Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has mounted a defence of his leadership, reminding people he rebuilt the National Party after "a state of civil war".
Speculation his job was under threat was whirling around Parliament just a few weeks ago, prompting senior Cabinet ministers to outright deny plotting a coup.
A series of worrying polls had indicated National might net a lower party vote next year, fuelling dissatisfaction within its caucus.
In an end of year sit-down interview with RNZ this week, Luxon said he would "absolutely" be National's leader at the 2026 election campaign.
"I've seen media comments. I've had those right from day one. The reality is, I came into politics four or five years ago on our second-worst election result.
"The National Party was in a state of civil war, we'd had five leaders in five years. The media was used to a daily soap opera from the National Party and there's been a bit of an overhang around that.
"So I've had that right from the get-go in all the time that I've been involved in politics but I know what it took to rebuild a National Party from 20 percent to 37 percent and find a pathway to win an election after being in quite a dysfunctional state, and then to be able to form a coalition government."
He said he had a "tight, disciplined team".
A slow economic recovery
Luxon heralded 2025 as the year of economic growth, though stubborn inflation and United States tariffs have stymied progress.
"The reality is we hit quarter two with Trump's liberation day and that caused a huge loss of confidence.
"Through that winter period in New Zealand it was incredibly difficult because the reaction to the Q2 contraction in the economy, as a function of the chaos and the uncertainty around the tariff policy, caused a huge amount of negative sentiment for people."
Luxon said he was aware it had been "incredibly difficult and challenging for people".
"We were slow coming out of Covid, and they've walked straight into a recession by virtue of economic management being poor and I know people want it done faster and we're [going] as fast as we can."
Luxon said he was "fixated" on unemployment as many people struggled to find work, though he blamed economic mismanagement for the tough job market.
"If you care about working New Zealanders, they've taken the brunt of this economic mismanagement and that's why I feel a huge responsibility to actually fix it."
He was focused on long-term solutions, not "sugar hits" and "bumper stickers", he said.
"Unemployment is, technically, below our 15-year average. That doesn't really matter to someone who's lost their job and our opportunity is to get inflation down, interest rates down, get the economy growing, create opportunity for jobs.
"One in four jobs in New Zealand are tied to firms that actually export their products and services internationally, yet we had a trade deficit meaning we were importing more than we were exporting.
"Now, for the first time in the last month, we are exporting more than we import and that means New Zealand firms are growing and they can hire more workers and pay workers higher wages."
Coalition dynamics
Luxon has headed up New Zealand first three-way coalition for more than two years now, defying the naysayers who suggested the government might fall apart.
He was "proud" of how the coalition partners had found a way to work together.
"It's been very important to me from the beginning that people have space to differentiate and when you think about the six parties that are in the New Zealand Parliament, that they all have different brand positionings, different policies, different constituencies, and you have to allow space for that to happen.
"I think what you've seen is massive alignment at the centre and on the core, important stuff, but on the margins yes, there will be differences and as we go through the course of next year parties will be looking to differentiate.
"But don't confuse that with the fact that actually we are still very focused as a coalition government on getting this economy growing, getting law and order restored, better health, better education."
New Zealand First and the ACT Party have recently gone toe-to-toe on the Regulatory Standards Bill, after NZ First leader Winston Peters vowed to repeal it moments after it was passed into law.
National has not outright committed to keeping it, though Luxon told RNZ it would be a shame to not give the new law a proper go before deciding on any changes.
"We've only just passed the bill and the intention of the bill is a bit like the Public Finance Act, to make sure that the politicians are actually making good-quality regulation and legislation, that they're not causing grief for the New Zealanders as a result of bad law-making.
"So let's give it a good go, let's see how it goes and of course if it needs to be tweaked, we can form a view later."
No apologies for a law-and-order crackdown
The government has implemented a law-and-order crackdown this term, introducing tougher sentencing laws and gang-specific offences.
It is building hundreds more prison beds in Hawke's Bay as the prison muster bulges to nearly 11,000 people.
Luxon made no apologies for the growing prison population or the cost of it, saying it was "a great investment".
"It's helping the country because what it's not costing the country is victims of crime being bashed and being victims of violent crime.
"Two years ago, we used to wake up every morning with one or two ram raids that had happened and yes, we've had tougher sentencing and yes, you're right we have 1900 extra prisoners in prison.
"That's our best place to rehabilitate them. It means that they're out of our community, causing harm and suffering on New Zealanders, and that's what our focus has been."
Luxon said he would eventually like to see the prison population come down.
"The previous administration had a focus on prison population and reducing that by 30 percent and we want to do that as well, we want to see the prison population come down but only because crime has come down.
"What we're not going to tolerate, in a society built on rights and responsibilities, you don't get to sit in a community and cause harm, pain and suffering on your fellow New Zealanders."
The election campaign
Looking ahead to next year's election, Luxon said his primary focus would be the economy with an eye on structural challenges in welfare, health and superannuation.
"Without doubt, the number one thing is to make sure the economy is growing and that people are feeling that. That is our major focus.
"We want individual New Zealanders to have bigger nest eggs, more like we see in Australia, and we want that capital in this country so that we can invest it in more infrastructure and actually get more things built for people."
He wouldn't say who he would prefer to work with next year - only that National had shown voters it could work with New Zealand First and ACT.
"We've provided strong and stable government. All three parties deserve credit for the way they've worked together despite differences they may have as well.
"We've proven we can work with both. My real preference is to make sure that you party-vote National and I think you'll hear that a lot over the course of 2026."
