Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will face questions this afternoon over his claim business is taking a “negative view” of economic conditions and should act like an “adult”.

The National Party leader, who has been accused of being out of touch, told a Rotorua business audience last week that there’s a “parent-child mentality” between Government and business.

The Herald will livestream Luxon’s press conference above, about 3.30pm.

On Monday morning, Luxon said he was “disappointed” in the reporting of his comments, though didn’t identify anything incorrect.

Asked what was wrong, Luxon told RNZ: “Oh no, it’s just more that obviously there’s been a media story about it”.

He claimed he had a “very good” wider conversation at the business event and highlighted positive economic indicators.

Luxon said he didn’t intend to “cause offence”. He told Newstalk ZB he was a “great admirer of business people because they’ve led through difficult times, they’ve got a lot of people to lead”.

When asked if she agreed with the Prime Minister’s comments, senior National MP Erica Stanford, who was fronting a media conference earlier on Monday, said Luxon had explained himself on the radio.

“It’s been really tough out there for businesses. I go into cafes and small businesses around the country wherever I can when I’m visiting schools and talk to business owners, and it has been really rough,” Stanford said.

She said the Government was trying to create conditions to allow business to thrive, pointing to actions she’s taken in her immigration portfolio to support Chinese visitors to come to New Zealand.

“We do need to be empathetic and remind them of all the things that we’re doing as a Government to try and support them.”

She said Luxon was empathetic, noting he was willing to engage with teachers and students on visits and “incredibly supportive of my work programme”.

Speaking at the Rotorua Business Chamber event, Luxon was told about declining business confidence and additional costs.

He was asked by the chamber’s chief executive, Melanie Short: “It’s a matter of time, how long can we hold on?”.

As the Herald reported on Saturday, the Prime Minister responded by telling Short her view was “negative”, and said if businesses weren’t “retooling and radically disrupting your business, you ain’t doing the job”.

A transcript of the full conversation showed Luxon talked about his own experience in business, claiming when he was in Chicago: “the last person I wanted to ever talk to as a CEO was the Government”.

According to Luxon’s LinkedIn profile, he was never a CEO in Chicago. The online resume shows he was a senior figure at Unilever, before moving to Toronto to become chief executive of Unilever Canada.

“I’m a business person. I’m building a kick-ass company that actually has commercially superior returns, great customer experience and awesome internal culture,” he said.

Returning to New Zealand, he found a “parent-child mentality”. Luxon said businesspeople here wondered “what the Government’s going to do”.

“Who cares what the Government thinks or does? Our job is to be adult, adult, adult.”

Luxon went on to say his job, as Prime Minister, was to “set the conditions up”, noting attempts to get inflation back into the targeted band and create growth.

Before entering politics in 2020, Luxon was chief executive of Air New Zealand, of which the Government is the majority stakeholder.

He also chaired Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s Business Advisory Council, intended to provide advice to the Government on economic matters.

According to a Beehive press release at the time, Luxon said one of the council’s roles was to “build closer relationships between business of all size and the Government”.

Labour’s finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds on Saturday responded to Luxon’s comments, saying they show “how out of touch he is”.

“Businesses aren’t asking for a patronising lecture and a handout from the Prime Minister, they’re asking for an economy that works,” Edmonds said.

“Rotorua businesses told Christopher Luxon confidence is freefalling, customers are disappearing, and costs keep rising. They are telling him his Government’s choices aren’t working.

“His response was to call them negative and tell them to grow up.”

Manufacturing boss Chris Barrett, the Steel Worx Group director, told Ryan Bridge TODAY on Monday that he was “disappointed” in National.

After voting National his whole life, Barrett said he’d be giving his vote to a smaller party this coming election. He said National had failed to turn around the economy after it was “destroy[ed]” by Labour.

In 2023, Luxon faced criticism after calling New Zealand a “very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country”. He later suggested that was a characterisation of the then-Labour Government.

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.