New Zealand finally has a government again. It’s been 40 days since Labour was defeated in the country’s election, but the centre-right National party, which won the vote, has struggled to form a coalition. At last, it has thrashed out a deal with the libertarian ACT party, and centrist populist New Zealand First.

The coalition is good news, at least, for foreigners seeking to live in New Zealand. Earlier this year, the National Party announced a plan to whack foreign buyers with a 15 per cent tax on houses worth over $2 million (£1.6 million). Now that idea has been ditched – a casualty of the coalition agreement. But New Zealand’s prime minister Christopher Luxon is cagey on how his government is going to make up for the shortfall.

The coalition has vowed to review the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document

Asked how he intends to pay for tax cuts without the foreign buyers tax, Luxon said: ‘I want to be really clear, we are going to deliver tax relief as we promised and in the amounts we promised to working and lower to middle income earners in New Zealand.’

Also out the window is legislation banning tobacco sales to people born after 2008 and the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration is set to be repealed. The mooted Covid inquiry looks set to have its terms watered down.

Most controversially, the new government has vowed to review the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand’s founding document which balances the relationship between the government and the Maori. In the election, ACT leader David Seymour – who will rotate in the role as deputy PM along with New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters – said that his party would end co-governance and ‘division by race’. New Zealand First also outlined plans to remove Māori names from government departments and to introduce a bill making English an ‘official’ language of New Zealand. These policies, if enacted, mark a sea change from previous ‘progressive’ governments.

Of course, there’s no guarantee the coalition will hold together and be able to enact its plans. Luxon begins his tenure as New Zealand PM with a pair of ideologically disparate coalition partners in Seymour and Peters, but the protracted negotiations seem to have, for now, culminated in a robust and comprehensive agenda. If the government can stick it out though, it’s clear who the big victim of the new coalition will be: the legacy of Jacinda Ardern.