The paint was still drying on the Auckland convention centre when Christopher Luxon delivered his State of the Nation speech on Monday. Some of the furniture had not arrived. The venue does not officially open until February.

Six hundred business leaders offered polite applause. Someone clapped at the mention of the India free trade deal, which seemed to startle the Prime Minister.

Welcome to 2026. It is going to be a great year. The kids are almost back at school.

This is New Zealand politics. KiwiSaver contributions. Road cones. Whether the election should be October or November.

Elsewhere, things are, well, livelier.

The American president is trying to buy Greenland. When Denmark declined to sell, he imposed tariffs on European allies and mused about letting NATO collapse – and then backed down. He blames the lack of a Nobel Peace Prize for his sour mood.

China just ran its largest military exercises around Taiwan, simulating a full blockade. The military fired twenty-seven missiles and deployed ninety warships. Xi Jinping announced that reunification cannot be stopped.

In Iran, thousands of protesters have been killed in anti-regime protests. Its internet went dark.

In Ukraine, thousands of apartment buildings have no heating at minus nineteen degrees. The ‘special military operation’ has killed or wounded over 1.5 million soldiers, so far. Vladimir Putin has been invited to join Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza.

Three weeks ago, American forces snatched Venezuela's president from Caracas. Economists at Davos warn that the operating system of the global order is being erased.

Taiwan faces blockade. Greenland faces annexation. We face a spirited debate about parking minimums.

Luxon, to his credit, acknowledged on Monday that the global rules-based system is "rupturing." He then outlined his three big priorities: KiwiSaver, NCEA and the Resource Management Act. The audience sat politely through all of it.

Our campaign will treat cycleway colours as matters of profound national importance. Pollsters will detect movements within the margin of error and pronounce them seismic. Someone will revive the debate about bilingual signage.

None of it will matter very much. And honestly, that is the point.

Boring is underrated. It is the thing you miss only after it is gone. Tedium is the sound a functioning democracy makes. When politicians are dull, it usually means nobody is storming the parliament.

The world is scary. New Zealand not quite so.

Thank goodness for that. Let us hope it lasts.