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.
222 Comments
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
June?
Published today - https://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8469-nz-national%20-voting-intention…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Will the leopard change her spots ?
http://i.stuff.co.nz/national/9816335/Key-misled-media-over-Collins-Chi…
https://fyi.org.nz/request/1681-all-documentation-sent-and-received-bet…
We shall see.
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.
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
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?
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.
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…
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.
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.
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).
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
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.
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.
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.
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