sign up log in
Want to go ad-free? Find out how, here.

Judith Collins elected National Leader; Gerry Brownlee Deputy; No 'wholesale' policy changes expected; Focus on solidifying the base; Collins won't let the PM get away with any 'nonsense' 

Judith Collins elected National Leader; Gerry Brownlee Deputy; No 'wholesale' policy changes expected; Focus on solidifying the base; Collins won't let the PM get away with any 'nonsense' 
Gerry Brownlee, Judith Collins

Judith Collins has been elected National Party Leader, following Todd Muller’s shock resignation from the role on Tuesday morning.

Gerry Brownlee has been elected Deputy. 

The National Party caucus took about two hours to make the decision on Tuesday evening. Thereafter, members of the caucus stood alongside Collins and Brownlee as they addressed media.

"Third time lucky," Collins said, referring to the other leadership bids she's made.

She said Paul Goldsmith would remain National's finance spokesperson, but couldn't confirm whether Michael Woodhouse would remain health spokesperson. 

“I don’t see major shifts at all in the policies we have," she said, stressing there wouldn’t be “wholesale” policy changes.

Collins said the caucus decision not to work with New Zealand First still stood. 

“I think we need to be very focussed on just sticking to focussing on our party vote, and understanding there are other players coming into politics at this time as well,” she said.

Solidifying the base 

While Muller, and his former deputy Nikki Kaye in particular, were well-placed to target centrist voters, Collins said: “I think it is important that we send some very strong messages out to our base voters, who have been, obviously, a bit discombobulated with the last day or so. They need to know that we’re absolutely back on track and we will be taking the fight to the Government.”

Asked whether she would adopt the same approach Muller said he would - to not be in “opposition for opposition’s sake”, Collins responded: “I think it’s important that we give credit where it’s due, but at the same time there is no chance at all that I’m going to let Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern get away with any nonsense when it comes to our economy and doing her job. I will hold her to account.”

Collins described herself as a "provincial Aucklander", saying her strengths were her toughness, experience and ability to make decisions.

'Collectively crush the other lot'

She said seeing results would unify her party.

“I am hoping the National Party will collectively crush the other lot,” she said.

“This is a team game for us. You can’t win it without the team…We are best fitted to actually look after the people of New Zealand. This is all about the people.”

Collins earlier said in a statement: “My focus as leader will be helping rebuild our communities and dealing with the economic and jobs crisis by getting Kiwis back to work.

“Only National has the experience and skills to get us through this. We are a strong team and I look forwarding to forming the next Government."

Role took a 'heavy toll' on Muller

Muller stood down as leader after only 53 days in the job. He said in a statement: “The role has taken a heavy toll on me personally, and on my family, and this has become untenable from a health perspective.”

The news was broken to his caucus via teleconference on Tuesday morning, although Collins said she was told on Monday night. Muller wasn’t on the call.

The Bay of Plenty MP faced an uphill battle during his time at the helm of the party, trying to unite its caucus.

Paula Bennett, who was ousted as deputy leader, told a comedian she would be resigning from politics at the September 19 election, before she told Muller.

Muller was criticised for bending the truth last week, when he said personal details of Covid-19 patients were only given to National MP Hamish Walker, by former National president Michelle Boag, when in fact he knew they were also given to the party’s health spokesperson, Michael Woodhouse.

Muller tried to cauterise the problem, by pushing Walker (who leaked the information to media), to resign. However, for days he denied others in the party may have had the information too, and didn’t take the matter to the Privacy Commission nor Ministry of Health.

Prior to that, Muller made headlines for having a white front bench and displaying a MAGA hat in his office.

National was undergoing a process of re-shaping its policies under Muller’s leadership and in light of Covid-19. It was due to announce a major infrastructure policy on Tuesday. 

We welcome your comments below. If you are not already registered, please register to comment.

Remember we welcome robust, respectful and insightful debate. We don't welcome abusive or defamatory comments and will de-register those repeatedly making such comments. Our current comment policy is here.

222 Comments

The reality is that National is in a poor place and needed a strong forceful personality to reestablish itself. Collins was probably their best if not only bet.

Up
0

To fix their culture of corruption and dirty politics, National have ...appointed Judith Collins leader!

Wow.

This is a sad day for New Zealand. New Zealand needs a National party with ideas and policy of relevance, cleaned up and with moral standards.

Up
0

I think Bomber Bradbury sums up the appointment of JC quite nicely

Top 8 People thrilled Judith Collins is the new leader:
-Cameron Slater
-Chinese Government
-House of Slytherin
-The Sith

-White Walkers
-The Joker
-Swamp Kauri
-Labour strategists

Up
0

Certainly not Sir John.

Up
0

Well if nothing else it should boost donations from "Chinese Businessmen"

Up
0

The softening up has already started in the hope of another scalp. Truth is JC will be a stronger contender than fake and incompetent JA

Up
0

When you say ‘truth’ do you mean ‘my personal bias believes’ ?

Up
0

Just what we need, another corrupt member of the National old guard. Her brand of politics is far too polarizing to bring her the centre vote. As for her deputy? I think Christchurch will give you a good synopsis of his past performance and it ain’t good.

Up
0

People want polarising not grey and boring, throw in some credible promises that give hope to the masses and you have a winner. After winning power ensure you fulfill your promises or you look incompetent vis-a-vis ardern

Up
0

There have been some interesting reactions so far. I wonder if some here have Mummy/Strong Woman/Age/Boomer issues.

Up
0

No, we have crooked politics, probable corruption, undemocratic (binning of the 2012 review of MMP recommendations), anti environment, climate science denial, neo-liberalism (which has been debunked), backward looking, martinet issues.

Up
0

Problem is Judith has to run on the 9 years of National incompetence

Up
0

Is she that competent herself. She was part of that old guard as well.
I thought she might have come out and said something new with her opening statement but it is just what Muller has been saying.
She will obviously resonate with the "old guard" but I doubt whether she will do the same with the middle and younger guards.
Both her and Brownley have a lot of baggage.
I can see Cindy come out swinging like she did with English during the last election debates.

Up
0

You mean like resolutely denying that it was impossible to get ahead in politics without lying? She's been economical with the truth since but probably won't admit it to herself

Up
0

Sure, worked out well for the USA

Up
0

Christchurch indeed! But you see from Fendalton you can’t see the eastern suburbs so they didn’t matter. There it is.

Up
0

RickStrauss,

I was going to post a comment, but you have said it all. Sadly, a lot of people in the National party will be very happy/relieved today. They were deeply uncomfortable with admissions of past failures on for example housing and climate change. The Neanderthals in the party, of whom there are many, will be lighting celebratory fires in their caves.

Up
0

The Nats are back - big time.

It's all downhill for Labour from tonight onward.

TTP

Up
0

Branching out from property comedy to political comedy is working well for you Tim, you got a laugh from me.

Up
0

Ahahahahahaha
Top notch comedy toothy

Up
0

Somewhere a boy racer is quivering in fear, but I doubt Jacinda is.

Up
0

Anne Tolley has bowed out

Up
0

TTP,

To which post will she appoint Cameron Slater do you think?

Up
0

Hahahahahaha...

Up
0

If Crusher fails who is next in line, Pat the Postman.

Up
0

She's the bottom of a very shallow barrel.

Up
0

Go Judith!

Up
0

Yes, please go.

Up
0

Don't worry its just Judith's Mum.

Up
0

Judith Collins: a wolf in wolf's clothing.

Up
0

This will be fun

Up
0

IO
Agreed. The election campaign will certainly be far more lively.

Up
0

Yip anything could happen from here!

Up
0

Yep, ejections from the chamber.

Up
0

Anything other than a landslide to Labour is inconceivable

Up
0

I thought they should have done this when Ximon took over but this is probably better timing for her to go in and cut loose with absolutely nothing to lose.

Up
0

The best part of the fun is going to be watching all the lefty haters on this site go ballistic.

Up
0

I'm tallying the numbers that attack her. It means they are scared and the Nats got it right. I'll still vote ACT though. The Nats need to come Right to get my vote back.

Up
0

It is often easy to ascertain how highly some people think of themselves

Up
0

It is. Three key things are tells 1. A fixed point of view 2. Endless repetition of that view 3. Continual denigration of those with opposing views as inferior. Where should I send your club membership card to?

Up
0

Pat, you shouldn't talk about Yvil like that.

Up
0

It's a broad membership on this site. I'm guessing bots do the heavy lifting for many.

Up
0

I've heard mention of bots a few times now.
Are you saying that there are automatic answer devices or such? How good are they, can they answer you? Post relivant comments etc.

Up
0

I personally don’t know how they would work on a site like this but we have had a spate of “look at my beautiful pussy” spam posts so clearly it’s not that difficult to become a member here and post. There’s also a suspicious number of new Leftie accounts posting regularly. They could be the old fashioned Leftie types in darkened rooms with instructions from the hive but evidently the technology is there to automate them. It wasn’t that long ago that Labour was found to be using 85 foreign students in a campaign for change run by Matt McCarten. They are capable of anything.

Up
0

❤❤❤❤❤

Up
0

The conspiracy runs strong in this one... haha

Up
0

Yes XX noticed that too in the last month or so. Using several monikers for one identity, posting and up-ticking themselves, the same prattle. Not subtle, quite immature from the look of it. One couldn’t wait more than a day or so to sign up other identities for him or herself. This site is for individuals not split personalities.

Up
0

That or there has just been a general shift to the left across the whole of society as signified by the recent Labour/Greens polling. Its nearly 2-1 now in terms of left leaning vs right leaning voters in this country - so you'd expect more left wing views anywhere, including sites like this wouldn't you?

Up
0

That is a far too logical explanation for some.

Up
0

Last poll suggests closer to 45:55 R:L at moment, but a mobile swing voting centre. Social media is left wing dominated. But twitter and Facebook are not representative of population

Up
0

I know the area pretty well, having worked professionally as a comment moderator.
If there are bots here (other than the very obvious ones) then they're unusually subtle.
The 'reality' of the comments here is one of the drawcards of the site; on the whole it doesn't attract hit-n-run trolling, whether that's from Left or Right or Russia. Sometimes, people even civilly agree to disagree. Amazing.

Up
0

Foxglove also accused me of being one too. By the way, Collins exemplifies corruption in national. If the right are honest, own this and her history.

Attacking the left to deflect is lazy.

Up
0

Cindy exemplifies non delivery but I’ve yet to see a Leftie own that e.g. Rick Strauss

Up
0

Question on delivery? How many boy racer cars did Judith crush? How adequately did National resolve the Housing Crisis? What about reducing immigration?

Oh? Not at all I hear you say! I see. So non-delivery appears to be a NZ politics problem, not a blue vs red team problem. Which, I would suggest, is a much graver concern. If no one can deliver on their policies then we have a dysfunctional democratic system and no amount of base tribalism is going to resolve that.

We need innovative and functional policies right now. It doesn't really matter where they come from or what coloured label is slapped on them. I will literally vote for anyone that can give me the slightest whiff of competence and ethics. JC has failed on both counts historically.

Up
0

"How many boy racer cars did Judith crush?"
It is a policy designed to deter. Do you measure success or failure of death penalty by the number of executions ?

Up
0

dude, don't try and defend shit policy, that's dumb.

How many did it deter? A grand total of none I'd guess, probably made them more determined.

Maybe you'd like remind me how prohabition worked out back in the day...???

Up
0

Not defending anything - just pointing out that number of cars crashed is meaningless measure .

Not being able to read a post and posting shit in reply is pretty dumb , dude ..

Up
0

Wasn’t it one car? JC has stuffed up most portfolios she’s had. Like Trump, she knows which buttons to push and she can swim in the swamp. Her big problem is that most of her caucus loathe her.

Up
0

Yes, it was Pietro. I think it was Wonk Key's son.She got demoted soon after that, but she got Wong back in her recent book release. Good friendships never run smoothly.

Up
0

Agree, We need a Party to fix things that are broke, not sit on their ass and take the money and gambol away the lives of others...All talk, no action and rinse and repeat, is not going to fix any problems. They are the problem, some of these so called Politicians have been sitting on their hands for years, waiting, waiting, swapping seats and playing with a "Merry Go Round"...and taking a slice of the action as they go round to fill their pockets. Please can we have some can do people, not some obscure people sitting in the wings, waiting for their 53 days of fame...but unheard of before, except those who broke the rules, playing away, behind the scenes. Fixing things is what we need as a Nation, not more of the same.
I shall now go back to my seat and resume sitting around, waiting, waiting, waiting.
Oh! and counting the cost of the money go round, my share of the deficit, rates, taxes, GST, Air New Zealand, the list is endless, I shall be forever in "Their debt".... and and weeping...Sadly.

Up
0

You need to pick your targets better, given I've never voted for Labour but have historically voted for National.

Also, your post above could do with a smidgen of self-awareness. Quoted here:

Three key things are tells 1. A fixed point of view 2. Endless repetition of that view 3. Continual denigration of those with opposing views as inferior.

Perhaps if your point of view was less fixed you'd be able to comprehend that I could have voted for National multiple times yet found myself severely disappointed with Key's cynicism.

Up
0

Bit like you too, not a traditional Labour supporter, but did vote for Kirk, and Lange twice. Yes the corporate blue wave of Keys’s government soon subdued any of the indications of a new start, fresh ideas etc. Have though been fortunate to be able to support Ruth Dyson down here as she has been an unflagging and stalwart MP for her electorate across the board. That made that vote easy, not so easy this time though. Believe in hindsight the more simple FPP of holding each MP accountable to an electorate produces a better calibre in parliament.

Up
0

Rick: so you've now 'outed' yourself as a National party agent provocateur.

Up
0

Haha...slightly guilty :) I was certainly no fan of Helen Clark at the time. Even got out in a march against what they were up to at one time.

Up
0

Warning of the existential threats to mankind, is not 'point of view'.

Although I can quite see why those to whom the message is anathema, would need to avoid it's truth by labelling it 'opinion'.

Up
0

Out of interest EE, which ACT policies do you like?

Up
0

Who reads policies? I just like that he's kind and genuine, loves small children (not in the Youth Labour Camp way) and gets his hands dirty building a car in his spare time. His dancing could use improvement though.

Up
0

I don't think your logic holds for Collins. She is despised across the political spectrum.

Arden may well cause a lot of damage, but thankfully some of it can be rectified.

Collins flogging our soul to China like a piece of swamp kauri, well we won't recover from that.

Up
0

Ex Expat,

I think you'll get your wish. I have already heard "Crusher' say that there will be no new taxes and services will be protected. This is the twisted mentality of the Right in full view.

Up
0

She made it clear that the health service was protected, all else was fair game. Can you even take her word on health given the state they left it in after 9 years of neglect?

Up
0

I suspect that the Greens’ wealth tax will be the ground this election is fought on. Remember, though, that no new taxes means either: a) austerity b) huge extra borrowing c) both.

Up
0

Paashas.

Geez no, it's hilarious. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Up
0

Lol Jaciinda the queen of non delivery is going to have her cage rattled.

Up
0

Collins will no doubt set down an effective prosecution, she will give Ardern a real match. Should be fascinating.
The Nats will need some policy, though

Up
0

I don't know, but I'd reckon a good guess is first policy will be build more roads. Probably second and third too. ( Most likely using Chinese expertise)

Up
0

Yeah. I doubt they will have much that is interesting, novel or positive.
Their strategy will be an aggressive and negative one.

Up
0

Maybe a nice belt road.

With a few "Bridges" thrown in she should be able to link Auckland to the "Northern Capital"

Up
0

Bring the spy back to assist.

Up
0

What about some Chinese steel, that's worked well for the Nat's in the past!

Up
0

Perhaps sell off some Kauri "finished tabletops" as part of a national strategy too.

Up
0

Paper tiger, I think you are going to find.

Up
0

There was a vague suggestion of an olive branch with WP/NZF when Muller was in place. What chance now with Collins there instead?

Up
0

How's your covid free life going Kezza?

Up
0

If Gerry is anything to go by on Delivery in Christchurch, some of his announced projects are still not open, 8 years later. In his time all he could build was the Justice Precinct (Which was over budget) and a Bus station. The other public projects opened after National left or are still not open - Library, Stadium, Playground, metro sports, hospital rebuild etc. All announced in 2012.

A vote for National (especially with Gerry in charge) is a vote for press releases and minimal action.

So far they have been on-point announcing and re-announcing great pork-barrell ideas such as the Rolleston to Ashburton Express way - which will cost somewhere between $30-$50mil per km. I believe they have announced this road on three different occasions now.

Up
0

Don't forget what he did to the housing stock of Chch will the deal he made between EQC and Fletchers! The 3rd and 4th repairs of dodgy original repairs will be costing NZ inc for years.

Up
0

The nats are beholden to the roading lobby morph, and they'll never be able to get away from The Roads of National Party Significance idea until they get a slightly progressive leader like Nikki Kaye, but then she's way too liberal for a large chunk of the party. Having said that, Labour seems nearly as beholden to the same lobby group. 'sigh'

That motorway that will carry 12-14,000 vehicles/day, when I think the minimum they need to justify it on a cost/benefit analysis (which is bollox to begin with anyway) is about 25000 vehicles/day.

Up
0

Strange thing about the Justice Precinct is that the courts and the central police station & cells face each other across the road. Not a comfortable fit, suggests a design for rapid convenient transit in an already determined direction, sort of a one stop shop set up. Has been a fair bit of negative comment on this in legal circles, international even.

Up
0

This leftie isn't going ballistic, I'm delighted. Collins is the kind of unapologetic born-to-rule type that takes us from likely National loss to certain National loss. It will be a historic pasting.

Up
0

No. It won't be fun. It'll just be the same "lets do some damage" politics and total lack of accountability that we've become used to in NZ over the past 10 years.

Up
0

The wingnuts will be popping champagne now they've bought in the heavy artillery.

Up
0

Latest Roy Morgan poll has Lab at 54.5%, daylight running 2nd, Nat at 27% in 3rd place, the greens on 9% and winnie on 1.5%

Up
0

Looks like a pretty unreliable poll

Up
0

Why's that?

I thought the polls were quite unreliable leading upto the last two elections but they was amazed at how accurate they were (think they came out within 1-2% of actual election results)

Up
0

If the Greens get 9%, I'd have an aneurism lol

Up
0

I just can’t believe that almost two in three will vote Labour/Green. At a combined 63%, that’s almost a third more of the vote than they got in 2017. When I was involved back in the day, Roy Morgan polls were the cheapest and least accurate. I would suggest, though, that Labour and the Greens may well get in the high 40s, probably enough. For all of the vitriol against NZF on this site, Winston Peters does have the virtue of moderating excess, unless it involves horses. Then again, all pollies have pets.

Up
0

You could well be right Pietro, but that was also a June poll that was taken before Boag got her grubby mits involved which surely will take more voters away than it'll gain the blue team.

Up
0

I think there has been a significant shift to the left the last few years, be it good or bad - some may have missed it depending upon what echo chamber they've been living in.

Up
0

What date was this poll?

Up
0

The month of June.

Up
0

In which case you could reasonably expect the gap between Labour and daylight to be even larger.

Up
0

Winnie the who?

Up
0

......Pooh !!!

Up
0

Such an outcome would be disastrous for Aotearoa and I am no National fan. For a unicameral, MMP elected, parliamentary system such as we have to remain healthy, it is vital that neither major party of the left or right hold a majority (let alone hold a majority supported by a party further to their extreme). Otherwise I fear the rise of an autocracy.

Up
0

Winston’s your man then.

Up
0

Go The Crusher. Brownlee deputy ?
The old guard is back ?

Up
0

Bingo.

Up
0

It's such a shame National are so lacking in talent, the only people they could turn to were two MP's that were probably going to retire in the next term.

The talent cupboard really is bare huh

Up
0

Judith will recruit Winston to her side, for sure. It is all happening, folks.

Up
0

Crusher versus Arden, a fascinating match up.

Up
0

I agree, I might even have to turn the news on again just to watch.

Up
0

Kindnesss and Light vs Dark nastiness

Up
0

Get them in the ring. Crusher would have a good kick on her I bet, Ardern could go feral with her fangs.

Up
0

The first "Ladies Wrestling Match" in the history of New Zealand Polytics.....not quite a World First....but some may wish to see it....but I will close my eyes and pray for a good result.....May be they can Fix the system so we all 'Benefit'...by working together......for a change of heart.

Now that might be a thought...MMP.....no left or hard right....but "RIGHT" down the middle. Just imagine...New Zealanders working for our sake, not for the benefits of overseas interests and Capital equations.....Heaven in the making.

Up
0

Why is she called Crusher? Was she a wrestler?

Up
0

She was going to have boy racers' cars crushed.

Up
0

Yeah. Ironically she was even less successful at that than kiwibuild is with houses. None vs bugger all.

Up
0

One, I think. Or perhaps that was just a staged photo op?

Up
0

If i recall correctly they did crush the "car" in the end.. but the boyracer had had the car in his shed for 6 months, so what they crushed was basically an empty shell, the boyracer parts were all sitting on a shelf somewhere ready to go on the replacement car no doubt.

Up
0

Anne Tolley pushed the button on that one, if my memory serves

Up
0

I think it only ever happened to one car, then once the PR / marketing hype died down it dawned on everyone that the only losers would be the third tier finance companies who typically owned 95% of the vehicle!

Up
0

Maybe just crush one wheel then and hand the rest to the finance company?

Up
0

ahh ok, that's a policy I could get behind. If I was her I'd be looking to soften my image.

Up
0

Because she’s crushingly boring?

Up
0

Interesting - I see that Radio NZ is running a list of Judith's various peccadillos at the end of the article on her selection.

Up
0

Yes, as much as I am left of centre that is just wrong. Biased and unprofessional. Shame on Radio NZ.

Up
0

But unfortunately true!

Up
0

There are now twitter threads resurrecting some of Judith's less judicious statements, too.

Up
0

To be fair they are balanced out by scurrilous tweets about the Nanny.

Up
0

They need re-airing, so people know just what she is

Up
0

This is not the first time RNZ has failed in providing unbiased coverage. I found Kathryn Ryan's interview of Muller (when he took over) was absolutely appalling in how aggressive it was. Stark contrast to the gentle treatment that our current PM gets. I should note that I have great respect for Kathryn Ryan - and this was the first time I was left so disappointed by her segment.

Up
0

Gee. Jacinda Ardern doesn't get an easy ride. Not on National Radio, and definitely not on any of the extremely right wing networks that we seem to have accumulated.

Do you think that Todd Muller wasn't prepared maybe?

Up
0

Offense archaeology is so very left and so very 2020. Cancel rather than contend

Up
0

Should get National back to 40%
Labour now has an opposition with brains and edge.
Plus the only articulate MP on that bench

Up
0

Judith has some problems to deal with, before you canonise her. Will she sack Woodhouse? There is still the leak report to come - who else in National will it name?

Up
0

And a lot of baggage.

This could even cause some morally upright Christian Right voters to look elsewhere.

Up
0

Woodhouse definitely needs to be held to account

Up
0

Woodhouse definitely is a nasty piece of work. We saw him in his element, snarling every night on the TV news the other week when someone went AWOL from quarantine.

Up
0

They'll either go to 40% or 4%.

A lot of centre rights despise her.

But def need to stock up on popcorn.

Up
0

I agree she's articulate, a rare commodity at present. I quite like hearing her interviewed because she doesn't waffle.
I don't believe the public will ever get over the OraVida stuff, though. It plays into both paranoid xenophobia and entirely justified fears about when exactly 'doing favours' becomes corruption.
She's also remarkably unpopular with her own MPs. However tough she is, she's going to find herself leaked-on and white-anted constantly. Maybe not before the election, because her opponents in the party will be focused now on their own seats and then on dislodging her when they lose.

Up
0

I agree she's articulate, a rare commodity at present. I quite like hearing her interviewed because she doesn't waffle.
I don't believe the public will ever get over the OraVida stuff, though. It plays into both paranoid xenophobia and entirely justified fears about when exactly 'doing favours' becomes corruption.
She's also remarkably unpopular with her own MPs. However tough she is, she's going to find herself leaked-on and white-anted constantly. Maybe not before the election, because her opponents in the party will be focused now on their own seats and then on dislodging her when they lose.

Up
0

Brownlee deputy, old school yo!

Up
0

[ Cheap personal insults not needed here. Ed ]

Up
0

Brownlee, Woodhouse, Nick Smith, and others are 'yesterday's men'. Who would want to see another three years of these non-achievers gracing our TV news screens every evening.

Up
0

She is perfect for National leader, look at all the dodgy stuff her and hubby have got up to over the years. The north shore boy who got rich as a mercenary assisting Bush / Blair invade a sovereign nation to grab their oil would be a good fit for deputy!

Up
0

if you find any connection with Blair so offensive - what is your opinion of Jacinda's service on his staff ? just curious ...

Up
0

Back to the future.

Up
0

Yup - that yearning for the sleazy days of Key.

Up
0

If things had of been different her bestie Cam could of been her press secretary.

Up
0

You can fault Key on a lot of things. But, he did know how to read voters, and he kept Collins as out the way as possible.

Up
0

Yip, She's political poison in the search for the center voters.

Up
0

I fear our political system is just as broken as the yanks, only we are 10 years behind.
We need intelligent, worldly and ethical people to populate and lead our parties. Nobody with those qualities will be coming our way while large corporate or foreign donors rule our politicians.

Up
0

Key's do nothing decade kick started personality politics - say what you think people want to hear and you will go well for two and a half terms, until the voters realise you stand for nothing other than the deal.

Up
0

Totally agree on the identity/personality politics, bit like the current lot?

Up
0

Blame social media and death of print journalism. Politics is changed forever

Up
0

Greens and nz first numbers hard to believe.
Edit, ignore this was meant to be a reply to the poll thread above.

Up
0

Gosh Nick Smith looks thin and old

Up
0

He's next in line for the leadership job.

Up
0

Yes he was walking the streets of Arrowtown about a week ago in runners, shorts and t-shirt in about 4degs and looked like he needed the holiday - but clearly doesn’t feel the cold..

Up
0

Have we finally reached Peak Corrupt Boomer in New Zealand?

Up
0

Boom Boom Shakalaka......

Up
0

We'll know when the Pot referendum results come out. I think the Greens should have waited a few years until the Grim Reaper deals to the No vote.

Up
0

Comment of the day!

Up
0

Nobody with a moral bone in their body could elect her, considering her past scandalous behaviour. She doesn't seem to learn from it either and appears to think it's simply OK to be corrupt. If she gets in power, it will be a real step back for NZs seemingly non corrupt environment. Expect big donations from the Chinese (and reciprocal favours) to be a hallmark of her tenure.

Great to have female leadership in the major parties, that's the only good thing about this. Sad that we have to scrape the bottom of barrels for our top posts.

Up
0

That's not nice to say that about our St Jacinda saviour of the great unwashed.

Up
0

JC will probably be gone again soon after losing this election.

Up
0

Something about her expression reminds me of Piggy Muldoon.

Up
0

To me, She came off a bit smug bordering on sarcasm in that press conference. Like the the cat which got the milk, finally.

Up
0

I thought she was going to transform into Piggy Muldoon, complete with slurred, drunken speech.
Ah, those were the days.

Up
0

always do what the opposition hates and fears teh most -- Good choice --if nothing else she will shore up the national core vote -- get to 42% bring in a large number of MPs including new blood --

At best -- Winnie gets 4.5% another 3% with Maori TOP cannabis and other minors -- meaning winning line is just under 47% - Act polling 3.5% hey presto she is only 2% short of winning --

long way to go -- and any slip at teh border will see labours vote evaporate - community transmission and possible shutdown -- lots of easy targets to chip away at

Up
0

Yeah, let's just make lots of random guesses and construct a set of numbers that support our positions, regardless of how likely that outcome actually is to happen.

Up
0

A sad day for Kiwi voters. Our election choice is now the exact same as the US election in 2017.

Ineptitude or Corruptness

What does everyone prefer?

Up
0

Wasn't the US corruptness vs corruptness?

Up
0

Ineptitude definitely. No I'm not joking, at least being inept carries an excuse.

Up
0

And has the chance of improvement.

Up
0

Down goes the gauntlet. Come out and fight Cindy.

Up
0

So, will the stock market go up tomorrow ?

Up
0

Out with the old, in with the ....... oh never mind

Up
0

Exactly!

Up
0

They're throwing the election. Surely Nikki Kaye would've been the best choice, if they actually wanted to win.

Up
0

Not so sure. To me, Kaye was French Vanilla to Cindy’s Vanilla.

Up
0

Not so. Nikki launched 2 pretty concerted smear campaigns against Jacinda when they were both in Auckland Central. Information was fabricated which came out much later but it got Nikki the seat and Jacinda didn't call bull* publicly at the time.

Up
0

So they both have manufactured public personas? I’d like to give Cindy some truth serum and sit her down for 30 minutes of questioning. I think she is the most devious PM we have had in living memory and had left so much unanswered over the last three years.

Up
0

I think you're spouting the persona of Key.. I can understand your confusion however as both have a thing for pony-tails...

Up
0

I thought the same of Key - each lie started with 'at the end of the day' and by his 3rd term that was the start of every sentence. And I voted from him first term.

Up
0

"Look, at the end of the day it is what it is and I'm pretty comfortable with it, and people will see that...SNAPPER!"

Up
0

Lol. She hasn't had major scandals questioning her integrity every month like the National leaders. She must be so clever at hiding all her evil deeds...

Or she is not dedicated to raking muck over the opposition, and instead just getting on with running the country?

Up
0

EG. Karl soubrek. Why did ILG intercede in granting residency to a friend or friend of friend of Ardern's serving 6 years for drug importing? Tell me that doesn't give off a stink.

Up
0

You have to wonder if that was Nikki or Michelle pulling the strings?

Up
0

I would literally vote for satan before these 2,

Collins and Oravida... Brownlee and the CHC rebuild...what a combo.

Hideous

Up
0

Yay, go Judy!

Up
0

Wow! To reiterate Independent Observer's comment - this is going to get very interesting!

Up
0

Trotsky Trotter looks very defensive on the AM Show. It’s all on.

Up
0

What a choice we now have
1...A swisher of the hair who can frown at the same time
or
2..A scowler who can smile at the same time

Up
0

I like to review and vote based on policies. Neither of the leading parties deigned to share any meaningful details of their policies with us at the last election, because presumably New Zealanders are too thick to understand them and don't care anyway, or they vote on personalities or family history (???). I ended up voting TOP, as they at least had some interesting policies, not all of which I thought were perfect, but a few would have been interesting to see work through the politics mill.
Saying that, we are still in the midst of an international crisis, and the thought of a rottweiler like Collins leading the country at this tenuous time is honestly enough for me to vote labour.

Up
0

Please keep voting TOP mate , good work.

Up
0

Judith will really capture that votes of the people that hate her. Hahahahaha.

Up
0

Jenee, were you one of the three?
can we understand it that you were not included to see in restricted use document package Walker prepared?, or did you see it but reject his restricted terms of its use?

Muller tried to cauterise the problem, by pushing Walker (who leaked the information to media), to resign.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/420717/how-the-hamish-walker-covid…
In an attempt to defend his comments, Walker told RNZ he would send information showing the country of origin of the Covid-19 cases.

He said RNZ could put the information to the minister-in-charge of quarantine and isolation, Megan Woods, on the agreement he remained anonymous.

"I did this to expose the government's shortcomings so they would be rectified.

"The information that I received was not password protected by the government. It was not stored on a secure system where authorised people needed to log on. There was no redaction to protect patient details, and no confidentiality statement on the document.

"I made serious allegations against the government's Covid-19 response and passed on this information to prove those allegations,'' he said.

The broader questions readers will have
1. How can information that is not confidential be described as a "leak"

2. If someone presents and states they are a whistle blower, what power or authority exists that enables media to re label them as a "leaker"?

3. How does 1 and 2 apply if the document has a single purpose use, and line by line detail is not for public release?

Refer - data breach - data to an unsecure, untrusted environment.
https://www.cert.govt.nz/individuals/explore/data-breach/?topic=data-br…

Refer MoH admission - the breach built into the process.
"The team had explicitly sought from all the organisations who were receiving that information for a very particular purpose in a well established process...what the appropriate email address was to send the information to," Bloomfield said.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.rnz.co.nz/article/8a76a413-1502-444a-b…

Up
0

I did not receive anything from Hamish Walker or anyone else. 

Up
0

Gosh, You sound like Bill Clinton.

Up
0

I fail to comprehend the nomination of Mr Brownlee as deputy. If Ms Collins and the National party had done their homework, they would discover that in Chch his name is spoken with derision. His so called rebuild of Chch was a comedy of errors, rushed and poorly researched planning. I will not go on. My prediction? Chch is roaring with laughter this morning. Chch was Gerry built indeed.

Up
0

On the ground (3 places)., the vibe is upbeat, liking Crusha.
Many had been thinking about moving to ACT, DS.
No one thinking about Brownlee.

Up
0

Welcome to the site (having registered mere hours ago). Brownlee did Chch a massive favour with the LURP, which basically opened up land supply throughout the province, set TLA's in competition with each other as to developments, levies, rates and general ambience. That land supply tsunami has plateaued house prices for a decade, allowed semi-affordable homes for FHB's, and is evidenced in the growth in commutable suburbs in the Councils surrounding Christchurch City proper. Yes, of course the Old CBD is a nightmare. But Bob Jones predicted just exactly that, a month after the first quake. Nothing much to do with a single politician. A lot to do with geotech, changed shopping patterns, and localism.

Up
0

There’s three very good reasons why the new leadership will make very little difference to the election result.

1. Labour has a leader with almost unprecedented popularity. That’s difficult to compete against.

2. NZ rarely does one term governments. We don’t like change. Granted, the only two since the 1930s were Labour governments, but both in unique circumstances. The Nordmeyer Black Budget was responsible for the first, and the death of Norman Kirk in the second was a large reason for the second. While this Labout government has been a bit underwhelming, it’s not at the level of those two examples. And being in power in a crisis almost always is a boost.

3. Probably most significant, National has no friends in parliament compared to Labour. Granted ACT looks as though it it doing better, but Labour has the Greens and NZ First in its favour. National would have to get an outright or near outright majority (almost impossible, didn’t happen when Key was popular), or NZ First to not be re-elected (possible, but unlikely).

Up
0

God help us... I can't think of two worse politicians to have in charge - a far right authoritarian style leader with questionable ethics and an incompetent minister who failed to rebuild a city
Last time I looked the chch cathedral is still a wreck and there are still empty sites around in the cbd - at least he put up a cardboard lookalike cathedral instead... well done!

I don't fancy selling more of NZ to foreigners for the sake of lining landlords and property speculators pockets at the expense of our own citizens
Whose interests are they really serving? certainly not the majority

Up
0

Muller was probably surprised by just how many bad apples there are in National, I wouldn't expect that to change much with JC as leader, and Brownlie as deputy, it's back to the future.

Up
0

My respect for Muller is now far higher than it is for Key, English and Bridges.

Up
0

Yeah I can't say I wanted them to win this election under him, but I was interested to see if he could change the direction of National and maybe turn it into a more honest party again that you felt you could trust more.
Sadly that won't happen now with JC and GB, Collins has always been a muckraker, so I'm not expecting much.

Up
0

Judith, Judith.. not the smartest move.
Chance of National winning the next election or the one after is about nil.
Why take up the leadership role of a losing party?

Up
0

To quote Elvis. Its now or never.

Up
0

What does Crusher say when asked what is the first thing she will do?
'Win'.
Says it all really.
Same attitude that has been sinking National for years.

Up
0

Yeah, it's not about the country... sad.

Up
0

"This is all about the people.”

She forgot to mention her belief that, while all people are equal, some are more equal than others...

Up
0

The first thing she can propose to do is crushing all that BMW Limo.. What a waste of money!

Up
0

I think Collins is a temporary fill in for the election, If she loses and the odds are she will, she will be replaced by Luxton, thats National plan.wait and see

Up
0

They are hardly likely to put Luxon in as leader, as an inexperienced MP - even John Key did 2 terms as an MP before taking over as party leader. Who holds the fort until 2026?

Up
0

Trump had no political experience before being elected president and that's turned out fine.

Up
0

Re-arranging the seats on the Titanic and Titanic debt, does not change a damn thing, when the buck stops being passed around, as some may have already learnt in Covid-19 Lockdown. Taking Trump as an example, why does he want to sell his vested interests.....if all profitable...which they never all were in the past, so why would another idiot, buy the same. A Mugs Game, is still a Mugs Game...even when at the top of the heap.

Up
0

Not just from a lack of experience, but it isn't popular within the caucus. Being leader of a political party is very much climbing a greasy pole, and having someone parachuted in above you without them having done the 'hard yards' is insulting.

IMO his first step into leadership would be as deputy.

Up
0

Woodhouse is a goneburger

Up
0

National is munted until 2026

Up
0