‘I actually work every day’: Luxon defends quiet January diary after preaching shorter breaks

Wednesday, 11 March 2026

Prime Minister Chris Luxon address supporters during his State of the Nation speech in Auckland.

The diary of the Prime Minister has been released and shows he had no engagements until January 19, the day of his State of the Nation address.

Ministers diaries are proactively released, a transparency measure for the public to see who politicians are meeting with.

Luxon’s first entry for the year was the speech, with an interview with Newstalk ZB also entered for the day of the 19th.

The reason we’re reporting this?

Christopher Luxon has made a virtue of saying politicians should have shorter summer breaks.

Ahead of the 2025 Christmas period, Luxon told Newstalk ZB he expected to be back at work the first week of January, in keeping with how he spent his career overseas, where they have shorter breaks.

“In the US you maybe get two weeks’ annual leave holiday and Christmas is a couple of days off and you’re back at it again,” he said at the time. “I’ve always been used to going back to work on the 3rd or 4th of January.”

You might recall this was a major talking point back in early December. A former national party leader even said there are “solid reasons” for a shorter summer holiday period, but changing it would be hard.

When questions were asked by media in early January as to whether Luxon had lived up to what he said prior to Christmas, his office said at the time he was working from home.

When asked about his official diary entries on Wednesday, Luxon said he couldn’t remember what day he went back to work.

“I don’t think you’re focussed on the big issues there,” he told reporters. “I think I was back at work and doing work quite intensely from on the fourth and fifth and then in cranked up on the week of the 11th,” he said.

Luxon argued he didn’t even really have a holiday.

Stuff was there to meet National Party MPs and coalition ministers as they arrived to work, amid speculation and questions about National's polling and Christopher Luxon's future as prime minister.

“I actually work every day because I get briefings every day even when I’m on holiday and that’s just how I you know, I need to be able to work wherever I am.”

A spokesperson for the Prime Minister said published ministerial diaries do not include “party work, constituency work, ad hoc calls or desk work”.

According to diary entries, many of Luxon’s ministers were officially back to business before him.

Nicola Willis had a meeting with Treasury officials at Parliament on January 16. Chris Bishop was back on the 15th for an announcement about Granny flats. Erica Stanford had a call with the secretary of Education on the 14th while the same day Louise Upston returned to work with a teams meeting about Tourism and James Meager was back to meet with Queenstown Airport.

Tama Potaka was back in the building on the 12th talking with housing officials, while Chris Penk jumped on the phone for a media interview the same day. Simon Watts did a round of media interviews about energy on the 11th.

Paul Goldsmith attended a pōwhiri on the 10th, though his next couple of engagements that week could probably be seen as both work and pleasure - attending the ASB Classic and the BlackClash rugby v cricket showdown.

Initially winning the back to work race for the National party was Matt Doocey who did an interview with Te Ao Maori news on the 9th.

At the time we first published this story, Simeon Brown had not released his diary - however he very hastily updated his records and has now taken the first-back-to-work crown with a meeting with health officials on New Year’s Day. Bravo.

And the later returners - Penny Simmonds didn’t register anything in her diary until a meeting with officials about vocational education on the 27th of January, Nicola Grigg’s first entry isn’t until January 28, a Cabinet committee meeting.

Mark Mitchell and Shane Reti still haven’t released their diaries yet (tut, tut). Scott Simpson has released his February diary, but nothing for January.

Over in the other parties, David Seymour jumped back in front of microphones on the 19th for a media interview, Brooke van Velden and Nicole McKee still haven’t filed diary entries for January, Karen Chhour met with officials on the 21st and Andrew Hoggard wasn’t back on the clock til the 26th with an interview with the Country radio station.

Winston Peters was the winner of first back to work with an interview with Radio Waatea on January 8. His deputy Shane Jones visited Ruapekapeka two days later and Mark Patterson and Casey Costello are yet to file their diaries.

* This story was updated on March 12, 2026. The word “tardy” was replaced with “later” in the fourth paragraph from the end. Furthermore, Penny Simmonds’ office noted that she carried out duties in her capacity as the MP for Invercargill on January 9 (media interviews) and January 16 (speaking at Sir Tim Shadbolt’s funeral).