Mr Luxon, our Prime Minister, is keen on numbers. The National Party came into power by capturing approximately 38% of the votes. According to the Electoral Commission, in 2023 there were 3.6 million registered voters (out of a population of over 5 million). National secured just under 1.1 million votes to get into power.
Mr Luxon is also great on KPIs (key performance indicators – great for reviewing performance, or more particularly, poor performance). A quick overview; Education (or should that be education with a small “e” – it’s hard to know with all the changes to the curriculum); Health (ohhh dear, but at least National knows that its voter base is more likely to be able to afford private health insurance); Law and Order (ICE worked out well in the US didn’t it, how about "move-on" orders to assist our poorest and most in need people by preventing them from engaging in “disruptive behaviour” such as begging and sleeping rough in town centres); Race Relations (Trump was keen on a wall, maybe National thought it could sit on top of a wall before deciding which side to jump down on; Beneficiaries (National’s plan was to slash benefits to make them get back into work – unemployment was roughly 4% in December 2023, it now sits at 5.4% in December 2025 and is tipped to rise even higher).
Maybe Mr Luxon’s legacy will be the changes to employment law that National has supported. Another quick overview.
The availability of trial periods of up to 90 days has been extended to all employers, and not confined to employers with less than 20 employees. Great in theory for employers who want to try out employees, but unfortunately the risks of dismissing an employee during a trial period remain.
Following the Uber decisions on whether Uber drivers are employees or contractors, the law was amended to introduce a “gateway test” which was said to provide more certainty in contracting arrangements. Of course there was little uncertainty for our courts - our Employment Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court all found that the Uber drivers were employees. Remarkably, the changes to the law look very similar to the changes that Uber had suggested to the Minister as a solution to the adverse decisions against it.
To be fair, not all changes are targeted at the working poor. Employees earning more than $200,000 or more per year have been stripped of the right to bring a personal grievance claim if they are unjustifiably dismissed.
For those employees that are able to bring a personal grievance claim if they are unjustifiably dismissed, they have been stripped of two important remedies if they contributed to their dismissal. The employee cannot be reinstated, and the employee will not be able to receive any compensation for any hurt or humiliation they have suffered. They can still claim lost wages, but that is usually capped at three months lost wages.
Perhaps the most damning of the employment law changes were those to pay equity laws. Effectively overnight the government made changes to the legislation that mean that 33 existing pay equity claims were cancelled, and the bar for future claims was significantly raised. Female-dominated workforces which are generally considered to be underpaid in comparison to those dominated by men will continue to be undervalued. Those claims were in some of our most valued occupations - Plunket nurses, community midwives, hospice nurses and health care assistants, primary care nurses, nurses in residential care.
The Finance Minister said the changes meant savings of about $12.8 billion over four years. Mr Luxon has admitted that the changes to pay equity laws will save the government “billions of dollars” but he now says that this was not the motivation for changing the legislation. It is hard to see what other motivation the government may have had.
As of 1 April 2026, the government increased the adult minimum wage by 45 cents to $23.95 per hour. More realistically, the independently set living wage rises by 95 cents to $29.90 per hour. Even more realistically, a recent report by ASB economists says that households face a $55 a week rise in living costs this year, partly because of the Middle East conflict.
National came to power on a platform of Blame, Blame, Blame and tiny tax cuts that are costing $14.6 billion over four years. “Our plan is carefully targeted to ensure that those who will benefit the most are working New Zealanders. It’s about time they got some relief from Labour’s cost-of-living crisis and National will deliver that to them”, Mr Luxon said. The irony is that we are still waiting Mr Luxon.
If Mr Luxon was an ordinary working New Zealand employee no doubt he would be on a PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) by now. Actually no, if Mr Luxon was an employee he would earn more than $200,000 so he couldn’t challenge his dismissal if he was fired. But politics are even more brutal than our new employment laws. Mr Luxon’s final performance review will be in November this year. Current polling indicates that it is ranging between “unsatisfactory” and “needs improvement”. Read more...