New Zealand the best country in the world but it needs to get its mojo back, Luxon says

Despite saying New Zealand is negative and whiny, the opposition leader says he believes it is the best country in the world.

National's Christopher Luxon was heard telling farmers New Zealand is a "very negative, wet, whiny, inward-looking country" earlier this week.

But he told Morning Report his full comments were that the country had endless potential.

"I think New Zealand is a country of endless potential, it's the best country on planet Earth, we've got amazing people, we're in an exciting part of the world in the Asia-Pacific region."

But he said the country had gone backward under the Labour government and it needed to "get its mojo back".

"We want to be a government that's going to turn it around and get some ambition and some aspiration and some positivity and optimism in the country going forward."

The government had put New Zealand on the back foot economically and in terms of education, health and crime, he said.

"I've got great ambition for New Zealand and aspiration for New Zealand and I know we can do well in the next 50 years and that's the job of the National government is to turn it around, get the country back on track and going forward really positively."

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins appeared genuinely surprised by Luxon's description of the country.

"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," he told reporters.

RNZ will livestream a press conference from Hipkins as he attends Fieldays on Wednesday afternoon.

National still committed to 2050 carbon zero goals

National has confirmed it will delay introducing a pricing plan for agricultural emissions by five years - until 2030 - if elected, but Luxon said National was deeply committed to adhering to New Zealand's carbon zero goals for 2050.

Agriculture makes up nearly half of New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions and - unlike emissions from every other sector - are not priced.

A sector-led group called He Waka Eke Noa is currently working on how best to do this but its future is uncertain, given National last week walked back its support on account of the impact the proposed scheme might have on farming businesses.

Luxon said New Zealand farmers were among the most emission-efficient farmers in the world, as well as being the backbone of this country's economy.

Putting a tax on New Zealand farms that resulted in them shutting down would not help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, he said.

"The problem is all of that production that feeds those 40 million people moves to a less efficient country and farm and it doesn't help global greenhouse gas emissions, and on the other hand it actually destroys farmer livelihoods, weakens our economy and makes every New Zealander in this country infinitely poorer."

Luxon said first ensuring farmers had access to biotechnologies that enabled them to lessen their emissions was a better way forward.

"We want to make sure they get full credit for all the good things they're doing on farm about carbon sequestration - a lot of them invested in wetlands, a lot of them invested in riparian planting."

National was still pledging to introduce agricultural emissions pricing by 2030 at the latest, he reiterated.

The sequence of events must be right in order to reduce agricultural emissions and support New Zealand's economy, Luxon said.