It was Christopher Luxon's day, but it was all about Winston Peters.

Less than an hour after the official swearing-in ceremony at Government House, the new Deputy Prime Minister fired a shot across the bow of the fourth estate.

His attack was two-pronged.

The first was appearing to issue a directive to state-owned, but editorially independent, TVNZ and RNZ.

“We’ll see with the speed of which TVNZ and RNZ understand this new message,” he said, in reference to new moves to recalibrate the use of te reo Māori when it comes to the name of government departments.

Under law, ministers are not allowed to issue directives to the state-owed media.

The second was a bald-faced and outrageous accusation: “You can’t defend $55 million of bribery – get it very clear."

That’s a reference to the Public Interest Journalism Fund – a pool of government money paid out to various media companies during Covid, to help pay for public interest journalism.

Both attacks generated waves of outrage, as baseless accusations of bribery should.

The story dominated the news cycle on Monday, completely overshadowing the swearing-in ceremony.

It could have died there – but Peters ensured it didn’t.

Incredibly, at a photo opportunity during the new Government’s first Cabinet meeting, Peters piped up again.

“Before you ask one more question, tell the public what you signed up to, to get the money,” he said, again in reference to the $55m fund.

And just like that, another round of bad headlines on a day when Luxon would have wanted to focus to be on his new Government getting on with the business of governing.

It smacked of disrespect from Peters to not just Luxon, but to the rest of the Cabinet as well.

Two days in, and Peters looked to already be going rogue.

Come day three of Luxon’s tenure, there was an air of anticipation around how he would respond to Peters' now multiple outbursts.

“Winston’s allowed to make his remarks in the way he chooses,” Luxon told reporters at his first post-Cabinet press conference.

“We are now in a coalition Government; we have three parties in this Government and there will be different personalities and there will be different ways of expressing things.

“Yes, we’re going to say things in different ways and different leaders and as different members of that team in a coalition Government, and that’s fine, that’s acceptable.”

Translation: Winston can say practically whatever Winston wants to say.

In hindsight, the answer is not altogether surprising as Luxon’s options were incredibly limited.

Publicly admonishing Peters so early into the life of the coalition would have dealt a devastating blow to the already tenuous perception of stability this Government has.

It would have also put major internal pressure on the National/ New Zealand First relationship.

Put simply: Telling Winston off in front of the news cameras would have created more trouble than it was worth.

But what amounted to a shrug and a brushing off of the comments may come back to bite the Prime Minister.

Letting Winston somewhat off the leash was a precedent-setting move, giving the New Zealand First leader licence to continue this sort of behaviour into the future.

Some days, it may be fine.

But Luxon needs to be wary of the responsibility all his ministers have to upholding the Cabinet manual – the ministerial bible.

If Peters is ever found to have breached that in any way, Luxon won’t have the option of telling the press gallery that Winston was just being Winston.

He’ll come under enormous pressure from the media, the Opposition and likely his own caucus to firmly pull Peters into line for the sake of the Government.

And judging by the fact it took Peters less than an hour to come to breaking the Ministerial Oath he’d just taken, Luxon may have to grapple with that issue sooner than he may think.