“It’s just a very different dynamic on the other side than what you’ve seen on our side,” Luxon said.
On Tuesday afternoon, National’s deputy and finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis issued a press release calling on Hipkins to “tell New Zealanders how many of the Green Party’s new taxes he is willing to adopt”.
“Chris Hipkins himself has $18 billion of unfunded promises he has to find the money for. That means more taxes and more borrowing, which is exactly what the Greens are offering,” she said.
Elaborating on this at a press conference, Willis said Hipkins had promised to form the next Government before Christmas if elected and, based on current polling, needed the support of the Green Party, Te Pāti Māori and the Opportunity Party.
“With the Greens polling as high as 16%, higher than at many other elections, they are now around half Labour’s size,” Willis said.
“That means that the only way Chris Hipkins gets a deal done by Christmas is making serious concessions to [Greens co-leader] Chlöe Swarbrick on her spending plans, her new taxes and her demand to be Finance Minister.”
Labour has repeatedly said the only new tax it would implement if elected to office would be its capital gains tax (CGT) and rejected claims of unfunded policies by National.
It has issued a fiscal plan, detailing how it plans to balance its spending and revenue commitments, but that has come under some scrutiny for not allocating money to fully restoring the previous pay equity scheme, its proposed Future Fund and some other policies. Labour has said that money will come from its unallocated operating allowance headroom.
While current polling does indicate Labour would need the support of the Greens, Te Pāti Māori and Opportunity to govern, it also suggests National would need the help of at least Act and NZ First.
The Herald asked, given National’s call for Labour to front up, whether it would tell New Zealanders what policies of Act’s or NZ First’s it may adopt during potential coalition negotiations.
Luxon said the situation “is quite different”, mentioning the claim of Labour having unfunded promises and asserting that the Greens would get the Finance Minister portfolio, something Hipkins has said won’t happen.
Willis said National, Act and NZ First had a “track record of governing together”, with three Budgets delivered that met the Government’s fiscal responsibility rules.
“None of the Budgets we’ve delivered exceeded the operating allowances that National campaigned on at the last election,” she said.
“Why? Because we have proven ourselves able to lead the three parties with some bottom lines around managing spending and taxes and debt responsibly.”
She said Act and NZ First had been “up for those commitments”.
Labour and the Greens envision different tracks for Government spending, revenue and debt over the forecast four-year period. While Labour’s approach generally follows what is currently projected (it’s slightly higher), the Greens want substantially more spending, revenue and debt.
Luxon said there was “alignment” on his side of politics that there wasn’t within the left bloc, although Act has proposed large cuts to return non-frontline spending back to 2017 levels (when adjusted for inflation and population) and NZ First has not published a fiscal plan.
“I don’t see Shane Jones or Winston Peters demanding to be Finance Minister,” Willis said.
When asked last week by the Herald whether the latest polling gave her more leverage to become Finance Minister, Swarbrick said: “I’ve been honest in answering the questions about the portfolios that we’re after when it comes to what’s necessary to actually implement the policies that we believe in.”
She said the Greens would “use all of the privilege and all of the power that New Zealanders provide us to work for them when we get to that negotiating table”.
Hipkins has said Labour’s finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds will be his Finance Minister. On Tuesday, when asked about the Greens’ leverage, he said he was focused on winning votes for Labour.
Labour has previously questioned what National will roll over on in order to satisfy Act’s proposed spending cuts.
“New Zealanders shouldn’t have to wait until after the election to discover what National will cut,” Labour’s campaign chair Kieran McAnulty said.
“Christopher Luxon can’t govern without [Act leader] David Seymour. Luxon might have the title but he’s let his coalition partners run rings around him this term – he needs to front up and say what’s on the chopping block.”
Act’s proposal exempts the likes of health, education, defence, police and the Ministry for Children from the proposed spending cuts.
“Hipkins should know that less spending doesn’t mean less services, because he proved himself that more spending doesn’t mean more services,” Seymour said on Monday.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.