Christopher Luxon says he was told by some Kiwis on the campaign trail they "didn’t know" the difference between Waka Kotahi, Te Pūkenga and Te Whatu Ora.
Speaking to Breakfast, the incoming prime minister said having English first on government agencies will "make sure" people “understand” what agencies are and what they do.
"For some of us, it’s quite straight forward, but for many New Zealanders, they didn’t understand that."
Luxon said if people “can’t understand” their government agency, let alone hold them accountable, that is a "big problem".
“It’s a pretty simple thing to make sure everybody knows, ‘hey here’s your polytechnics, here’s the Health New Zealand, here’s the transport agency.’”
Luxon said the agreement between his coalition to change government agency names to English first is just a "small part" of the overall arrangement.
"All of our public services have added a huge amount of bureaucracy over the last six years and actually haven’t been delivering improved outcomes for New Zealanders.
"I just simply want all New Zealanders to be able to navigate their government, and that’s a very simple thing, to make sure they understand actually what agencies are and what they actually do."
On his tax policy, Luxon said there was a large amount of work to get through, and expected to see bad hidden economic surprises left by the previous government after being sworn in.
He added the incoming government will get a briefing from Treasury today, and will work on delivering their mini-budget by Christmas.
Will MPs use their free bus card?
Earlier this morning, Wellington Regional Council chair Daran Ponter revealed his ‘cheeky’ solution to encourage MPs to take public transport more regularly by sending them bus cards.
Ponter said the move would take MPs travel cost from $35 to $8 from the airport, reducing emissions and saving taxpayer dollars.
When asked by Breakfast if he would encourage the use of the cards, Luxon said he wasn't sure why the question was relevant.
"I’ve got no understanding of that issue; I don’t know why that’s relevant for me as prime minister to be talking to."
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