A right-leaning political commentator says the weeks since voting day have been "humiliating" for Christopher Luxon.
Saturday marked five weeks since Kiwis voted but New Zealand still doesn't have a Government.
The three men tasked with forming it - National leader Luxon, ACT's David Seymour and NZ First's Winston Peters - did finally appear together this week. However, pressure is mounting on Prime Minister-elect Luxon to close the deal.
Appearing on Newshub Nation on Saturday, PR consultant Matthew Hooton - who's worked on political strategy for both National and ACT - said Luxon perhaps didn't fully understand the dynamics of forming a Coalition Government.
"It has been a humiliating five weeks for Christopher," Hooton said. "He said on the day after the election that he was a man of action... Perhaps, to be fair to him, what's going on is he's prepared to suffer those humiliations in order to focus on the content.
"If he comes out with a deal where National maintains control of fiscal policy, of tax policy, the broad direction of foreign policy... then the humiliations would've been worth it and he'll have made the right judgement to suffer those humiliations in exchange for good policy."
Watch the full video for more.
Watch Newshub Nation 9:30am Saturday/10am Sunday on Three & Three Now, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.
