David Farrar: Vale Judith

Judith Collins was first elected to Parliament in 2002, almost 24 years ago. This is when I first met her, as I was an opposition staffer.

National only got five new MPs in 2002 – Judith Collins, Sandra Goudie, Don Brash John Key and Brian Connell. Three of those five MPs would go on to become National Party Leaders. It was overall a good intake. One, we don’t mention!

Despite being a brand new MP, Judith ran a campaign that exposed Lianne Dalziel as having lied over a leak she denied. It ended with Dalziel’s resignation. What hasn’t generally been reported is that the senior National MPs at the time were quite dismissive of Judith’s campaign against Dalziel, and basically said it was not going to achieve anything. Judith proved them wrong. She had to fight hard and battle to be taken seriously, and proved the doubters wrong.

Judith also achieved in her first term an inquiry into the effect of Agent Orange on NZ Vietnam veterans. This led to an apology and better support for veterans. Not bad for a first term opposition MP.

Judith went on to spend almost 12 years as a Cabinet Minister, where she managed a huge variety of portfolios. They included:

• ACC
• Attorney-General
• Corrections
• Defence
• Digitising Government
• Economic Development
• Energy & Resources
• Ethnic Affairs
• Foreign Direct Investment
• GCSB and SIS
• Justice
• Science, Innovation and Technology
• Space
• Police
• Public Service
• Response to the Royal Commission’s Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques
• Revenue
• Serious Fraud Office
• Tertiary Education
• Veteran’s Affairs

I can’t think of many other Ministers who would have had 20+ portfolios, and in basically every portfolio Judith had she managed them exceptionally well. She made changes where they were needed such as with science funding, law & order policy etc. Judith got through the original Three Strikes law.

In her Innovation portfolio she organised events which had NZ entrepreneurs raving to me about them. These are a bunch of people generally sceptical about government, and Judith brought stakeholders together in a way that added huge value.

Her ministerial offices were always one of the happiest and most loyal in the Beehive. Some Ministers would have tense relationships with their staff, but Judith’s office was always known as very high functioning and happy.

And of course Judith also became National Party Leader in a hospital pass in 2020. No one else could have taken over in that moment of crisis.

The Law Commission’s gain is National’s and Parliament’s loss.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition.