Conservative former businessman Christopher Luxon was sworn in as New Zealand’s new Prime Minister on Monday, after a decisive election victory in October.
Luxon’s National Party won 38% of the vote on October 14, capturing 48 seats compared to the second-place Labour Party getting 27% of the vote, enough for 34 seats.
The 53-year-old Luxon, who previously served as an executive in the airline industry, replaces far-left COVID tyrant Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party.
Ardern abruptly quit in January after her party fell significantly out of favour with New Zealanders after her government’s handling of the so-called COVID pandemic. Chris Hipkins took over the leadership of the Labour Party after Jacinda Ardern stepped down.
But now the right-wing National Party, under Luxon’s leadership, has formed a coalition with the Libertarian ACT New Zealand Party and the New Zealand First Party, giving the coalition 67 seats in the 122-seat parliament.
Luxon also promised tax cuts for the middle class and a crackdown on crime by hiring 500 more police officers within two years.
Luxon’s coalition has also expressed an intention to amend the Education and Training Act to require universities to publicly embrace free speech.
After getting sworn in, Luxon’s government immediately repealed the world’s first tobacco ban, legislation that hadn’t come into effect yet but was passed by Arden’s Labour Party last year.
The legislation made it illegal to ever sell cigarettes to anyone born 2008 or later.
Ardern and her “single source of truth”
Last year, Ardern’s government launched an anti-terrorism initiative encouraging citizens to rap on their neighbours, including those opposed to COVID restrictions.
Ardern also infamously said that any information people seek regarding COVID-19 and vaccines should be directly from her government and no one else, saying “We will be your single source of truth.”
In May 2022, a court ruled that Ardern and the New Zealand government implemented illegal border policies that stripped citizens of their rights and left Kiwis stranded in foreign countries.
