Episode description
In this week's Focus on Politics, RNZ's political team interviews the leaders of National, ACT, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori.
National Party leader Christopher Luxon
As the political year comes to an end, party leaders are looking forward to the summer break and pondering their approach to next year's election.
Last week, we heard from Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about a year that's seen anti-government sentiment and economic turmoil on the rise.
Listen to the full podcast
This week the man who wants her job, National's Christopher Luxon, expounds on the need in this political environment for bolder action than was seen under his National predecessors John Key and Bill English.
He fended off criticism of a dearth of policy, saying more will come in election year - and dismissed the gaffes made in his first year as leader, saying they are immaterial to the broader community.
Read more:
Jacinda Ardern: 'A challenging year'
Christopher Luxon: 'Rest assured, we will have policy'
James Shaw and Marama Davidson: 2022 went 'phenomenally well'
Keep an eye out this coming week for full write-ups of interviews with ACT's David Seymour, and Te Pāti Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi.
Luxon would - based on current polling - need ACT's David Seymour in a coalition to get into government.
Seymour stops short of directly criticising Luxon - saying he had been impressed with his performance - but ACT would be needed to hold National to the right wing of politics.
"There's so far nothing to indicate that Chris Luxon will be anything different from the last five incoming National Prime Ministers who've said a lot of very aggressive things about Labour's policies but also kept Labour's politics. The reason you vote ACT is that you don't think that's going to be good enough this time."
On the other side of the political spectrum are the Greens - regularly polling around or better than its result in 2020. The party has been in a strange position this term of being in partnership with a majority government - the first under MMP.
Co-leader James Shaw says the party wants more MPs at the Cabinet table "because that is where you get the most influence". However, he and co-leader Marama Davidson say they value being members of a party that's not comfortable with power. …