Nats’ race heats up
Adams insists knives won’t be out for party veterans as hopefuls step up talks with undecided colleagues
The National Party leadership contest is heating up, with rival candidates stepping up meetings with the many undecided MPs in a bid to get them over the line.
One of the major points of discussion with the candidates is the degree of renewal needed in the party, with the future of chief strategist and former finance minister Steven Joyce expected to be an issue.
Amy Adams went to Auckland on Saturday to lobby colleagues for support. She spent yesterday in Canterbury doing the same thing.
Simon Bridges spent the weekend in Tauranga and in the Waikato talking to colleagues and party members.
And Judith Collins continued her campaign from Auckland to the wider party membership and public, to put pressure on MPs to back her.
Some MPs report being on the receiving end of such pressure. They will be heading back to Wellington today for a caucus meeting tomorrow, the first since Bill English announced last week he was stepping down. For five days, Joyce has been considering standing and yesterday told the Herald he was still discussing it with colleagues and would have a decision in a day or two. Joyce has run the past five election campaigns for National which polled 44.4 per cent of the vote last September, well above Labour’s 36.9 per cent. Bridges claims to have good momentum and his numbers were growing. But many colleagues were keeping their counsel and thinking it through. “There is still everything to play for this week,” Bridges said. Adams rejected speculation that Bridges was ahead in the low 20s while she had only 15 of the 29
votes needed. “I don’t accept those numbers . . . I think our numbers are strong and are improving all the time,” she said.
“I’m certainly not declaring that we are over the line but we are feeling good about where we are.”
Joyce’s future is expected to be an issue whether or not he joins the contest.
Former minister Mark Mitchell may well join the contest today, although his chances, like Joyce’s, are remote.
Asked about Joyce’s future, Adams said a new leader, whoever they were, had to have the space and the ability to make whatever calls needed to be made to give the party the best chance of winning in 2020.
“It is certainly not a ‘night of the long knives’ but equally we have to show there is a renewal taking place and an evolution which is normal and appropriate in any organisation.
“I’ve made it really clear that I’m going to keep all my options open for who has what position.”
Adams said it was wrong to put too much store on early numbers and it was important that caucus took the time to think the decision through, and were not rushed. “It is a critical decision for us,” she said.
“If we get this decision wrong it is going to be much harder [to run] a cohesive campaign and look . . . ready to govern in 2020 and I believe we will be and we have to be.”
Bridges said the extent of renewal was a live issue with MPs.
“Newer MPs will clearly want to see progression and my message to them has been it will be blend of experience but also new talent and I understand the need to keep that new talent coming through.”
Asked if it was fair to interpret his comments as representing greater renewal than Adams, he said yes.
“We are at a crossroads,” he said. “The John Key-Bill English era was hugely successful but it has come to an end and one of the difficult issues we have is the level of change, both in terms of the team and in terms of our policy settings.
“I’m no radical but we do need to move those things on in both areas to some degree.
“On the team front, of course we have got to keep [experience] but newer MPs deserve their go,” he said.
On policy, the party had to start talking about what it was going to do.
Judith Collins is campaigning as candidate from the right who says National has gone too far to the left and needs “to straighten up”.
The leadership vote is due to be taken on Tuesday next week, although some MPs have expressed a hope privately that the candidates will be able to sort out an outcome later this week.