National leader Christopher Luxon has been sworn in as the 42nd prime minister of New Zealand.
The ceremony took place at Government House in Wellington today, as Governor-General Dame Cindy Kiro appointed Luxon to the role on behalf of the King.
Luxon swore his oath of allegiance on the Bible.
Kiro also swore in ministers - such as coalition partners, ACT leader David Seymour and New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, as well as Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Attorney-General Judith Collins.
NZ First's Shane Jones swore his oath of allegiance in te reo Māori, as did National's Tama Potaka, while National's Melissa Lee spoke in English and Korean.
New Zealand finally has a government, 45 days after the election. (Source: 1News)
After the appointments, Dame Cindy said to Luxon: “I wish you well as you take on this considerable responsibility.”
In reply, Luxon thanked Dame Cindy and said it "was a huge honour to be appointed prime minister".
He said the executive council was a “strong productive unified team” and they all took their new responsibilities seriously.
He asked his colleagues to “never lose sight” of why they came to politics - to do public service.
“I ask that you think about that as we work together."
All of the new government's ministers have been sworn in, meaning they can now start pushing through changes. (Source: 1News)
Speaking to media after the ceremony, he said his number one job was to fix the economy.
He said the plan to do so was laid out during the election, and a lot of it related to addressing the “underlying causes of inflation”.
He also wanted to “restore law and order”.
He said he’d really enjoyed the ceremony.
Deputy political editor Maiki Sherman has more on what the new ministers had to say about it. (Source: 1News)
“It is a really special privilege to do public service.”
ACT's Seymour said he felt an “enormous” weight of responsibility becoming a minister.
“I just think we’ve got a really big job.”
You can see the full list of ministers and parliamentary under-secretaries here, and an explainer on how a new government is formed can be found here.
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