Despite the polls, I reckon the last two weeks have been among the best for Christopher Luxon in his time as Prime Minister.  

Sure, the numbers aren’t showing him and his government much love. School lunches still have their issues and the Treaty Principles episode is far from over, but at a time when Luxon faces significant pressure on the domestic front and a pretty grumpy voting public, you can’t deny his efforts at the Infrastructure Investment Summit and in India represent a full-court press in the government’s push for economic growth.   

I know we don’t have big tangibles yet. I know we don’t yet have a Free Trade Deal. I know that if we do get one negotiated and signed, our biggest primary export sector may end up with very little. But at a time when most of us are feeling really glum about the economy (despite this week’s GDP figures), when unemployment continues to rise, and when our second-biggest trading partner and world’s biggest economy is being led by an erratic and highly-unpredictable President, the welcome that Luxon and his delegation received in India and the resumption of negotiations were meaningful. Sure, it’s a stretch to think get a comprehensive deal signed in the next 18 months, but you can’t argue we’re not in a better position today than we were when Luxon took over.   

It’s my view that on several occasions as National’s leader, the Prime Minister has suffered from having a bad political radar. I think he’s made some misjudgements that perhaps MPs with more political experience would have been able to avoid. But of his many public-facing responsibilities, I think he’s probably at his best when he’s alongside international business and political leaders in salesman mode as it were, hustling.   

I was at APEC in Peru with him last year. It was the same. The PM flew in and flew out.  The time zone was a dog. He was only the ground for about 48 hours. There were breakfasts and dinners, official meetings, multiple bilaterals all across town and twenty different leaders to meet. I just remember that when he landed, before he even went to his hotel or had a shower, after 17 or 18 hours in the air, Luxon insisted on swinging past the Australian delegation from an impromptu visit to Anthony Albanese. By anyone’s measure, it was a gruelling schedule with no down time, and Luxon always had to be ‘on’. And I asked him just before he flew home how he was feeling.  

‘You must be exhausted?’ I said.   

Honestly, it was as though the possibility had never crossed his mind.   

‘Huh?’ He said.   

‘No... I love this!’ he said. I believed him.   

There are plenty of levers governments can pull that impact economic conditions. This government’s critics will argue that a part of New Zealand’s current economic malaise is the result of its policies. Nonetheless, at a time when the world’s biggest superpower is spraying around tariffs and speedily retreating from its traditional international role, I do think there’s value —symbolic or otherwise— in a Prime Minister overtly hustling for his country. 

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