Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to speak after meeting with Australian PM, new polling
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is making the media rounds this morning, fresh from a trip across the Tasman to meet with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.
The pair warned of a “volatile world” and issued a joint statement calling for stability in the Middle East, as well as condemning recent anti-immigration rhetoric.
Luxon’s appearance also follows new polling showing more than two-thirds of Kiwis think the quality of the public service has either not improved or worsened under the current Government.
The PM will appear on Mike Hosking Breakfast at 7.37am. You can listen here.
A new union-commissioned poll out on Sunday revealed just a quarter of respondents believed the public service had improved under the National-NZF-Act coalition Government.
The Talbot Mills poll was commissioned by the Public Service Association (PSA), and was conducted before Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced another 8700 public service roles would be cut.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said those cuts would see the services Kiwis relied on further eroded.
She said there was “no evidence to support the Government’s claims that AI can replace public servants”.
The poll also asked about the Government’s employment law reforms, with 41% of respondents believing employers would benefit the most from the reforms, while just 11% said working people would benefit the most.
Luxon’s appearance also follows revelations of a secret billion-dollar spending allocation for the next four years that wasn’t included in last month’s Budget.
Budget 2026 shows where money will be spent for the 2026/27 fiscal year, but a note buried in a Treasury document showed a portion of Budget 2027 had already been pre-allocated.
The spending was just $22m for the 2027/28 but rose to about half a billion in each of the following years, totalling just over $1bn in the four-year forecast period beginning this year.
A spokesman for Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the funding related to an initiative that was still being considered.
Details would be disclosed later this year in the Pre-election Fiscal and Economic Update.