New Zealand has sworn in Christopher Luxon as the prime minister, who has pledged to prioritize improving the country's economy.
The nation's new right-of-center government was sworn in on Monday and parliament is expected to sit next week to work on new policies. These include a new central bank mandate and lifting of a ban on oil and gas exploration.
New Zealand Prime Minister Sworn In
New Zealand Gov. Gen. Cindy Kiro was the one who swore National Party Leader Luxon as the nation's 42nd prime minister along with ministers of his cabinet at Government House located in Wellington.
On Friday, Center-right National signed coalition agreements with libertarian ACT New Zealand and populist New Zealand First. This allowed the three parties to form a new government and end six years of left-wing governments in the country.
Luxon, a former airline executive, said he was excited about taking on the role of New Zealand's prime minister. He noted that they have a team and ideas and a clear policy program for the next three years, as per Yahoo News.
The new government's coalition agreements, released on Friday, outlined several policy plans. These include a single mandate for New Zealand's central bank, a plan to roll back the use of the Maori language, and an end to a ban on oil and gas exploration.
On Monday, the New Zealand Green Party launched a petition to keep the latter policy in place. In a statement, Green Party co-leader James Shaw said they were asking everyone to stand with them to tell the new government that the oil and gas ban must be maintained.
The Green Party said they would reintroduce a ban on new sources of fossil fuels when they return to government. The newly sworn-in prime minister said he would hold his first Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.
Luxon also looked to quickly finalize a 100-day plan as he is set to visit Australia before Christmas Day. According to the Associated Press, he noted that he needs to get a Treasury briefing on the state of the government's finances.
New Coalition Agreement
He said that they are concerned and worried that the finances have painted a deteriorating picture for several months now. Under the new coalition agreement, Luxon promised to deliver tax cuts and train 500 more police officers within two years.
The prime minister also pledged less government bureaucracy, including a 6.5% cut to the public service. Luxon noted that it would be up to the ministry chief executives to determine how to make the cuts work. This could be stopping programs, not filling vacancies, or laying off some workers.
On top of Luxon serving as prime minister, the coalition agreement would have Winston Peters as foreign minister and he would share the role of deputy prime minister with ACT's David Seymour.
The new prime minister said on Friday that the new government would aim to rebuild the economy to ease the cost of living and deliver tax relief to increase the prosperity of all New Zealanders, said Aljazeera.
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