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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has suggested National may take asset sales to the next election but denies there are any immediate plans for a sell-off.

He will deliver a statement kicking off Parliament this afternoon, which will be live-streamed above.

David Seymour, the Act leader who will take the Deputy Prime Minister role in May, put the issue into the headlines with his State of the Nation speech last week, in which he said New Zealand needed to move past a “squeamishness” about privatisation.

As the Herald revealed on Friday, Seymour wants to begin a conversation about whether Government assets that aren’t delivering returns should be kept in public ownership or sold off, with the resulting resources deployed elsewhere, such as towards infrastructure.

That debate’s now been well and truly sparked, with the Prime Minister facing several questions on Tuesday morning about whether he stood by his previous commitment not to sell assets this term.

“Yes, absolutely,” Luxon responded.

“Our focus is on driving economic growth and, as I have said, that is not something we’ve been talking about this term. We won’t be talking about [it] this term. I am open to talking about it in the longer term, at the next election. That is something for this term is not on.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Simeon Brown. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Prime Minister said an election victory would be a mandate to move forward.

“We would take it to the election and it would be part of our programme that we’d want to talk about and be upfront with New Zealanders about,” Luxon said.

“I am open to the idea of asset recycling and the best use of capital and that is something we should always be attuned to. But as I have committed to, we’re not going to be having asset sales this term.”

He refused to say what assets he would be open to selling.

Economic Growth Minister Nicola Willis yesterday said Treasury had identified some areas where entities are not delivering “as well as it should” and more would be said in the future.

Elaborating on Tuesday, Willis said the findings of the Government’s review would be shared with New Zealanders ahead of the election.

She said Kiwis wanted more investment in hospitals, schools and transport infrastructure, but not many people were calling for “more investment in QV [Quotable Value]”, the property valuation provider which has been speculated could be sold.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party wasn’t interested in asset sales, other than “what you might do on a day-to-day thing like selling one state house to build four more”.

“This Government wants to sell out New Zealand from under New Zealanders. New Zealanders would become tenants in their own country under this Government.”

Asked why QV shouldn’t be sold, Hipkins said New Zealanders benefit “from the profits QV makes”. The provider reported a $1.2 million profit in its 2024 annual report.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins. Photo / Mark Mitchell

The Labour leader noted that at the 2013 asset sale citizens-initiated referendum — which related to the partial privatisation of energy companies and Air New Zealand — most Kiwis voted against a sell-off. He didn’t believe an election victory would be a mandate for asset sales.

Despite that referendum result, the John Key National Government still went ahead with the sale, arguing National had won the most recent election with asset sales being a policy.

Hipkins said the privatisation of energy companies hadn’t worked out, with Kiwis still paying high energy costs.

Another part of Seymour’s speech related to giving New Zealanders more choice about health and education funding. He suggested one idea could be to allow Kiwis to opt out of the public health system and instead receive money to spend privately.

New Health Minister Simeon Brown said on Tuesday that there were aspects of the healthcare system, such as infrastructure, where public-private partnerships would be looked at, but the provision of services wouldn’t change.

Asked if he could give Kiwis more options to opt into private healthcare, Brown said it was “early days” as he had just taken on the role, but he wanted all New Zealanders to be able to access healthcare in a “timely and quality fashion”.

While Luxon has said he is focused on economic growth, he has also suggested raising more foreign investment into New Zealand infrastructure could be a way of doing that.

The Greens’ Chlöe Swarbrick also wrote to Luxon yesterday asking him to “end all speculation” about future selloffs.

“We are requesting that you urgently show necessary leadership and put this issue to bed once and for all, committing to keep public services and key infrastructure in the ownership of the people of this country,” Swarbrick told the Prime Minister.

She highlighted that when she previously asked Luxon whether the Government may be paving “the way for an eventual sell-off” of assets, Government MPs “laughed at the questions” and Luxon said she was in a “very dark and conspiratorial mood”.

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald press gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the ��һ�ǿ�����hub press gallery office.