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AAP
AAP
Politics
Ben McKay

Prime Manager Luxon shows corporate style in NZ top job

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is focused on "getting things done" in New Zealand. (Dom Thomas/AAP PHOTOS)

From language to leadership, New Zealand's government is being remade in the corporate, managerial style of Chris Luxon.

Elected in October and taking office after forming a three-party coalition in November, the conservative prime minister has ushered in a new era in Kiwi politics.

After two decades in senior management roles - including as Air New Zealand chief executive - and just three years in politics, Mr Luxon is bringing a business-like approach to the Beehive, seen most clearly in his boardroom vocabulary.

Every speech and media outing is peppered with talk of "outcomes", "deliverables", and even "delivering the deliverables".

Debates or conversations are now "aerations of views" or "ongoing thematics".

Instead of bringing ministers into line, he's offering "coaching conversations".

men shaking hands
Former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce (left) and former Air New Zealand CEO Christopher Luxon. (Erik Anderson/AAP PHOTOS)

For New Zealanders, it's a shift to the robotic and a step-change from Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of five years who won global plaudits for her warmth, her politics of kindness, and inspirational speechmaking.

However, Mr Luxon's approach is no less authentic.

The 53-year-old self-help book enthusiast is using the approach which took him to the top job at one of New Zealand's biggest and most-loved companies, and now, prime minister.

Politically speaking, Mr Luxon is also making a bet that after the challenges of COVID-19, which strained public services and brought soaring inflation, Kiwis might warm to a no-nonsense managerial type who can sort it all out.

And that's what he's promising to do, with a series of plans.

His National party produced a vast amount of policy planning in opposition, and after winning the election, negotiated lengthy deals with minor parties ACT and NZ First to formalise its coalition.

The government is now working through a 100-day plan with 49 actions, with "rolling quarterly plans" to follow.

He's also promised key performance indicators (KPIs) for his ministerial team and consequences for poor performance.

"The KPIs will be published because I want New Zealand to understand what we're striving to achieve," Mr Luxon said.

While plans and expectations are nothing new in politics, setting a wide set of goals and making them public is remarkable.

"Those things are never made public. They've never been published in a table," lobbyist and former National government press secretary Ben Thomas told AAP.

Massey University politics professor Richard Shaw said the openness was the point.

"He's speaking from his biography as a chief executive and saying to the New Zealand public 'I will be able to demonstrate policy progress as a government, but also of particular ministers'," Dr Shaw said.

In an interview with AAP during the election campaign, Mr Luxon said his goal was to "drive high performance".

He gave the example of a policy to have 80 per cent of Year 8 students at or above the expected curriculum level for reading, writing, maths and science by 2030.

shaking hands
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is using his experience in business to run the country. (Mark Coote/AAP PHOTOS)

"There will be lots of sub-goals that lead into those goals but that the sort of thing I expect ministers and government agencies and CEOs to driving towards," he said.

Mr Luxon was unapologetic about consequences for ministers who might miss the mark.

"Well it's called performance and it's about delivering ... that's why we're here," he said.

Government ministers have endorsed the approach.

As well they might, given Mr Luxon's lofty status in the party, after taking the National leadership at a low ebb in late 2021 and instilling the discipline needed to win office.

Social development minister Louise Upston said it was important to "have a way that we can measure and manage our own performance, and meet the expectations of the prime minister".

"Absolutely I expect to be held to account by the prime minister and the public," she said.

"We will focus on results for them. They expect better and they will get better."

Housing minister Chris Bishop said government could use "a bit of business orientation to drive high performance".

Brooke Van Velden, the workplace relations minister from the ACT party, said she "welcomed" accountability.

"We'll have to announce in later weeks where we actually land with those (KPIs). But I think it's a great exercise," she said.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said he was developing "broad targets for areas such as justice and things like reducing crime".

"A clear set of expectations about what you're trying to deliver is very helpful and helpful for the public service as well to know what we're trying to achieve," he said.

Of all of Mr Luxon's plans, the coalition deals are paramount: setting both the government's broad agenda but also the terms of engagement between parties.

"If they're in the coalition agreement, they'll get done," Conor English, director of lobbyist firm Silvereye Communications, told AAP.

"They are effectively a to-do list, as is the 100-day plan. That's obviously a style Chris Luxon likes and it's been effective for him."

Others see danger in the managerial approach.

Dr Shaw said openness in goal-setting was welcome and could be a "coalition management tool" to reward or discipline ministers.

It could also mean they work to specific goals and miss other problems, or come unstuck when crisis arrives.

"What happens when the world intervenes?" he asked.

Mr Thomas said Mr Luxon's skills had served National well, but his managerial persona may suppress his personal favourability.

"He doesn't have the star power of John Key or Jacinda Ardern," he said.

"The managey-consulty speak ... the slightly stuffy language might be seen as a strength if he gets the bones of reorganising the country.

"But he doesn't have a lot of cover in terms of the emotional intelligence that Ardern and Key had when things weren't going so well."

David Slack, a speechwriter who has worked for Labour prime ministers, said Mr Luxon's prose left many cold, and particularly his reliance on well-rehearsed answers.

"It feels like a mechanical grind where you work out what you want to say and you thrash it to death, you just steamroll it," Mr Slack said.

An early test of his prime ministership came on the eve of Waitangi Day, when Mr Luxon spoke at a public meeting hosted by Maori leaders where the Treaty of Waitangi was signed.

New Zealanders have been engaged in a summer-long debate around government plans to redefine how the treaty impacts law, which would dramatically shift the place of Maori.

While other speakers spoke off the cuff, with humour and metaphor, as is the Maori way, Mr Luxon instead read a dry speech, re-heating sentences from last year's address and dodging the key issue.

"He was so wooden or simply lacked the nous to respond at all. That's an astonishing shortcoming in a prime minister," Mr Slack said.

"I've seen a lot of them now and I don't think I've seen one who didn't have the capacity to read the crowd and find ways to be vital and engaging."

Mr Luxon rejected criticism of his Waitangi Day speech, saying it was deliberately non-controversial given political tension.

For all his managerial talk, Mr Luxon is someone who wants to be known for his deeds, or should that be, his "outcomes".

"You can talk about the constitutional issues all day long or you can get on and get things done," he said.

"We are going to be relentlessly focused on getting things done."

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