He did this in response to a question about the perception he might be snubbing the city since he had not visited in more than a year, and not since he has been prime minister.
He disagreed, saying he loved the city — his grandfather was born in Allanton, he had spent a lot of time here and he knew the city well.
He told the reporter he was due to visit in a few weeks but had decided to come now because he wanted to thank people who had stood up for their community in the flood emergency.
Great sentiments which would have been appreciated, but some of the things he said during that conference raise questions about the depth of that love.
A casual infatuation might allow you not to look beyond the surface, but love usually means getting to understand the object of your affection, their hopes and dreams, and their fears and plans for the future.
It is difficult to understand why the prime minister said he knew nothing of the government turning down the Otago Regional and Dunedin City Council’s South Dunedin Future initiative’s request for funding to establish a council fund to buy some low-lying properties over time.
It is not as if South Dunedin’s flooding woes and the risk of them being exacerbated by climate change are new issues.
We would have expected before his visit his advisers would do their homework, from plenty of information readily available, to properly brief him and Emergency Management Minister Mark Mitchell on the story so far.
At this distance it is difficult to understand if it is staff slackness or the prime minister choosing to remain ignorant, as he appears to have over the contentious Casey Costello "research" on heated tobacco products.
(Despite the associate health minister releasing her "research" she relied upon when convincing Cabinet to reduce excise tax to benefit Philip Morris, he says he still has not seen the information, repeating the same tired old lines he has been giving for weeks.)
We can understand the frustration of the city council’s infrastructure committee chairman Jim O’Malley at the mixed messaging from the government.
However, National touted its enthusiasm for localism in its campaigning last year.
Here, it has councils which are being proactive about developing a strategy for their local situation and have come up with what they believe will be a valuable part of it.
It is disappointing it has not been given comprehensive consideration, perhaps as a pilot scheme which might later be adapted for other areas.
Lovers, if they are to have credibility, should not make promises and then renege on them.
During Mr Luxon’s visit, protesters concerned about the status of his election campaign promise about the Dunedin hospital rebuild, pressed that message home.
Speaking on the redevelopment, Mr Luxon trotted out the $3 billion blow-out figure again when he must know there is huge scepticism about it here.
Saying he "gets the frustration" of southerners regarding the hospital and then trying to garner sympathy for his own frustration with the rebuild was not convincing.
According to him, nothing has happened ‘’of any consequence" on the rebuild for six years and his government is going to get things moving.
Perhaps, being blinded by love, he did not see the outpatients’ block already standing majestically in the centre city, and due to be completed in 2026, part of the rebuild programme. Has he also not seen the piles for the inpatient building?
It is hard to see how his government’s decision to review the project, and possibly make major changes to it, will contribute to speeding up anything.
It might have made more sense for Mr Luxon to temper his love declaration for Dunedin with a mangling of Elizabeth Barrett-Browning — "how do I love thee, let me count the dollars".
