National leader Christopher Luxon is denying he's out of touch with Kiwis' struggles after a family holiday in Hawaii.
Luxon was in Hawaii last week, despite posting a social media video in which he stated, "today, I'm in Te Puke, the heart of kiwifruit country". He was on leave last week while Parliament was on a three-week recess.
He defended his holiday on Tuesday, but admitted his team had "genuinely made a mistake" with the video's caption. He continued to say so on Breakfast on Wednesday.
"We got it wrong," he said, stating his team should've clarified he was in Te Puke on July 14.
READ MORE: Luxon defends holiday in Hawaii despite Te Puke social media post
However, Luxon said there was more he was frankly losing sleep over, singling out the rising cost of living, health system pressures and student attendance rates.
"Those are the issues we've got to get focused on," he remarked.
Asked repeatedly if the Te Puke post was "deliberately misleading" and whether his holiday showed he was out of touch with Kiwis' struggles, Luxon said no.
"Everyone understands the importance of having a good, quick break," he remarked.
Luxon said he had talked about the cost of living crisis in many interviews on Breakfast and said he "really understands" some families are struggling day-to-day to make ends meet.
"We've got a really big problem with the Government that's letting a lot of New Zealanders down at the moment," he said.
"We don't have an economic plan that's actually dealing with rising inflation and the cost of living and we need to have that, we need to see that from the Government. That's what we've been talking about right from day one.
"I've been talking about it to say 'look, this is an issue, it's only going to get worse, you need to start to control cost, manage immigration, get our spending under control, give people some tax relief and focus the Reserve Bank on fighting inflation.'"
Luxon said he absolutely disagreed with host Matty McLean saying some of these issues are being dealt with.
"There's a lot of talk. There's not a lot of outcome or action. We have a Government that confuses announcements and spending and doesn't get things done," Luxon said.
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