PM Luxon outlines "No 1 job" as new government is sworn in

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is speaking after the formal ceremony in Wellington to swear in the new coalition government.

Luxon signed separate coalition agreements with ACT leader David Seymour and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters in Wellington on Friday.

Peters will be Deputy Prime Minister for the first half of the parliamentary term, with David Seymour taking over for the remainder.

Cabinet will have 20 members; 14 National ministers, three ACT ministers and three New Zealand First ministers.

Luxon said the government's "number one job" was to fix the economy.

"We actually have to reduce the cost of living, get inflation under control so we can lower the interest rates, we can make food more affordable, we can deal with lower rents, lower fuel.

"A lot of our focus is on tackling the underlying causes of inflation and that does mean a series of things, of making sure that we're generating savings out of the public service and public spending is being prudent, but equally, making sure we do things like get the Reserve Bank focused on a single target."

He said in addition to getting inflation under control, the government would be focused on "restoring law and order, and making sure we deliver, ultimately, better public services".

Asked if he had felt the weight of the responsibility at today's swearing-in ceremony, Luxon said: "I really enjoyed today."

"It is genuinely an awesome responsibility and so I think the ceremony is incredibly weighty that actually every minister understands the responsibility that they have."

"As I said, it is a really special privilege to do public service, that's why we genuinely leave what we're doing and actually come to this place, to try and advance the lives of all Kiwis, and that's what we've gotta do as a government."

Asked how he reconciled the amount of te reo Maori heard in the ceremony with the government's direction, Luxon said he encouraged people to use more te reo.

But he said he wanted people to be able to navigate their government.

"We've had a public service that actually has had more people added to it, more spending taking place, worse results, and one of the things is we need every New Zealander to understand what those agencies are and what the services they provide are."

Luxon said he wanted to be driving programmes that are advancing Pacific people in New Zealand.

"But we want to make sure we're putting money behind good programmes that are actually achieving results, and that's not peculiar just to the Pacific People's Ministry, that is actually our approach to the whole of public service."

On the smoking legislation; asked if it was disingenuous to use that to pay for tax cuts when it was not something they campaigned on, he said he would not characterise it that way.

"Essentially, the government passed some legislation before the election that hasn't really taken effect in the country."

He said the coalition parties did not believe that "some of those component parts" of that legislation was the best way to lower smoking in the country.