It was the best of times, and the worst of times. For National Leader Christopher Luxon at least. Just when the prospect of governing looked brightest, another controversy erupted from the back of his caucus on Monday night.
A 1News/Kantar poll broadcast on Monday night showed National and ACT could govern alone if the poll taken from July 30 and August 3 was replicated in an election due late next year. The poll found support for both Opposition parties combined rose two percentage points to 48%, while support for Labour and Green fell three points to 42%.
Only the Maori Party on 2% would also get into Parliament, leaving the remaining eight percentage points wasted and being shared proportionally among the four parties in Parliament. That would leave National's 37% (down two points from the last 1News/Kantar poll in May) giving it 48 seats and ACT's 11% (up four points) giving it 14 seats. The combined 62 seats would be enough to govern (just) in a 120 seat Parliament. That also assumes that Rawiri Waititi holds the Waiariki electorate seat for The Maori Party, allowing him to bring in two list MPs on his coat-tails.
Labour's support fell two percentage points to 33%, its lowest level in five years. Green support fell one point to 9%.
The popularity of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern also continued to wane. Her support as preferred PM fell three points to 30%, although support for Luxon also fell three points to 22%.
No time to enjoy it
But the scheduled poll news popped up in the middle of a media firestorm over revelations reported by Stuff's Kirsty Johnson late on Monday afternoon that new National MP for Tauranga, Sam Uffindell, was kicked out of Kings College private school in Auckland in 1999 as a 16 year old after he viciously beat a fellow student late at night. He completed his schooling at St Paul's Collegiate in Hamilton.
Stuff reported the unnamed victim saying he was beaten with the wooden legs of beds in the school's dorm rooms. Uffindell has admitted the beating, but said he regretted it and had apologised to the victim last year, just months before being selected to be National's candidate in the safe seat of Tauranga. He said he could not recall using the bed legs, but acknowledged he may have.
'We knew about the attack'
A National spokesman said it had known about the attack when deciding to select Uffindell. The voters of Tauranga did not.
"The National Party was proactively informed about this incident by Sam Uffindell during the selection process. It was a significant event reflecting a serious error of judgment by a then 16-year-old for which he has apologised and regrets to this day," a spokesman said via email.
Uffindell released his own statement this evening:
“When I was in fifth form (year 11), I and some other students in my year went into another dorm at the boarding house at the end of term and I punched a younger student in the arm and body multiple times. We were subsequently asked to leave the school.
"I’ve reflected on this incident multiple times over the 20 years since it occurred, and have no recollection of using anything other than my fists. Nevertheless, it’s one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done and something I deeply regret. I’ve worked hard to be a better person than I was as a teenager and to be a good role model to my children.
"After I came back to New Zealand I called the person and apologised for the harm I’d caused. We had a long conversation and I was grateful that he accepted my apology. My apology was genuine then, and it is genuine now.”
'I got carried away'
Earlier, Uffindell was quoted in Stuff as saying he got carried away.
“I went over to the person and punched them several times in the arm and the body and they were hurt. It was the last day of the year and we were just being silly and playing up … we got carried away and we did what we did," he said.
"I regret it and I was really stupid and I’m apologetic for what happened, and since then I’ve tried to make myself a better person and set an example for my children. I’ve learned a lot from the experience from 20 years ago."
He also told Stuff he wanted to close off the issue by apologising to the victim. He denied apologising to clear a pathway into politics.
"That wasn’t my motivation at all. I called the guy up because I was regretful about what happened and I wanted to close that off," he said.
Victim felt used
The victim told Stuff he felt sick when seeing that Uffindell was running for Parliament a few months later.
“At the time, he said not a day had gone by when he didn’t think about it. He used his family, saying he has daughters and would be sickened if anything happened to them,” the victim said of Uffindell's apology in July last year.
“I believed him. But seeing that (the political announcement) - it made me feel his apology wasn’t genuine, he was just doing it to get his skeletons out of the closet, so he could have a political career. If he really cared he would have at least given me a heads-up that he was planning to enter politics,” he said.
“And he wouldn’t have waited until the last minute to apologise until he had something he wanted to do, if he was genuinely apologetic and caring.”
'Accountability and consequences'
Uffindell appeared in a round of media interviews soon after the release of the Stuff article and said his future as a National MP was in the hands of leader Christopher Luxon.
Luxon announced a new policy of getting tough on unemployed youth yesterday, saying there should be consequences for actions.
Uffindell said in his maiden speech to Parliament last week he championed personal responsibility.
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