Parties highlight ‘truths’
night in the first weekend of August, not one featured Ardern. Instead, all but one focused on Green minister Julie Anne Genter, and Labour’s Phil Twyford.
As of yesterday, National was running six more Facebook ads, all attacking Genter and none mentioning Ardern. The party is trying to tell voters to forget the prime minister they like, and think about the ministers who have stuffed up, and the non-labour ministers Ardern doesn’t control. The governing parties are fighting back.
While National wants to make the narrative about itself versus Labour and its support parties, the governing parties are quite happy to keep 2020 as an Ardern-bridges drag race.
The Jami-lee Ross scandal dented Bridges’ integrity.
He was shown talking behind the backs of several of his own MPS. Shaw’s assault on Bridges brought his integrity deficit to the fore.
It came on the back of Labour and Green ads that both criticised Bridges for talking the talk on climate change, without following through with effective policy. While he was transport minister, Bridges’ EV policy saw the electric vehicle fleet grow from 421 to 5286, while the current, feebate policy is expected to be far more effective by slashing the prices of fuel-efficient cars.
The attacks paint a picture of a leader you can’t trust: someone who says one thing and does another. It’s a picture that portrays the well-liked and trusted Ardern in a favourable light.
Shaw made this comparison explicit, telling RNZ after his party’s conference that he preferred Ardern to Bridges because she was an ‘‘extraordinary leader’’.
It’s hard work for the Green Party, which is still struggling to work out how to hold Bridges accountable without compromising its values, a problem highlighted by its U-turn on the used car attack ad in July. National thinks it has a winning formula. Sources within the party say Bridges’ meeting in Sydney in July with Australian PM Scott Morrison changed the party’s political messaging to be closer to that which brought Morrison victory in May.
They think Morrison’s formula of near constant mini video ads, created by Kiwi team Tophamguerin, helped secure the embattled Liberal-led coalition an unlikely return to power.
They’re also fairly sure the Government is making a mistake spending so much time talking about Bridges.
Labour and the Greens might be getting this message too.
The eight targeted Facebook ads the parties are currently running have gone back to the tried and true: mental health, winter energy payments, Jacinda, James, and Greens co-leader Marama Davidson – not a speck of blue to be seen.