Francesca Rudkin: Luxon's State of the Nation speech sounded like he’s found his groove

If you didn’t pick up on Christopher Luxon’s State of the Nations speech yesterday, the Prime Minister is looking to grow the economy, because the country desperately needs economic growth.  I am being a little facetious. Actually, I thought the Prime Ministers' performance yesterday was good – both the speech and afterwards during the press conference.   Sure, he still stuck to his message like a self-help guru trying to manifest an outcome. But after taking a while to look comfortable or natural as a politician, yesterday he sounded more authentic, like he’s found his groove.  He’s confident in the direction he’s taking the country, and he’s not trying to appeal to everyone.   For a speech designed to set the tone for the year – he did a good job.  Last year we saw the coalition government repeal and reform everything from education to water, and health to grey hound racing. While there is still a way to go with some of these, this year the Prime Minister has made it clear it’s about dialing up the volume on creating competition, allowing more foreign investment, and pushing for government organisations to be more future focused.   The Prime Minister also suggested we need to grow up and shake off our culture of saying ‘no’ and start saying ‘yes’ – to things like expanding the Port of Tauranga and more concerts at Eden Park.   Luxon also used the speech to make some announcements - the creation of Invest NZ – an agency to attract foreign investment, major reforms to Crown Research Institutes, and the disestablishment of the Callaghan Innovation, which Judith Collins bluntly said at the post speech press conference “had had it’s day”   The new announcements are needed. National Party MPs have been sounding very well media trained recently - sticking to their messaging, avoiding answering questions with detail, you know the drill - and as a result they’ve been sounding a bit empty.   When there is a lot of talking but nothing is really been said it’s easy to lose interest. But what struck me yesterday was how well the Prime Minster was across questions thrown at him. Instead of reverting back to the big picture bland key messages he can often fall back on, he threw out details and examples.   There will be push-back to some of his ideas, such as mining and gene technology. Making money is one thing, but many New Zealanders will still want the government to balance their pragmatic approach with consideration and respect for affected communities, the environment, and the Treaty.   There is also a perhaps wishful sense from the Prime Minister that tax cuts, lower inflation and a falling OCR mean New Zealanders can move on from focusing on the cost of living. I doubt he’ll be let off the hook that easily, rises in rent, rates, insurances, and other costs are still impacting household budgets.   Making New Zealand a great place to live in years to come is important – love me some vision - but that doesn’t mean we should lose sight of today.   But hey, if the state of the nation speech is about getting out the message it’s all about economic growth so we can all have better lives – then got it, loud and clear. Job done.    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.