National Party leader Christopher Luxon has clarified his comments that New Zealand has become a "very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country".
Asked by a reporter about the comments, which had drawn both criticism and praise on social media, Luxon said he believed New Zealand was "a country of endless potential".
"We have amazing people, we're in a really exciting part of the world. There is no reason for why New Zealand cannot do well in the next 50 years.
"We've had a government that has actually taken New Zealanders and New Zealand backwards.
"That's what I was talking about yesterday."
He said New Zealand had to get "turned around" and his love for the country was why he had moved back to New Zealand after living overseas.
"I am a big patriotic Kiwi in New Zealand.
"We are not realising our potential, we are not solving our problems, we are not optimising the opportunities that we have and we're not getting things done.
He said a National government under his leadership would be "a turnaround government" that would help give New Zealand back its "mojo".
"I am a big believer in New Zealand... but under this government, we have not been realising that potential."
Asked who he was referring to with the comments, Luxon said "this Government".
Yesterday, while chatting to the owner of the farm where National announced its agricultural emissions policy, Luxon could be heard saying: "We have become a very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country and we have lost the plot."
"We've got to get our mojo back... a lot more ambition and aspiration."
Asked about his comments later, 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."
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.
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