National deputy leader Nicola Willis has kicked off National’s conference with a warning a“mortgage bomb” was looming as more and more homeowners have to re-fix mortgages under high interest rates.

The annual conference started in Wellington today, with hundreds of National Party members inside and a small handful of anti-GE protesters outside, protesting National’s policy to open the gates to more genetic technology in New Zealand.

It kicked off with a pōwhiri before leader Christopher Luxon’s wife Amanda Luxon introduced Luxon - saying the benefit of the conference was that it gave her a chance to spend an entire weekend with her husband.

She said Luxon had a very strong work ethic, noting that he worked late into the night and rose early in the morning, although it perplexed her that he said he somehow did not have the time to exercise.

Luxon then spoke to open the conference, giving his thanks to his staff and members for their commitment and hard work. In a speech aimed at firing up the party faithful, he reminded them how far the party had come since its dire election result in 2020 and the turbulent leadership changes of those years.

“In the coming weeks, let’s go even harder. Because power doesn’t concede easily,”

Luxon’s keynote speech – and new policy on law and order – will be tomorrow.

Willis, who is also the party’s finance spokesperson, said the cost of living crisis was now dragging into its third year, and interest rates had risen so fast to try to dampen inflation that “a ticking time bomb lies in front of us.”

“In the months ahead, hundreds of thousands of mortgage holders will have to move off a home loan with a 2 or 3 per cent interest rate to a loan with 6 or 7 per cent interest. Many homeowners will be left scrambling for the hundreds of extra dollars they will need to make their mortgage payments each fortnight.

When that mortgage bomb goes off, the whole economy will shudder.”

She also took aim at the Green Party’s policy for a new top tax rate and a wealth tax, saying that was not the solution.

“Other parties might like to tell you they can fix New Zealand’s problems by robbing Peter to pay Paul. That they will drag the bottom up by tearing the top down. Or that we’ll all feel better if they punish the wealthy hard enough.

The truth is those reckless tactics would only further weaken our fragile economy, scare our best and brightest away and divide us one against the other.”

There was no new policy in Willis’ speech, but she ran through the steps National intended to take, including its tax cuts plan. While the final shape and size of its tax cuts plan is yet to be confirmed, she said that at a minimum it would make an average wage earner $960 a year better off, and someone on an income of $60,000 around $800 a year better off.

“If National can responsibly offer more tax relief than that, without compromising essential public services or damaging our economy, then we will.”

She also spoke about restoring targets in the public service, which would have to be reported on every six months by ministers and government department heads.

Willis also put in an unashamed plug for Luxon, describing him as being the leader the country needed.

“You’ll do it in your practical, methodical, disciplined way. You won’t stand for fluff, you’ll set high standards, you’ll demand high performance, and you’ll deliver results. You’ll do it with heart and with your inexhaustible smile. Bring on Prime Minister Luxon.”

It comes as Luxon struggles to lift his polling as preferred Prime Minister, giving rise to some commentary about whether Willis would have been a better option as leader.

Claire Trevett is the NZ Herald’s political editor, based at Parliament in Wellington. She started at the NZ Herald in 2003 and joined the Press Gallery team in 2007. She is a life member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.