The new Govt’s 100-day ‘action’ plan

The clock on National’s 100-day “action” plan has begun ticking.

Incoming Prime Minister Christopher Luxon signed a coalition deal with ACT leader David Seymour and NZ First leader Winston Peters yesterday morning, securing a new National-led Government for the coming three years.

But can the National Party meet the lengthy list of commitments it campaigned on?

National’s two-page 100-day plan promised to get a list of economic, justice, health, education, housing and infrastructure promises across the line in the first 100 days of governing. The deadline for the 100-day plan will now land in the first week of March.

But already it appears the 100-day plan the National Party campaigned on may not have survived the coalition negotiations intact.

The parties have promised to produce their own 100-day plan, taking into account their coalition agreements – and this plan has not yet been finalised.

Certain promises made by National in its plan may be struck out or de-prioritised in place of the policy projects of ACT and NZ First.

“Both coalition documents provide for the two parties to support the commitments that we made in our 100-day plan, our 100-point economic plan and our tax and our fiscal plans, with some adjustments to some of those policies,” Luxon said yesterday.

And, now six weeks after the election, there is a limited runway for the new Government to achieve its plan.

The Cabinet will be sworn in next week. After a week of Cabinet meetings, there will then be three weeks and nine sitting days in total until the Christmas break – though National is expected to place the House in “urgency”, extending sitting hours to quickly pass legislation.

Once the House’s bells ring on December 21, Parliament will be empty.

Though the new Cabinet may return to the Beehive in January, the House does not usually resume sitting until February.

Within National’s 100-day plan there was one hard pre-Christmas deadline: repealing the “ute tax”, or clean car subsidy scheme, by December 31.

But, on top of the 100-day plan, National made certain deadline commitments.

The party campaigned on repealing Labour’s Resource Management Act reform and water services reforms law by Christmas, and incoming finance minister Nicola Willis promised cuts to government expenditure before Christmas.

This will require Willis to deliver a mini-Budget.

There were other goals National will have to progress quickly before the new year looms.

The plan promises to require primary and intermediate schools to teach one hour each of maths, reading, and writing by 2024.

Presumably, in time for the new school year.

Many aspects of its plan were promises to begin a policy process, by introducing legislation into the House, or undo Labour policies, in many cases requiring legislation to repeal existing law.

For instance, National promised to introduce legislation to remove the Auckland regional fuel tax, to return the Reserve Bank to a single inflation-focused mandate, ban gang patches, and disestablish the Māori Health Authority.

The new Government will not have to pass such laws to achieve the 100-day plan, but it will have complete the policy work and draft the bills.

All the while, the clock will be ticking louder and louder.