Christopher Luxon says he won’t rule out working with a coalition of fringe political parties championed by Destiny church leader Brian Tamaki.
Yesterday 2000 people attended the Freedom and Rights coalition protest on the steps of Parliament, where a mock court 'tried' the government on alleged human rights violations.
Protestors of the coalition, led by Tamaki assembled a bench, with an uneven scales of justice and a fake judge in front of Parliament House.
Tamaki took the opportunity to announce his wife’s previously unsuccessful political party Vision NZ would merge with other fringe parties to create a super pack to oppose the current government.
Ousted Hamilton West Labour MP Gaurav Sharma was welcomed to join the consortium, before the fake judge asked the crowd for their verdict on the human rights violations alleged against the government, to which they yelled "guilty".
A mock court trial was held during a protest at Parliament on Tuesday. Photo / NZME, George Heard
Appearing on RNZ this morning, the National leader said he couldn’t rule out working with Tamaki’s new ‘Freedoms NZ’ party but he doubted they would get into Parliament.
"It's way too early to talk about that or speculate about it," Luxon told Morning Report.
"I think if people want to change the government, which I was united in around the protest yesterday, they should party-vote National," he said.
Luxon also provided a deadline for the investigation into newly elected MP Sam Uffindell, who was suspended last week after bullying and assault accusations were levelled against the Tauranga MP, who ran on a tough-on-crime platform.
"I'm a little bit at the mercy of when she's [Maria Dew QC] completed her report." Luxon said, but he expected it to be done in "a week or so".
"It's really important that it's confidential and truly independent. That's why I haven't spoken to Maria myself since commissioning it with Sylvia Wood, our president, because I really want every party to be able to defend themselves and put their point of view forward knowing it's safe, confidential and it won't end up in the public domain," Luxon said.
