THE TIPPING POINT
In another excerpt from her new book, Stuff writer Andrea Vance looks at the moments of crisis leading up to Todd Muller’s resignation as National Party leader.
The Hamish Walker episode left Todd Muller bruised and exhausted. His mental health was crumbling. ‘‘We didn’t see his absolute stress,’’ former National MP Lawrence Yule says.
‘‘Once I asked him how it was going. He said: ‘I go from white-hot fear to everything’s brilliant. And everything in between.’ ’’
Muller was tipped into crisis the weekend after [Clutha-Southland MP] Walker’s resignation. Those around him point to different events over those days that ratcheted up the pressure.
‘‘The thing that I think broke the camel’s back was Rio Tinto and the smelter,’’ one staffer says.
The Anglo-Australian mining giant was again threatening to close its aluminium smelter at Tı¯wai Point on the southern coast of the South Island, putting more than 1000 jobs in Bluff and Invercargill on the line. The smelter is also the biggest consumer of electricity, using roughly 13% of the country’s power.
Rio Tinto had previously threatened to close operations, and it was widely viewed as a tactic in negotiating for a cutprice electricity deal in an election year.
‘‘[National Party deputy leader] Nikki [Kaye] was convinced that it was real and that National should ride to the rescue,’’ a staffer says. She wanted Muller to fly to Invercargill, meet the workers and promise they’d keep their jobs under a National government. Gerry Brownlee, as a former energy minister, adviser Tim Hurdle and [communications consultant] Matthew Hooton, who had previously held Rio Tinto as a client, advised against it.
‘‘Hurdle had this line: Don’t get between the Government and a problem. They all said we should shut up and let the government explain why all these people lose their jobs.’’
But Kaye was insistent. ‘‘The woman just keeps going,’’ another staffer says. ‘‘It’s a double-edged sword. Where others would give up because it was hopeless, Nikki keeps going. And that became a problem. There were nine of us versus Nikki.’’
Muller said he must back his deputy. ‘‘Normally it’s the other way around,’’ the staffer sighs. Hurdle was sent home to come up with a speech and a policy. Hooton was ordered to start working on a speech on Chris Bishop’s new transport infrastructure policy for Auckland, which was to be delivered on Monday. Muller also went north, to spend time with his in-laws in the east Auckland suburb Stonefields.
Insiders point to Kaye and Hooton’s volatile relationship as the tipping point. ‘‘They clashed like f...ery. It was incredible,’’ one aide says. Both rang Muller to complain, and both threatened to quit. The leader, already under extreme pressure, had to mollify and arbitrate between them both.
Others put the blame on Kaye’s decision to front for a television interview to explain the Walker saga. It was Muller who was invited to appear on TVNZ’s Q+A. He declined, recognising there was no upside to another interrogation of what he knew about the Covid-19 patient leak.
His answers would be sliced and diced into sound bites, dragging the story out into the high-rating evening news bulletin. Kaye saw it differently. Ignoring advice from advisers and Brownlee, and a direct order from Muller, she fronted up to the show. The appearance was, as one MPput it, ‘‘a s... show’’.
Kaye was forced to deny that National had once again embroiled itself in ‘‘dirty