Winston Peters returns as kingmaker in New Zealand government

New Zealand’s incoming PM Christopher Luxon can no longer form government without inviting maverick politician Winston Peters into a coalition.

NZ First leader Winston Peters will be the kingmaker in the NZ election. Picture: NZ Herald

New Zealand’s incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon cannot form government without inviting maverick politician Winston Peters into a coalition, after the country’s final election result was announced this morning (AEST).

On election night, Mr Luxon’s National Party and the smaller libertarian ACT party appeared able to form government together, with a total of 61 seats in the 120 seat parliament.

However the country had to wait three weeks for the official election results which could only be announced after 500,000 special votes were counted.

On those results, accounted on Friday by the Electoral Commission, National lost two seats, taking its total count down to 48; with ACT’s 11 seats, the National/ACT coalition has only 59 seats, leaving it short of a majority.

It places the capricious Mr Peters, the 78-year-old leader of the NZ First party, back in the position of king maker – a role he relishes but which has, in the past, led to him applying his famous ‘handbrake’ to government legislation and falling out with coalition partners.

Complicating the final count, the radical Te Pati Maori gained another two seats which under New Zealand’s MMP (Mixed Member Proportional Representation) system increases the number in parliament to 122 and means National will need 62 seats to form a majority government.

Mr Peters is the country’s ultimate political phoenix, repeatedly rising from the ashes of an apparently burned out political career after being written off by colleagues and commentators.

This time around, after being ousted from parliament in 2020, he drew on the country’s disillusion with the Labour government and former prime minister Jacinda Ardern, promising disaffected voters he would “take back” what he claimed had been taken from the electorate by Labour’s progressive policies.

Having Mr Peters in a National-led coalition will tie Mr Luxon, a first-term MP who will be NZ’s most inexperienced prime minister, to the veteran Mr Peters, a wily politician of more than 40 years who knows how to hold coalition governments to ransom.

In the middle is ACT leader Mr Seymour, who, while an experienced and astute politician, has never served in a government; and in the election campaign made his distrust of Mr Peters very clear.

Prime minister-elect Christopher Luxon. Picture: Getty Images

The three parties have been in closed door coalition negotiations over the last three weeks, but the leaders have refused to comment publicly on their discussions.

National and ACT share broadly similar policies over tax relief, public sector cuts, a tougher approach to law and order and raising the pension age to 67. However, Mr Peters believes NZ cannot afford tax relief and opposes raising the pension age.

Despite personal animosity, however, Mr Peters and Mr Seymour agree that so called co-governance – shared governance with Maori tribes – should be ditched and the spread of the Maori language in public life, including the naming of government departments in Maori – should be pulled back.

Mr Peters’ strong position will probably see him demanding cabinet positions for his MPs and himself. His former success as New Zealand’s foreign minister under the first Ardern government has led to speculation that he will take this role again.

Mr Seymour told NZ media the three parties would sit down together next week to work out how a coalition would work. However he suggested negotiations could last weeks and said that while he and Mr Luxon had held coalition talks, he had not heard from Mr Peters since the October 14 election.

Brent Catchpole, former NZ First president, told NZ TV that it would not be long before coalition negotiations were signed off.

“The work of comparing policies has already happened, there will be small pieces around the edge that need to be tidied up,” he said, adding that due to Mr Peters’ role as kingmaker, “The talks will be a little bit stronger but I don’t think (Mr Peters) will be unreasonable”.