The PM's State of the Nation speech got the media's attention when he said welfare needs reform. He didn't mention record-level immigration but that's also been deemed unsustainable and set for a reset too. What did the media tell about these problems - and what's at stake?

The prime minister's State of the Nation speech got the media's attention when he said welfare needs reform. He didn't mention record-level immigration but that's also been deemed unsustainable and set for a reset too. What did the media tell about these problems - and what's at stake?

In his State of the Nation speech last Sunday the prime minister described Kiwis today as resourceful, reasonable and resilient - but the country as fractured, fragile and lacking lost mojo.

But the pundits mostly agreed the new prime minister found his mojo.

"Yesterday's speech was good. Better still was the presentation: Luxon sounded like a normal person," Stuff's Andrea Vance said in The Post on Monday.

That made the paper's front page under the headline 'Who de-programmed Luxon?'

The same day, BusinessDesk's Pattrick Smellie was also wondering.

"Christopher Luxon has looked for a while like a man in need of a decent speechwriter. His State of the Nation speech suggests either that one has been found - or Luxon is starting to find his voice as prime minister. Or possibly both"

Smellie also reckoned Luxon came across as a "bit of a scold" when repeatedly highlighting our "fragility" and the need for "tough love".

" was him giving the country a bit of a boot up the backside. And let's be honest, we all need that from time to time," TVNZ's Maiki Sherman told 1 News viewers last Monday.

But not everyone was feeling Luxon's boot.

Zeroing in on welfare 'blowout'

"We got a lot of talk about beneficiaries. And they were told that the free ride was over. And then in the end, there was an admission to reporters that the government has yet to explain how it would address and finance the solution to our woes," Newstalk ZB Afternoon host Andrew Dickens told listeners.

"Choosing to make it the centrepiece of the post-Cabinet press conference was more about pure political theatre. But the fact it was largely theatre does not mean it is not good politics," said New Zealand Herald political editor Claire Trevett the same day. …

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