Christopher Luxon and New Zealand’s Vote-Splitting Debate

What do you think of the vote splitting campaign? I mean, how's that going?

It looks like an utter mess, doesn't it?

A lot of people do the so-called strategic voting ads, and I gotta tell you, we do not support them.

I think it's tragic for Luxon because what he's saying is not true.

And what that risks is actually handing Labor and Chloe Swarbrick the win.

His accusations that what we're doing is damaging the center right is, is simply incorrect, and if he doesn't know that, I'm astonished.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it works, doesn't it? Vote splitting works.

Well, of course this works. So trying to tell people that it doesn't work or that they're too stupid to do it...

And why is that? Because it is a deliberate, a deliberate attempt to confuse voters in a very tight election.

Kind of offensive, don't you reckon? It is really offensive because it's, it's blatantly obvious National will win more electorates by a substantial margin than their party vote entitlement. So it makes much more sense to use those party votes for our coalition partners.

I'm saying to you over and over again, I'll say it every day.

If you want a National government, National needs to be bigger than Labor.

He's simply wrong, and he's misleading the public.

You're coming on here saying Christopher Luxon, the guy who the right wants to be prime minister, is misleading the public.

It's not a great moment for the right of politics, is it?

Well, that's true, but where is the fault lying here?

The fault lies with the Prime Minister. He's misleading the public into believing that a party vote for National will somehow improve the prospects for the center right coalition.

It won't. Why don't you just tell the public outright and let them decide?

They are, after all, you know what they are?

They're a phenomenal thing called the master of democracy