Walk — before they make you run

Two departures from the front line of politics this week, from opposite sides of the House, bore little in common. On the one side, former National deputy leader Paula Bennett announced she was standing down to seek opportunities in the business world. Her pre-recorded video clip with comedian Tom Sainsbury made much merriment, cavorting in matching kimonos which barely concealed contempt for the new party leadership.

On the other side, former Labour Health Minister David Clark. His abruptly called press conference yesterday had media scrambling to attend a sombre stand-up where he stoically intoned his resignation with mates-to-the-end Kris Faafoi and Grant Robertson as Easter Island bookends at his shoulders.

But they had much in common. Both were left with little choice, other than the big step down.

Bennett had been consigned to the unpopular seats on the National Party bus after undertaking the ill-fated role of mustering support for doomed party leader Simon Bridges.

To remain, she would have had to live with frequent jibes from people she once held court with; sidelined, overlooked and, the cruellest of all for a politician, ignored.

Clark, too, had no choice. His attempts to ride out criticism of his follies during the Covid-19 pandemic could never succeed. He hung in there, hoping each day for the turnaround. The team of 5 million showed little inclination for forgiveness for a minister who left his post during a crisis.

Another commonality for the two departures was a coincidence of timing. Both occurred as Nats leader Todd Muller was making announcements to the media. In the case of Bennett, Muller was within an hour or two of outlining National’s broad approach to the economic recovery from the pandemic to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on Monday afternoon. Instead, all attention was on the fallout from Bennett’s announcement. That Muller didn’t know about it beforehand was made worse by Bennett’s collusion with a comedian.

In the case of Clark falling on his sword, Muller was making a fairly decent fist of outlining his new shadow Cabinet to fill the gaps left by Bennett. The promotion of Shane Reti and the elevation of Bridges were timely responses to criticisms around diversity in his top team. Both times, Muller was left mid-sentence as journalists were alerted to a press conference and vanished before his eyes. Politics can be cruel.