John MacDonald: Christopher Luxon's people don't even get him

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Recorded24 Sep 2025

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You know how the Prime Minister does a very good job of batting away poll results and saying that his focus is fixing up the joint after the last lot and that he’ll wait until election day to be judged? I don’t think he will find it quite as easy to do that with these results out today from the NZ Herald’s annual Mood of the Boardroom survey. The annual survey of about 150 business leaders – 125 of them being CEOs of major New Zealand companies. People like Port of Auckland boss Roger Gray, the head of Tower Insurance Paul Johnston and Forsyth Barr boss Neil Paviour-Smith. One of the things that comes out in the survey results is a ranking of the performances of our Cabinet ministers. How these business leaders think of each minister is doing. Top of the list is Erica Stanford – she’s the highest ranking. Winston Peters is in second place and Chris Bishop is third. The Prime Minister is ranked 15th. In last year’s survey, he was sixth. Even Building and Construction Minister Chris Penk, who sits outside cabinet, ranks higher than the PM in 10th place. The other big name outside the top 10 is Finance and Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis – the bosses at our biggest companies have ranked her in 13th place. Which is not good news for the Government. Because what’s coming through loud and clear is that the business community has no faith that there is a plan to get the country “back on track”. We’re way more than halfway through the Government’s current term and our most senior business leaders are asking: “What is your plan Prime Minister?" I think this result out today is way worse for the Government than any political poll result so far. When you’ve got business leaders ranking the Finance Minister 13th and the Prime Minister 15th, this is a government in strife, isn’t it? The reason I think this will hurt Christopher Luxon more than any of the other poll results he’s managed to bat away or put a brave face on for, is that these are his people. Before he entered politics, he was one of them. He probably even took part in these surveys when he was chief executive at Air New Zealand. He’s the people he’s talking to when he goes on about signs of green shoots in the economy. These are the people he’s talking to when he talks about getting runs on the board. The people who have said he’s the 15th-best performing cabinet minister. The people he’s talking to with his quarterly action plans, deliverables, KPIs, decision gates, and value chains. But his people still don’t know what he’s trying to do. They still don’t know what his plan is. Which is why I think he will really be feeling this today. Because even his people don’t get him.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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