The Sixth National Government is a coalition government comprising the National Party, ACT New Zealand and New Zealand First that has governed New Zealand since November 2023. The government is headed by Christopher Luxon, the National Party leader and prime minister, along with coalition party leaders David Seymour and Winston Peters.

Following the 2023 general election on 14 October 2023, coalition negotiations between the three parties ended on 24 November, and ministers of the new government were sworn in by the Governor-General on 27 November.

The coalition government has agreed to a select committee with the possibility of amending the Treaty of Waitangi legislation, require councils with Māori wards to hold local referendums on their status or abolish them, and prioritise English over the Māori language in Government departments. National and New Zealand First did not support the Treaty Principles Bill beyond its first reading. On broader issues, the government's plan includes restoring interest deductibility for rental properties, changes in housing policies, infrastructure investment, conservative law and justice reforms, and tax cuts. Social policies include the removal of access to puberty blockers for transgender children, changes to the sex education curriculum, and the repeal of the Smokefree Legislation.

Background 2023 general election

In the 2023 general election held on 14 October, the National Party defeated the incumbent Labour Party, winning 48 seats and 38.1% of the popular vote. Labour won 27% of the popular with its share of parliamentary seats dropping from 64 to 34. Prime Minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins conceded the election and congratulated National Party leader Christopher Luxon.

Coalition negotiations Following the 2023 general election, National entered into coalition negotiations with both the libertarian ACT New Zealand and populist New Zealand First parties. Luxon said that he would be conducting the negotiations privately "and would not confirm [...] his stance on policies such as ACT's referendum on co-governance". University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis speculated that National's coalition talks with ACT would be influenced by NZ First leader Winston Peters' demands and history of playing a "kingmaker" role in previous elections. Peters had publicly criticised several National and ACT policies during the 2023 election campaign including National's proposal to ease the ban on foreign home purchases, tax cuts, agricultural emissions pricing, proposal to raise the retirement age from 65 to 67, and ACT's proposal to slash government expenditure and public service jobs.

Coalition talks between the three parties was influenced by close results in several marginal seats including Te Atatū, Banks Peninsula, Nelson, Tāmaki Makaurau, and Te Tai Tokerau. Nicola Willis was expected to be Finance Minister. Following the release of final results on 3 November, National's parliamentary representation dropped from 50 to 48 seats. As National and ACT did not reach the 62-seat threshold for forming a government, a prospective National-led government needed to include New Zealand First.

On 8 November, ACT and NZ First made first contact in their coalition talks with National during a meeting between ACT's chief of staff Andrew Ketels and NZ First's chief of staff Darroch Ball. This introductory meeting was meant "to establish a line of communication" between the two parties. Luxon and Peters, along with senior colleagues and chiefs of staff from National and NZ First, held talks in Wellington that same week. Peters' negotiation team included Ball and fellow NZ First MP Shane Jones while National's negotiation team included Chris Bishop. Following the release of final results, Seymour had attempted to contact Peters via text message but the NZ First leader had dismissed it as a scam. On 9 November, Seymour expressed a hope that coalition negotiations and government formation would be completed before an upcoming APEC meeting in mid-November 2023. That same day, Peters criticised the law change by the previous Labour Government that had allowed voters to register on election day, thus delaying the Electoral Commission's publication of final results by one week. Peters had supported the law change in 2020.

The ACT party had proposed a referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, something that gained media attention during the election campaign. The referendum was a negotiation issue for the incoming government. The referendum idea drew criticism from Green Party co-leader James Shaw, Labour MP Willie Jackson, and former Prime Minister and National MP Jim Bolger, who expressed concerns that it would antagonise Māori people and provoke violence.

NZ First and ACT both expressed disagreement with National's proposed 15% tax on foreign house buyers, a key component of its tax policy which was estimated to raise NZ$740 million a year.

On 13 November, Luxon said he was unlikely to go to the 2023 APEC summit in the United States due to prioritising a government coalition. Instead, the outgoing Trade Minister Damien O'Connor represented New Zealand at the summit.

On 15 November, Luxon, Seymour and Peters met at Pullman Hotel's boardroom in Auckland. It was the first time the three of them had met together in person since the election.

On 20 November, Luxon said that National had reached an agreement on policy positions with ACT and New Zealand First, but Peters said that it was an "assumption" to say that a policy agreement had been reached, and Seymour said "that Luxon had maybe had too many Weet-Bix that day". Seymour also opined that ACT as the second largest party in the coalition should hold the position of Deputy Prime Minister and have more ministerial portfolios than NZ First. That same day, the three parties entered into talks about allocating cabinet ministerial positions. On 21 November, Luxon met with Seymour to discuss ministerial portfolios.

Coalition agreements Luxon, Seymour and Peters met in Wellington on the afternoon of 23 November to conclude the negotiations between National, ACT and NZ First. That night, Luxon informed Governor-General Cindy Kiro that he had the numbers to form a government. On the morning of 24 November, the three party leaders signed coalition agreements. Seymour welcomed the coalition deal and said that the government would announce a 100-day plan that could include repealing some legislation passed by the preceding Labour Government.

The terms of National's two coalition agreements with NZ First and ACT were publicly revealed on 24 November 2023. As part of National's agreement with NZ First, National would not proceed with its proposed foreign buyer tax, but would instead fund tax cuts via reprioritisation and other forms of revenue gathering. The new government would adopt ACT's policies of restoring interest deductibility for rental properties and pet bonds. In addition to adopting National's youth crime and gang policies, the government would adopt ACT's policies of rewriting firearms legislation and NZ First's policy of training 500 new police officers. It would scrap the previous Labour Government's Fair Pay Agreements Act 2022, proposed hate speech legislation, co-governance policies, Auckland light rail, Three Waters reform programme, and Māori Health Authority. The government would establish a new regulatory agency answerable to Minister for Regulation Seymour that would review the quality of new and existing legislation. It would adopt NZ First's policy of establishing $1.2 billion Regional Infrastructure Fund. Fees-free tertiary education would be shifted from the first to last year of tertiary study.

While the government would not support Act's proposed referendum on the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, it would introduce a Treaty Principles Bill and amend existing Treaty of Waitangi legislation to focus on the "original intent of the legislation." The government adopted NZ First's policy of legislating the English language as an official language of New Zealand and requiring all government departments to use English in their communications and keep their primary name in English, except for those dealing with Māori people. It adopted NZ First's policy of halting all work related to the He Puapua report and confirming that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has no legal basis in New Zealand law. The government would restore the right to local referendums on the establishment or ongoing use of Māori wards. It would also adopt most of National's fiscal, taxation, 100-day and 100-point economic plans, with exceptions specified in the agreements with ACT and NZ First.

As part of National's agreement with New Zealand First, the government agreed to end all remaining COVID-19 vaccine mandates and to hold an independent inquiry into how the COVID-19 pandemic was handled in New Zealand. This independent inquiry would be conducted publicly by local and international experts and was expected to examine the use of multiple lockdowns, vaccine procurement and efficacy, social and economic impacts on both national and regional levels, and whether decisions and actions taken by the government were justified. While the outgoing Labour Government had commissioned a Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned, Peters claimed during election campaigning that the inquiry's terms of reference were "too limited". Luxon also stated that the government supported broadening the inquiry's terms of reference.

History

2023 The new government was formally sworn into office on 27 November 2023. On 29 November, the Government announced its 100-day plan which would focus on implementing 49 economic, law and order, and public service policies. Notable economic policies have included introducing legislation to limit the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's mandate to combating inflation, cancelling various fuel taxes including the Auckland Regional Fuel Tax, repealing the Clean Car discount programme, reintroducing 90-day trials periods for all businesses, halting the Lake Onslow hydro scheme, and repealing the previous Labour Government's Water Services Entities Act 2022, Spatial Planning Act 2023 and Natural and Built Environment Act 2023. Notable law and order policies have included banning gang patches, preventing gang members from gathering in public and communicating with each other, ending taxpayer funding for Section 27 cultural reports, and extending rehabilitation programmes to remand prisoners. Notable public service policies have included beginning work on establishing a third medical school at the University of Waikato, banning cellphones in schools, testing new World Health Organization (WHO) regulations against a "national interest" test, and disestablishing Te Pukenga and the Māori Health Authority. The government has been described by various observers as a very conservative government for New Zealand standards.

On 7 December, Foreign Minister Winston Peters successfully moved a motion calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war. The motion also condemned Hamas' terror attack on 7 October 2023, called for the release of all hostages, recognised Israel's right to defend itself in accordance with international law, and called for civilians to be protected from armed conflict. The government's motion also incorporated an amendment by Labour MP Phil Twyford calling for the establishment of a State of Palestine in accordance with a two-state solution. Peter's motion was criticised as being insufficient by Labour MP Damien O'Connor and Green Party MP Golriz Ghahraman.