Luxon wants government out of the way — and delivering more

Friday, 19 June 2026

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon answers questions from Business Canterbury chief executive Leeann Watson at a Christchurch event attended by nearly 600 people.

ANALYSIS: For a politician, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon spends a lot of energy figuring out how to take important national decisions away from politicians.

During a question and answer session at a Business Canterbury event on Thursday, Luxon outlined his plans for fixing some of New Zealand’s structural woes, including infrastructure delivery, climate adaptation, and the building consents system.

While the problems varied in cost and complexity, the remedy, in nearly every case, was to offload the decision-making process.

The Infrastructure Commission, he said, should run a 30-year pipeline of “really hard projects” sitting “outside the influence of politicians”, because successive governments have proven incapable of seeing anything through.

He gave the example of Auckland’s light rail project, which has been talked about for six years and already cost $350 million despite the route not being started.

Luxon also said regional councils are being abolished as part of Resource Management Act reform partly because, in his view, too many layers of government and too many points of public input are why nothing gets built.

Part of the reasoning is that Luxon wants fewer big economic decisions reopened every three years.

Luxon’s pitch rested on a familiar idea that the government should lay the groundwork and then get out of the way of businesses.

Leeann Watson puts questions from Canterbury’s business community to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Thursday.

That means fewer rules, faster decisions and tighter control of public spending. It is an argument likely to find support in a room full of employers frustrated by cost, delay and bureaucracy.

But businesses also want a government capable of delivering more.

They want reliable electricity, better freight links, enough housing for workers, faster consenting, functioning water infrastructure and a pipeline of skilled people.

None of those things appears by shrinking the state alone. They require co-ordination, investment and, in some cases, substantial public spending.

Growth is already putting pressure on electricity supply, transport, housing and water infrastructure. Businesses may want fewer politicians involved in deciding what gets built, but they will still expect the Government to find the money, settle the priorities and deliver the projects.

Luxon repeatedly pointed to Australia, Ireland and Singapore as countries New Zealand was falling behind, with the message being that the country no longer had the luxury of slow decisions and policies that were constantly changing.

Taking politicians out of decisions may help New Zealand get more built, but when they involve public money and local communities it makes the process less visible.