New Zealand's centre-right National Party will head the country's next government, but the vote counting was not expected to be finalised until November 3, and for now the country is in transition.
Luxon arrived in Wellington on Monday afternoon, where he was set to meet with his party's 23 new MPs, and said it was good to be back in Parliament.
Negotiations with other parties were being held separately, he said. "I won't have too much to say about it because we want to put the process in place, work with those parties, work through the arrangements, build the relationships so we can form a strong and stable government."
He refused to be drawn on commenting on the details of negotiations. "I've watched New Zealand elections play out over many years, I've been pretty unimpressed with the process in terms of how that gets done."
He said he was not interested in commentary on negotiations or speculations. "I'm not ruling things in or out based on these conversations, but what I'm saying to you is there's a lot of people with their reckons and I just put to you they could be very, very wrong."
The party had good discipline and he expected that to continue, he said. "There will be punditry and commentators and media that will have their reckons ... but the reality is I just put it you that could be very, very wrong."
Regarding overseas voters, Luxon said immense frustration around managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) during Covid-19 may have changed the way New Zealanders residing overseas would have voted this time around.
"There's a number of dynamics at play around special votes, I don't know how different it would be, normally we see a huge proportion of renters as you know, that are out of electorate and typically they might vote Green or left, but this time it might be different. We've got a lot of people travelling for rugby so the mix coming through in special votes could be quite different."
He maintained his earlier position on a Treaty of Waitangi referendum - one of ACT's policies - saying he rejected it and it would divisive for the country.
He acknowledged holding a daily briefing without details about negotiations to form a government was frustrating for some.
"I apologise for that up front, but I do signal to you that I want to work in different way and I've been clear about that."
ACT leader David Seymour told RNZ's Midday Report today he was speaking frequently with Luxon about what an arrangement between the two parties would look like.
"We're pretty eager to make sure we get a good result that people can be pleased with at the end rather than give a blow-by-blow commentary over the next few weeks.
"There may well be ACT Cabinet ministers and positions like that, but the first issue is that people have voted for change ... and we have to have a stable political arrangement to deliver that first and foremost.
"There's a lot of people speculating about where you're sitting on the bus, I'm worried about where the bus is going."
Meanwhile, the outgoing Labour government was expected to be holding a Cabinet meeting in a caretaker role on Monday.
Luxon said senior staff from National and Labour had spoken about how to transition smoothly and it was going well.
They had talked about decisions that may fall between the caretaker period.
"It's also a chance for us to use the time to prepare for briefing around the economy but also around foreign affairs."
NZ votes for change: What happens now?
FORMING A NEW GOVERNMENT
National won 50 seats and the right-wing, free-market ACT Party won 11 at Saturday's general election, securing a majority of just one seat in the 121-seat parliament, according to provisional results from the Electoral Commission.
While National and ACT have the numbers to form a government on the current count, roughly 567,0000 special votes, around 20% of the total, must still be counted. The official result is due on November 3, and conservative parties have historically lost at least a seat with the final count.
If they do, National may need the support of populist New Zealand First and its leader Winston Peters to form a government.
National leader Christopher Luxon said he would wait for the final count to come in but was talking with both ACT and New Zealand First.
SO WHO IS CURRENTLY IN CHARGE?
The incumbent government, the Labour Party, will continue to operate what is known as a caretaker government while the new government is formed.
According to New Zealand's parliamentary website, a caretaker government can continue the normal business of governing and running the country but cannot make any significant decisions unless there is an emergency or crisis.
“On urgent constitutional, economic, or other significant issues, the caretaker government has to listen to the new incoming government - even if the outgoing Government disagrees with the proposed course of action,” it said.
WHEN MIGHT NEW ZEALAND GET A GOVERNMENT?
Once special votes are in, National will know how many seats they need to form a government and will start the official process of negotiating either a coalition or supply and confidence agreements with ACT and potentially New Zealand First.
Luxon said he would like to have a government in place before the APEC leaders meeting, which starts on November 11. However, he said this will depend on negotiations and special votes.
Parliament has to meet with six weeks of the official election result but there is no date for when a government must be formed.
WHEN WILL MINISTERS BE APPOINTED?
Ministers will not be announced until the country has a new government in place and these roles will likely be part of National's negotiations.
However, Nicola Willis, National’s finance spokesperson, is widely expected to become minister of finance and both New Zealand First's Peters and ACT’s deputy leader Brooke van Velden are both possibles for minister of foreign affairs.
- RNZ and Reuters
