With Judith Collins Dirty Politics is back

Judith Collins on 2020 election: 'We're going to take it back'

Analysis - For years Judith Collins has had her eye on the top prize and it took a complete leadership meltdown, just 10 weeks out from an election, for her National Party colleagues to give her what she's always wanted.

RNZ,

16 July, 2020

She had been labelled the nuclear option - not hugely liked within her own caucus but loved by the party base.

But the shock resignation of Todd Muller after just 53 days in the job saw the party reach for the nuclear button.

It took two hours for the caucus to decide the old guard was the new leadership they needed.

Collins, 61, fronted her first media conference as party leader last night with her entire caucus surrounding her - a show of unity after yet another leadership contest.

Introducing all her colleagues as her front bench she delighted in the pleasure of being anointed leader.

"And starting off as a Labour voter back when I was a child - almost - I find it remarkable that the National Party has chosen me,'' Collins said.

The proud Papakura MP and her deputy Gerry Brownlee have been trusted to get the derailed party back on track.

The pair are from the John Key and Bill English era - the party's glory days MPs are often heard harking back to.

Collins wasn't giving anything away as to whether there were any other challenges or how many votes it came down to last night.

Asked why she got across the line this time - her deputy came to her aid whispering a helpful response in her ear.

"Well, it's third time lucky really, isn't it?"

Collins has plenty of nicknames - and in 2009 she earned earned the title of Crusher Collins with the comment: "I guess the message to those who want to indulge in illegal street racing, is that every new offence will now bring them closer to the crusher.''

She isn't personally a fan of the name, but was happy to use it last night when saying her team will crush the other lot come 19 September.

"Jacinda Ardern is not someone who we should ever underestimate - her own party did so for many years,'' Collins said.

"She is an adversary that I would absolutely respect but I can tell you what, our team is better than their team, and we're going to take it back.''

Leadership ambitions aren't in short supply in a large caucus but Gerry Brownlee said he's not interested in the top job - although there was a caveat.

"You never know where that next bus is coming from,'' he said.

Jokes aside, Brownlee said he's there to support his leader and the team.

"Look it's not something you campaign to get, it's an opportunity that's arisen and I've put myself up for caucus and have been selected.''

A number of National MPs who were all singing from the same songsheet.

MP Michael Woodhouse said the move was a genuine sign of support for the new leadership team.

"[It's] one of the most difficult days for the party and I think it has ended better than it started," he said.

Retiring MP Paula Bennett who was ousted as deputy leader little more than a month ago has given Judith a glowing reference.

"Honestly if anyone can do tough and dig in and prove that they have got it, then it is Judith," she said.

Chris Bishop and David Carter also touted Collins' ability to put up a fight in this year's election.

"I think she will be a very strong leader of the National Party, who will take the fight to the government, she is a very determined person and I am really looking forward to serving in her team," Bishop said.

"She is a person of conviction, you've got a very strong Prime Minister she is up against and I think she will hold her own very, very well," Carter said.

And Matt Doocey was happy to have a fellow Cantabrian as deputy leader.

"Many will know that Gerry stepped up and led the recovery after the devastating Christchurch earthquakes and Gerry stood up, made decisions and really drove that recovery forward so he has a real breath of experience," he said.

The National Party found itself in yesterday's mess after a horrid week for former leader Todd Muller, followed by radio silence for three days.

He'd gone to ground, he wasn't speaking to some of his closest confidantes, and faced questions on whether he lied about what he did and didn't know about who had received private details of Covid-19 patients.

Collins said Muller will stay on in the caucus and he will be supported through this difficult time.

With the election so close, there won't be big changes to MPs' portfolios.

The caucus position not to work with New Zealand First remains.

Although Collins' final words last night that "it might be time for a drink" means she might have more in common with Winston Peters than she thinks.

Press advisory on Judith Collins and the book Dirty Politics

Tuesday, 14 July 2020, 10:07 pm
Press Release: Nicky Hager

In recent days an incorrect story has been repeated in the news about how Judith Collins had to resign after the book Dirty Politics was published but was later exonerated and returned to Cabinet. In the interests of accuracy, it is worth correcting this misunderstanding.

After Dirty Politics was published in 2014, National was concerned about falling support and decided to end this by removing Judith Collins -- one of the Dirty Politics personalities -- from her ministerial post. But National did not want to give credibility to the book by saying that it was the reason for her demotion. Instead the Prime Minister's staff managed to obtain a new email, which had not been cited in the book Dirty Politics, involving Collins, dirty politics characters Cameron Slater, Cathy Odgers and Carrick Graham, and a campaign to smear the Serious Fraud Office head. It was on the basis of this separate email that Collins had to step down. After the election there was an inquiry into Collins' actions in relation to that single email. She was indeed cleared of involvement in the smear and went back into Cabinet.

Here is a reference to the new email and exoneration -- https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/63508530/judith-collins-cleared-of-involvement-in-sfo-smear-campaign. Judith Collins was soon saying that she had been cleared of all allegations in the book Dirty Politics. But neither the new email nor anything about a smear campaign against the SFO head appear in the Dirty Politics book.

Chris Trotter is one of our better commentators from the Left

DOES THE NATIONAL PARTY now constitute a threat to New Zealand’s national security? The recent conduct of persons belonging to the National Party suggests strongly that winning the forthcoming election has become an objective to be secured at any cost. National Party members and supporters no longer appear to regard the existence of legal and/or moral prohibitions as a good enough reason not to engage in actions likely to cause serious harm to New Zealand citizens – if that is what it takes to win. Under these circumstances, wouldn’t the country’s national security apparatus be well-advised to assess the threat of a rogue National Party supporter deliberately restarting the community transmission of Covid-19 as high?

Patrick Smellie, writing in the Herald on Sunday (12/7/20) sets out National’s predicament with clinical precision:

“Only two things can now save Todd Muller and the National Party from the growing likelihood of a crushing defeat at the September 19 election.

“Only one of them is in their control.

“The uncontrollable element is the potential for a severe enough pre-election Covid-19 outbreak to require a lockdown.

“A lockdown would change the current political dynamic, in which the Government’s broad success in keeping the virus at bay is fuelling its stratospheric poll ratings and overriding the political damage caused by the tendency for a few New Zealanders quarantined in hotels to break out of their gilded cages for a trip to the shops.

“Another lockdown would be a massive blow to the optimism and emerging economic confidence that comes from hoping we can live somewhat normal lives while the rest of the world is in chaos. When did you last hear someone complain that NZ should be following Australia’s lead?

“A lockdown, even if only regional, would also postpone election day, giving National more time to regroup. 

“If one part of the country can’t vote, then the whole country can’t vote.”

Smellie is to be faulted only for his inability (or unwillingness) to think the unthinkable. Because, of course, the re-commencement of Covid-19’s community transmission is very far from being an “uncontrollable element”. With sufficient motivation, any individual or organisation is capable of arranging for the virus itself (everything is available on the Dark Web – if the price is right) to be released. Or, alternatively, of smuggling-in someone infected with the virus (luxury yacht meets powerboat outside the 12 mile limit) and allowing them to move freely among unsuspecting New Zealanders – becoming the sort of “Super-Spreader” responsible for throwing the Australian city of Melbourne back into lockdown.

“Oh, come on!”, I hear you say, “The Nats aren’t that bad! This is paranoid political partisanship at its worst.” To which I would reply: “Mate, you haven’t being paying attention!”

Let’s just read the media release written by Michelle Boag announcing her resignation from the National Party:

“The last few days have underscored for me the unhealthy relationship I have developed with politics. For 47 years, I have devoted much of my professional and personal life to supporting the Party that for me has always represented the ultimate kiwi values of hard work, reward for effort, self-reliance and compassion. Unfortunately, this passion has put me on a self-destructive path. This was confirmed for me as I wrote to Michael Heron QC last night to advise him that towards the end of June I had sent several emails to Michael Woodhouse comprising notification of a small number of then-new Covid19 cases. My decisions to share this information were wrong, driven by my distorted view that providing that information would help the National Party to hold the Government to account. In fact it was harmful, not helpful, and it is time that the National Party and I parted ways.”

I suppose we should be grateful that, at the end, Boag was granted a small measure of self-awareness.  Not enough, seemingly, for her to openly concede the extraordinary breach of public trust (and quite possibly the law) which her unauthorised release of confidential patient data represented – but at least there was something.

Boag is very far from being alone on that “self-destructive path”. Many National Party MPs, members and supporters have trodden it before her – and with her. What leads them there is what drove the retired army officers who founded the National Party, way back in 1936: an abiding fear of “the wrong people” taking control of New Zealand’s destiny. To prevent that from happening: or, if it’s already happened, to end it as swiftly as possible; has always been the National Party’s raison d’être.

To destroy the capacity of “the wrong people” to play a decisive role in shaping this country’s future, the First National Government (1949-1957) led by Sid Holland (a former member of the far-right New Zealand Legion) was willing to engineer a crippling industrial dispute on the wharves, declare a state of emergency, and abrogate the democratic rights and freedoms of New Zealanders for 151 days.

To hold the crucial “marginal provincial seats” he required to retain office, the National Party Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon, made sure that the planned New Zealand tour of Apartheid-era South Africa’s racist Springbok rugby team would proceed. He was confident that the 56 days of angry demonstrations the tour was bound to provoke, and the deep social divisions they were bound to open up, would secure him sufficient votes – in the towns and cities where they counted most – to win the 1981 general election.

Throwing their country into civil strife, and damaging its economy, is nothing new for National. The preparedness to do whatever it takes to keep the wrong people in their place (i.e. out of power!) has been part of the party’s DNA for 84 years!

And, from National’s perspective, the case is easily made. If something isn’t done to rip away the huge public support Jacinda Ardern’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis has won – both for herself and for Labour – then National will lose the election. If that happens, then there is a real possibility of Labour and the Greens ushering in the “transformation” which, for the past three years, only the presence of Winston Peters and NZ First in the Coalition Government has been able to keep at bay. Unfortunately, that sort of luck cannot be relied upon forever. If 19 September brings a Labour-Green victory, then the wrong people, with the wrong policies, will be returned to power at precisely the wrong time.

On Sunday morning, Todd Muller’s deputy, Nikki Kaye, described to Q+A’s Jack Tame, her friend and mentor’s, Michelle Boag’s, extreme distress at precipitating such a destructive political scandal. “She was in tears”, Kaye protested. “We are talking about human-beings here!”

If history is any guide, however, not everyone in and around the National Party is quite so prone to Kaye’s sentimentality. Michelle Boag did what she did to help National win. It wasn’t enough. More is required.

Much more. 

POSTSCRIPT: Just as I was finishing this post the news broke that the Serious Fraud Office is investigating Labour for possible breaches of the Electoral Act in 2017. It would seem that the “more” has already arrived. – C.T.

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/07/14/must-read-has-the-national-party-become-a-threat-to-national-security/?fbclid=IwAR2yKeaib5xsxvPdDHioBSe0YTwUdh4qKQM5lao3hG5X0_18-kVBAaIHw9A