By Jo Moir of RNZ and Morning Report
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has unleashed on coalition partner Winston Peters, saying he was the person who put Dame Jacinda Ardern in charge of the country.
In an interview with Newstalk ZB's The Country, Luxon shot back at the New Zealand First leader, who earlier today told RNZ he should have been given a heads-up about yesterday's vote of confidence at National's caucus meeting.
Luxon took the extraordinary move of calling a motion of confidence in himself, following intense media speculation about his position.
A 1News-Verian poll at the weekend showed the coalition government, made up of National, NZ First and Act, would be out of power. National was on just 30% approval and Luxon dipped four points to 16% in the preferred prime minister stakes.
Luxon has accused Peters, the Foreign Affairs Minister, of trying to "scaremonger" and having an "anti-immigrant bias".
Peters described the leadership vote as a bad move, unprecedented, and warned there would be further consequences.
The caucus meeting involved a secret ballot with anonymous voting. While Luxon survived the vote, he refused to take questions from media about it afterwards, or say if it was unanimous.
"I have the support of my caucus as their leader. Caucus has answered clearly and decisively. It has backed my leadership, and that matter is now closed."
Luxon said if media continued to ask him about "speculation and rumour", he would not engage.
Earlier today, National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis launched a broadside at Peters, saying he had a "track record of picking Labour over National - and that's the risk you run with him".
Comments from the senior ministers on RNZ's Morning Report programme today signalled the election campaign has well and truly begun, with Willis also saying that Peters was "mischief-making".
Peters, originally a National MP, since forming NZ First has sided with National twice (1996 and 2023, both formal coalitions) and Labour twice (2005 as part of a confidence-and-supply agreement, and 2017 in a formal coalition with Dame Jacinda as Prime Minister).
Peters not told ahead of vote
Asked on Morning Report if he should have been warned ahead of the Luxon vote, Peters replied: "It would have been wise to yes, of course."
"In plain ambit of human relations and cooperation, the answer is of course, yes."
Peters, whose parliamentary career began in the 1970s, said it was an "unprecedented" move from a sitting Prime Minister - and not one he supported.
"Because you see, you can tell when the next one's going to happen. Not initiated by himself, but by others, and just wait for the next round of polls. And that's the sad thing.
"I mean, this is unprecedented... there are going to be consequences. They're seriously predictable consequences. But what I was astonished by was that they didn't seem to understand, sadly, what they were doing.
"And here we are, part of the coalition, where stability of government all the way to the 2026 election and beyond is the critical component. And this is not helpful."
Asked if he was essentially telling the National Party - which unlike NZ First has been sliding in the polls - to get its act together, Peters said: "Well, you've phrased it that way, but I don't disagree with you."
Peters said a leadership spill would not have voided the NZ First-National coalition agreement, but that it would need to be "reshaped" - and warned National MPs against trying it again.
"You don't sit here with all your responsibilities without looking at possible scenarios playing out and looking at every alternative. And if it's like an octopus, the decision-making conclusions like an octopus with eight legs - you better understand all eight possible legs, not just three of them, five of them… You've got too many people with too little experience giving their views about what the outcome should be. That's tragic.
"And I can go back to a former time when leadership lasted far longer because parties realised, 'Hang on, we've got to this point, we have to stay solid with our first decisions rather than changing like a yo-yo,' which you've seen in New Zealand in recent times."
Peters said it was important the government get back to the basics of governing "as fast as possible".
"Our job is to provide stability for the New Zealand people who are fighting petrol price rises, fuel price, supermarket, power pricing. That's what New Zealanders are concerned about."
'You weren't in the room'
Nicola Willis told Morning Report while she did not know who voted for or against Luxon, the vibe was that the vote was emphatic.
"I was in the room and the caucus was extremely clear that what we want to do is focus on serving New Zealanders, that we have no time for anonymous mentions in the media leading to speculation.
"The Prime Minister himself called for a vote of confidence to affirm that support for his leadership. The result was very clear. It was by majority. and we have a very firm caucus position, which is once the caucus takes a position, we all back it 100 percent, one for all, all for one.
"We don't know the result of the vote. We never do. That's not how we do things in the National Party. I was in the room and I think there was extremely strong support for that motion."
Asked how she could know for sure the vote for Luxon was strong, Willis said: "I know a lot more about it than you do. You weren't in the room."
Labour MP Tangi Utikere told Morning Report yesterday's caucus vote was "classic" National Party stuff: "infighting amongst themselves, weak leadership."
"And people expect, actually, the government to be focusing on the issues that really matter to them - jobs, health, homes, real action on the cost of living in an affordable New Zealand, rather than squabbling amongst themselves in what is clearly a circus at the moment."
The general election will be held on November 7.
