Joyce joins National leader race
WELLINGTON: National MPs will have two positions to vote on next Tuesday as the field of leadership contenders fattens to five and deputy Paula Bennett puts her own job up for the vote.
Steven Joyce (54) yesterday became the latest MP to announce he is contesting the leadership, joining Mark Mitchell, Simon Bridges, Judith Collins and Amy Adams.
Most MPs are staying mum on who they are backing to replace Bill English but Ms Adams and Mr Bridges are still considered the front runners.
While Mr Joyce and Mr Mitchell could have peeled some of their supporters away after joining the race this week, those votes are likely to go back to Ms Adams or Mr Bridges once the vote starts and the least successful candidates are struck out.
The new leader must get support from at least 29 of National’s 56 MPs.
The contenders should not underestimate Mr Joyce, who is an experienced campaigner.
Of all the candidates, Mr Joyce is the closest to the mould of the John Key and Bill English empire.
He is believed to have the support of senior MPs concerned about the future of the party should Mr Joyce leave, given his strong influence over the party’s strategy and caucus management.
Mr Bridges took apparent aim at that, saying there were some who believed National only had to keep doing what it was doing to get back in in 2020, when it actually needed to ‘‘freshen up’’.
The role of deputy leader will now also go to the vote next Tuesday.
Whip JamiLee Ross said Ms Bennett suggested to him last week it should be voted on and caucus had agreed.
No others have yet said they will contest it, although it is possible the successful new leader could put up their preferred deputy or strike a deal with one of the unsuccessful candidates.
That could raise the prospect of the deputy being perceived as undermining the leader if the deputy’s own leadership ambitions are known.
Ms Bennett has pointed to her own lack of ambition for the leadership as one of her merits, saying she had been a ‘‘loyal’’ deputy and enjoyed the job.
She did not believe having women as both leader and deputy would be a problem. ‘‘Absolutely not. It’s 2018. ‘‘We’ve had two men plenty of times.
‘‘I think getting that personality mix right, that skill mix right is far more important.’’
Mr Joyce said he was focusing on the leadership rather than beyond and if he did not win, he would serve whoever did.
He said it would be a contest of ideas over the direction of the party and its policies, and his approach to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern would be to hold the Government to its promises, which he did not believe it could meet.
‘‘The 2020 election will be about whether we go forward strongly and confidently as a country or allow Labour and its coalition partners to hobble us with their defensive, backwardlooking 1970s view of the world.’’
Views of Mr Joyce are mixed among National’s MPs — both he and Ms Bennett have borne some of the blame for New Zealand First’s decision to support Labour because of their role in the negotiations team.
Mr Joyce’s credibility has also been called into question in some quarters by his claims of the $11.7 billion hole in Labour’s books — although none of his rivals would directly take issue with that.
Yesterday, Act New Zealand leader David Seymour said the next National leader must understand the MMP election system if the party wanted to get back into power.
‘‘Bill English frankly didn’t. He was the last leader of the firstpast the post period,’’ he said.
‘‘The next leader of the National Party has to understand that we govern in coalitions in New Zealand and they’re going to have to be prepared to work with coalition partners.
‘‘The failure to do that is why the National Party are not in government right now.’’ — NZME/NZN