The latest, after Vanessa, Gerry, Don and Simon, is Sue Wood, a former National Party president. She's written an open letter to MPs, published in The Post in Wellington, calling on them essentially to revolt behind closed doors against the party powers.
She tells them that, for the first time under MMP, they're not in their jobs because of Chris Luxon and the National Party board because none of them are list MPs. List MPs, as you know, get dragged in by the leader's popularity but electorate MPs have won their seats themselves.
That's broadly her argument. And for that reason, she says they have more power, can dictate terms and need to push back against the likes of Chris Luxon, the board and the kitchen cabinet around Luxon, and drag the party in a different direction.
Now, she doesn't say what that direction is but if you read between the lines, it sounds like she wants a move to the centre.
That's easier said than done, obviously, because the coalition parties will drag them right back to the right.
There's also some context you need here. Sue Wood is the mother-in-law of Matthew Hooton and has published this letter in his newspaper. He is well known for loving to cause trouble for the National Party so Sue will wear a little guilt by association here.
Now, she probably has the best of intentions but I'd say this is going to come to nothing.
Have a look at the National Party caucus that's left now. Too many of the MPs who were senior enough to push back against Luxon and the group around him, people like Simeon Brown, have been kicked out of Parliament. And too many of the MPs who remain are so new that they don't know any version of National other than this centrally controlled one.
Some will be overwhelmed simply by making it into Parliament. Some will be overwhelmed by the fact the party has managed to stay out of opposition. And many will be using all their energy right now to get to grips with new jobs and new portfolios.
The election is over, which means the threat to them is over as well. So I suspect the chances are that things will return to the status quo in the National Party rather than descend into revolt.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and radio broadcaster who hosts Newstalk ZB's weekday Drive-Time Show – where this article was sourced.
7 comments:
Heather, one thing is for sure, as a result of this election, there will be no return to the status quo or the centre. Chippy may not know what the people have said, but the rest of us do. There is a revolt slowly brewing, and it will erupt fairly soon. The reign of the Weeninks and the Remuera housewives is over. We are restoring sanity.
So she is suggesting National change to a center party rather than a center-left party.
Perhaps it would be easier if she and Luxon just joined the Labour party. They would be a much better fit.
Simeon brown hasnt been kicked out, heather. Perhaps you meant any of brownlee, willis, bishop or goldsmith?
Of the 42 likely National seats, 35 returned their existing National MPs and 5 of the remaining 7 were replacements for prior National MPs who retired or left the seat. That was an endorsement of the quality of the individuals involved.
The 20% drop, (minus 168,000 vs 2023) in party votes for National is a condemnation of the party itself and its failure to implement the policies for which it had a mandate after the last election.
The problem isn’t with the MPs, it lies with the National party structure, the board, its president and Luxon as the leader.
The well-off self-styled centrist/liberal side of the Nats remind me of the Lib Dems in the UK which became a refuge for Tories who were well-off remainers (Visa free travel a big plus, freedom of movement for their children could more easily attend unis in Europe, areas in which they live do not bear the brunt of mass (non-European ) immigration or Islamism in your face, and on board with gender switching narrative and concessions to DEI and CRT)
It seems the centrists want the National Party to drift into being more like Labour on the treaty and ''Maori (aka part-Maori) rule and priority say on all and sundry.
So the ''right'' (aka branded far right) drift to other parties on the right economically, socially, or both).
NZ is different from the UK in that we have Maori (part-Maori whether they acknowledge or, as many do, now disown their other side) but the overall picture seems similar.
Will the Nats become Teals or will a new party of centre ex-Nats be formed.
I endorse and promote what one of BV's other contributors has said in an open letter to the caretaker PM thus "The Ardern–Hipkins government was voted out much more than your government was voted in.”
If there’s one outstanding feature of the 2023-26 government it’s that the PM and his closest coterie failed, your readers will know at what.
NZ’s problems will continue while that gaggle does its Three Monkeys impression.
If I said someone had to say it what would I say?
How much of the vote was expressing deep seated anti-Luxon sentiments ??
Luxon is the elephant in the room
If National had run without Luxon we would have had a better result.
Where did National’s party vote share disappear to?
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