Sixth National Government of New Zealand

2023 general election In the 2023 general election held on 14 October, the National Party defeated the incumbent Labour Party, winning 48 seats and 38.1% of the popular vote. Labour won 27% of the popular with its share of parliamentary seats dropping from 64 to 34. Prime Minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins conceded the election and congratulated National Party leader Christopher Luxon. Luxon said that he would be conducting the negotiations privately "and would not confirm [...] his stance on policies such as ACT's referendum on co-governance". Nicola Willis was expected to be Finance Minister. Following the release of final results on 3 November, National's parliamentary representation dropped from 50 to 48 seats. As National and ACT did not reach the 62-seat threshold for forming a government, a prospective National-led government needed to include New Zealand First. Following the release of final results, Seymour had attempted to contact Peters via text message but the NZ First leader had dismissed it as a scam. On 9 November, Seymour expressed a hope that coalition negotiations and government formation would be completed before an upcoming APEC meeting in mid-November 2023. That same day, Peters criticised the law change by the previous Labour Government that had allowed voters to register on election day, thus delaying the Electoral Commission's publication of final results by one week. Peters had supported the law change in 2020. The ACT party had proposed a referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, something that gained media attention during the election campaign. The referendum was a negotiation issue for the incoming government. The referendum idea drew criticism from Green Party co-leader James Shaw, Labour MP Willie Jackson, and former Prime Minister and National MP Jim Bolger, who expressed concerns that it would antagonise Māori people and provoke violence. NZ First and ACT both expressed disagreement with National's proposed 15% tax on foreign house buyers, a key component of its tax policy which was estimated to raise NZ$740 million a year. On 13 November, Luxon said he was unlikely to go to the 2023 APEC summit in the United States due to prioritising a government coalition. Instead, the outgoing Trade Minister Damien O'Connor represented New Zealand at the summit. On 15 November, Luxon, Seymour and Peters met at Pullman Hotel's boardroom in Auckland. It was the first time the three of them had met together in person since the election. On 20 November, Luxon said that National had reached an agreement on policy positions with ACT and New Zealand First, but Peters said that it was an "assumption" to say that a policy agreement had been reached, and Seymour said "that Luxon had maybe had too many Weet-Bix that day". Seymour also opined that ACT as the second largest party in the coalition should hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister and have more ministerial portfolios than NZ First. That same day, the three parties entered into talks about allocating cabinet ministerial positions. Coalition agreements Luxon, Seymour and Peters met in Wellington on the afternoon of 23 November to conclude the negotiations between National, ACT and NZ First. That night, Luxon informed Governor-General Cindy Kiro that he had the numbers to form a government. On the morning of 24 November, the three party leaders signed coalition agreements. Seymour welcomed the coalition deal and said that the government would announce a 100-day plan that could include repealing some legislation passed by the preceding Labour Government. As part of National's agreement with NZ First, National would not proceed with its proposed foreign buyer tax, but would instead fund tax cuts via reprioritisation and other forms of revenue gathering. The new government would adopt ACT's policies of restoring interest deductibility for rental properties and pet bonds. In addition to adopting National's youth crime and gang policies, the government would adopt ACT's policies of rewriting firearms legislation and NZ First's policy of training 500 new police officers. It would scrap the previous Labour Government's Fair Pay Agreements Act 2022, proposed hate speech legislation, co-governance policies, Auckland light rail, Three Waters reform programme, and Māori Health Authority. The government would establish a new regulatory agency answerable to Minister for Regulation Seymour that would review the quality of new and existing legislation. It would adopt NZ First's policy of establishing $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund. Fees-free tertiary education would be shifted from the first to last year of tertiary study. While the government would not support Act's proposed referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, it would introduce a Treaty Principles Bill and amend existing Treaty of Waitangi legislation to focus on the "original intent of the legislation." The government adopted NZ First's policy of legislating the English language as an official language of New Zealand and requiring all government departments to use English in their communications and keep their primary name in English, except for those dealing with Māori people. It adopted NZ First's policy of halting all work related to the He Puapua report and confirming that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has no legal basis in New Zealand law. The government would restore the right to local referendums on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards. It would also adopt most of National's fiscal, taxation, 100-day and 100-point economic plans, with exceptions specified in the agreements with ACT and NZ First. While the outgoing Labour Government had commissioned a Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned, Peters claimed during election campaigning that the inquiry's terms of reference were "too limited". Luxon also stated that the government supported broadening the inquiry's terms of reference. == History ==