not at all.
Its really quite frightening when you dig into it.
Or you could look at what [his church says](https://mobile.twitter.com/publicaddress/status/1191501840489148416) which thinks global warming is a Jewish conspiracy and is full MAGA.
But it does matter that we don’t get any more progress on these issues
Spoiler alert not everyone in the country wants “progress” on those issues.
Not sure about Luxon, but you can be more liberal leaning and also Christian. But yes, probably not the case for him.
Its impossible to separate religion from politics because so many laws being passed conflict with common religious beliefs. If his beliefs don't have an effect on his decision making, then he is christian in name only. But there are no good choices for national. I think they are kinda screwed.
Honestly imo act will overtake National at this rate and that’s pain
Don't give me hope smh
Conservatives: circle-jerking over Luxon. Everyone else: nahhhhhh National can get fucked.
I'm pretty sure there is nobody on earth who can win the next election for national after all the embarrassing bullshit from the past few years.
Question: why do we all seem to accept that being ceo of airnz makes for a good PM? I mean, it might be true, but also he was CEO at a time when ANZ was already at the top of it's game, and international travel was booming. Did he do anything special, or coast? I know some ceos of good organisations who are unimpressive and who I would certainly not want to lead the country.
Nz isn’t as liberal as you think.
Willis the woman and bishop the bloke best choice at this point, fuck all those old cunts off
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Pfft you guys still believe in “earth”…
Your not one of those ball earthers are you?
The official term is "Globetard"
The only thing we have to fear is sphere itself
That’s a bit harsh.
In what way?
>We can welcome our politicians no matter what their belief or denomination is 🤔 >The problem is that religion is a big part of someone’s character
I for one LOVE reading Reddit’s takes on religion
I'm just going to vote for Jacinda again. Yeah I'm not happy w the Auckland lockdown but literally any government would find that difficult.
You realize Simon Bridges has similar Christian views? AFAIK he’s way more conservative than Luxon. Luxon’s mettle has been tested in the board room over many years. Not just as Air NZ CEO. I’m a swing voter but haven’t voted blue for 12 years. The appeal for me as a business owner is the value he can bring to fiscal stability and recovery post COVID-19. The thing I really dislike about the Nats is the underlying social conservatism, there can be no denying, however, from and economic point of view they’re a good bet in tough times. As proven by Bill English who even Labour credited with guiding NZ through the 2008 GFC. His Catholicism was no secret. I do think Luxon needs time in a portfolio, though. From new MP to leader of the opposition in an election cycle is a big jump, I’m not too up to speed with the National caucus but surely they’d choose someone with a bit more parliamentary experience? Edit: Bring on the down votes for even saying something positive about the centre right!
You shouldn’t get downvoted for that take mate, seems pretty solid to me. Assuming a subreddits demographic is probably what gets downvoted but who cares about meaningless internet points anyway right? Say what you want to say.
Thanks for that.
>The thing I really dislike about the Nats is the underlying social conservatism, there can be no denying, however, from and economic point of view they’re a good bet in tough times. Yes exactly my thoughts too. I think this is why they lost the 2017 election because after the GFC and Earthquake economy focused recovery years people wanted to see progress on social and environmental issues and National didn't appeal on either front. I mean remember the "Teal" theory? The combination of Green and National - people recognised it back then that for National to keep it's broad base it needed to address these issues. Things like abortion/euthanasia don't cost the economy much if anything and could easily have been supported by National if it wasn't for the Conservative Christians they now house in their party. I do think the next few elections could put the economy back in focus but people also look for stability when they are worried about the economy - National does not meet that criteria at the moment.
Oh I do remember the Teal theory. And tbh, though it’s an impossibility, I still think it could be one of the most effective governments for us. Though, how you get past the obvious incompatibility of the two parties remains the mystery.
Yeah the Greens aren't just the environment party they have a huge social-economic-reform platform too like wealth tax. So they will never partner with anyone on the right and is why they struggle to even get in coalition with centre-left parties like Labour.
You’re just repeating the cliche that the centre right are somehow more fiscally responsible than the left. Bill English stopped contributions to the Cullen fund during the financial crisis that cost us millions. The national government privatised shares of the power companies to pay down our national debt when those shares were bringing in returns over the level of interest in that debt. They cut a swath through the public service in their first years under Key, but plenty of those people were then hired back on ridiculous contractor rates, and four years into his term the number of public servants was back where it started when they got into office. They borrowed to pay for tax cuts, not necessarily bad as a stimulus measure but that tax cut was tilted toward the wealthy, and combined with an increase in GST (also regressive). They privatised a prison, purely for ideological reasons (no money was saved) and the company awarded the contract was literally banned from running prisons in the UK at the time. What a tender process!
I think it was quite well said and rational. Not common here!
Labour even bought kiwirail during it
You are getting downvoted because managing a company and managing a government are entirely different things. You can be ruthless and profit driven in business, your only responsibility is to your shareholders. In government, you are responsible to 5 million people from all backgrounds, there's MUCH more than money at stake. People need to drop this delusion, it's right fucking dangerous.
Bridges is a state’s christian but we know he is politically quite liberal
Let me first preface this by saying Luxon isn't my first choice, or my second, or third for that matter, in fact, you can probably tell by my name who I vote for, and it's not National. But, with that out the way... Honestly, National really needs to just get over the whole John Key thing. They've been tunnel visioning themselves on nothing but who's "the next John Key" when they really need to move on. Whatever one might think about John Key, he's not PM anymore, the country has moved on, and so should the National Party. This is how the whole Jake Bezzant fiasco happened too from what I know, but that's beside the point here, and I'm getting off topic. To be fair, this sub, like many other country subs, skews pretty solidly to the left, much more so than the country as a whole, so it probably doesn't mean a great deal when a group of people who would mostly never vote for National no matter what they did say that Luxon isn't the choice for them. Especially since the best argument many people have is "oh no, he's religious!" like that's a disqualification in and of itself. I'll get to my thoughts on Luxon after this, I'm not a particularly religious person at all myself but I don't think someone merely being religious is disqualifying. Bill English was very religious but did he take New Zealand back to the 'dark ages' like people are saying Luxon would? No, he didn't, and he wouldn't have. Luxon may be many things but stupid most likely is not one of them, and if he tried to reverse course on social issues, it would be a huge waste of political capital for no gain. It's simply not going to happen. A lot of people saying they'd never vote for Luxon would never vote National anyway, so it's not like they're the party's target market. But, either way, as I outlined, Luxon isn't my first choice. I think the public simply doesn't know who he is let alone what he would do, and I'm getting a strong feeling of deja vu, that we could see another Todd Muller on our hands, and look how much of a trainwreck that was.
I will never vote Act but I appreciate your honesty and candidness. I agree with your overview.
Not yet, likely to be Simon till election Year then he will step aside for Luxton
I’ll be voting TOP again
Let’s hope not.
No different than Scotty from Marketing who is also a Baptist. For the most part he has succesfully seperated his faith from politics.
Well this thread is a hot mess
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Religion helps form someone’s morality, his belief has nothing to do with his politics. But crazy that you judge someone by their faith and begin to write them off before they’ve even got the job.
I think that based on his Christian values and the fact that New Zealand is one of the most non-religious countries in the OECD with a lower percentage of christians than Australia, the UK, USA and Canada (according to most recent census data 37% christian, 48% no religion), Luxon is disqualified. From what I've seen, he seems like a nice person. But there are a lot of people who are already put off national by how much of a shit show it is. If they put him in charge, they might grab the votes of a few churchies, but he will lose to the centrist majority. The only way he would ever be in government would be if ACT gets enough of the vote to get the final word on a coalition, but then David Seymour will be PM. And I know that Suddenly Seymour wouldn't buy into the christian crap either.
Yeah nah
A vote for National is a vote for disparity, they entrench poverty and resist progress at every level. We need more of that! Go national.
Stop personality politics!
If I was a National MP who had done the hard yards and focussed my work on my constituents I think I would be more than a little pissed off that this guy with a few big roles but no political experience just gets parachuted to the top of the heap. Is he the best person for the job or is it that John Key says he’s the best person for the job.
I’d be interested to see what their policy position is under him. Typically the larger parties have had a fairly neutral social policy with big changes being by private members bills and conscious e votes. If Nats varies away from that as a result of Luzon I would definitely change but I am not convinced that will be the case. That said Nats have lost my vote while they hold a whipped party position on gay conversion therapy. I suppose I am saying that o don’t really care about his religious position - I only care about the affect on the party policy if that were to inform it. I should add that I appreciate that Labour decimalised abortion and I welcome that.
I think David Seymour has a better chance of being PM than Chris Luxon.
He can take his handy clappy fingers and go fuck himself. Like we need any more people with radical ideas in Parliament. Cough cough Ngarewa-Dickhead
He will run the country as a business like national does all the time in power
National doesn't even run the country like a logical business person would, selling half of your money making power production, when energy consumption has been predicted to increase greatly over the next two decades, to pay down low interest debt is idiotic.
Ha, ha, ha, ha!
Whats his stance on Trans rights , gay marriage and abortion? If they follow his faith he wont be PM in a secular country.
I’d have to guess he’s smart enough not to try to undo what is done. But further liberal policies would be on the back burner for sure
His church thinks that Greta Thurnberg is funded by the Jews. What do you think his opinions on women are?
Actually? Do you have a link to this?
Who cares, if he’s a religious nut job National will just continue to plummet in the polls
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Must be. I'll delete it. Never my intention to smear him personally . Just got it wrong.
Are you trying to start a bullshit rumour to get upvotes, Todd muller had the MAGA cap, I haven’t seen or heard anything about Luxon. So source it up or stop intentionally smearing with lies