‘He’s been here for 50 years’ - Christopher Luxon dismisses Winston Peters’ asset sales barbs
Tuesday, 11 November 2025
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has hit back at Winston Peters’ criticism of assets sales, saying Peters has “entrenched views” after five decades in Parliament.
The war of words between the Prime Minister and his coalition partner comes as Treasury reviews why the Government continues to own the assets that it currently does.
Peters told RNZ the prospect of asset recycling or sales was a “silly tawdry argument” on Monday morning and directly criticised his own Government’s moves to investigate a sale of some Chorus debt owned by the Government.
Luxon said he was not fazed by the criticisms from his former deputy prime minister.
“It’s not surprising. He’s been here for 50 years for goodness’ sake. He has a lot of different views on a lot of different things that are pretty entrenched. And he has his take on it and I have my take on it.”
Peters has been in Parliament on and off since 1979, a 46-year period.
Peters directly criticised his own Government’s record on the economy, saying it had not been turned around yet.
'I know it can be turned around, but not with this sort of strategy where you're not actually fixing the economy, you're just getting rid of assets,' Peters told RNZ this morning.
Luxon said it was natural to have differing views within a coalition.
“Well, we are in this together as a coalition government, and I just say we're working incredibly hard as a coalition government to fix the economy.”
“I was just putting out there the spectre that when you look at countries like Singapore - a country I've studied really deeply over 30 years - one of their great successes and hallmarks has been they recycle their assets,” Luxon said.
“All we need to have is a conversation that sort of says, Well, is this the optimal deployment of this capital that benefits our citizens the best?”
The debate about asset recycling was kicked along by reporting late last week that the Treasury was reviewing what assets the Government owned and the purpose they were owned for.
Treasury Secretary Iain Rennie said last week that it was worth asking whether the public policy goals that public asset ownership sought to meet could be achieved via “other measures like regulation or funding to achieve the same purpose”.
The issue has also come to the fore because of the Government’s move to explore selling the securities - mostly effectively debt - it holds in broadband network company Chorus.
“You know what happens there is that the minister takes advice, and all she's wanting to do is do an exploratory to see what we can do around chorus debt,” Luxon said.
“Remember, there's a big difference between debt and equity, and we're talking about the Chorus debt and whether there's a better use for that. And the choice will bring that decision ultimately to a cabinet conversation, which we'll have in due course,” Luxon said.
A few hours earlier, Peters’ was not in favour of the move, calling it “creative accounting of the worst sort”.
'You're selling off a debt on the basis that you've got an asset? Why don't we just make sure that Chorus pays us back.'
Luxon said that that while he has promised no privatisation in this term of government, it was worth emulating other countries that “recycle assets” by selling some assets and buying or building different ones over time
“All we need to have is a conversation that sort of says, ‘Well, is this the optimal deployment of this capital that benefits our citizens the best?’”
Luxon also said he thought the Government was not going to get more difficult in the coming 12 months as the coalition parties begin to try to stake out their territory ahead of the next year’s general election.
“We're not doing first past the post in an MMP system. It's a mature MMP environment. We are united at the core about what we're there to do. That's what's been driving our work plans.”
“On the margins, there are differences, that parties will have different party positions and and you just got to get used to the duality of that, that there will be a coalition government position on items and decisions, and parties may have have different policy views on that.”
In response to questions over whether he would drive a harder bargain in any future coalition negotiations, Luxon defended his record.
“Well, I just say to you, for ACT and New Zealand First to come on board with us, they had to sign up for the full National Party plan, which is all there as part of our coalition agreements.
“We as a National Party, feel very pleased with the progress that we've made, apart from two issues, foreign buyer ban and lifting the superannuation age 67 those are two things that we haven't got through.”