Christopher Luxon says New Zealand is a "very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country".
His comments were made while chatting to farmers on a farm in Helensville this afternoon, where he announced an agricultural emissions policy.
Speaking to the owner of the property, Luxon thanked him for hosting the visit.
"We have become a very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country and we have lost the plot," Luxon said.
"We've got to get our mojo back... a lot more ambition and aspiration."
Asked about Luxon's comments this afternoon, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said: "Christopher Luxon said that?"
"I guess it makes a change that he's running New Zealand down in New Zealand as opposed to running the country down when he's overseas."
The PM was asked about the remark by a reporter at his post-Cabinet media conference. (Source: 1News)
In mid-2022, Luxon called New Zealand businesses "soft" while on a trip to the UK, comments he later found himself defending.
Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald in July last year, he said New Zealand had become "fearful, inward and negative" as a result of its Covid-19 settings.
It's not the first time Luxon has used a phrase similar to "negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking" when referring to New Zealand.
Last month, speaking to Queenstown-based media outlet Crux, he said New Zealand was less attractive to visitors because it had been "so internally focused in the last six years, having been very isolated, very insular, very inward looking, very wet, whiny and negative, rather than out in the world hustling and actually making and building relationships".
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