Mr Nice Guy bares his teeth

National’s party support has held but the smile has not opened doors to personal poll improvement for the leader.

In the background at Simon Bridges’ Tauranga meet-and-greet is a photo of the man himself and his wife, Natalie. They are beaming, large smiles exposing glorious white teeth. That’s the image we’ve seen a great deal since he took over from Bill English as National Party leader five months ago: a smart guy everyone admits is highly competent in a variety of portfolios; good sense of humour, sometimes maybe a little dorky.

Trouble is, he’s struggling for profile against a history-making Labour leader whose honeymoon has continued with the birth of our own ‘‘royal’’ baby. Leadership polls have Bridges tracking at less than double figures, compared with the two previous National leaders, John Key and English, who were both well north of 20 per cent at the same time in the party’s top job.

So the man standing in front of the image of the happy, attractive young couple is baring his teeth again. But now, the smile is gone. No more Mr Nice Guy, it seems.

In Tauranga, one of 60-odd stops in a national tour, Bridges blasted the city council’s stance on beggars and the homeless. They had been ‘‘far, far too soft’’, he said; such people should be banned, perhaps even prosecuted. From the same mouth, through sharper teeth, came the declaration that National would reintroduce sanctions for beneficiaries if voted back into government.

Despite evidence, both domestic and international, that such punitive measures actually increase welfare dependency, Bridges felt they were needed to ‘‘be fair to taxpayers; hardworking taxpayers who deserve, actually, their money to be well spent’’.

Such pronouncements appear to mark a change in style for the leader of the Opposition. In the past five months he has dipped his toe into the Left of the great river that runs wide and strong down the centre of New Zealand politics.

He has avoided diving into the deeper blue to the Right of the main stream, instead considering other untested waters.

He has even courted the Greens by pledging, among other things, bipartisan support for combating climate change and urging farmers to ‘‘do more’’ on protecting the environment.

But these things have not worked. National’s party support has held but the smile has not opened doors to personal poll improvement for the leader. So it appears he plans to build bridges along more traditional party lines and values. That makes some sense. One way to gain profile in the face of relentless positivity is to take the opposite side, a tactic employed, often to great effect, by Judith Collins, among many others.

Also, there remain a few stragglers and some struggling swimmers in the coalition’s catchment. The kind of people who are both weary and wary of beneficiaries, distrustful of the homeless and others with their ‘‘hands out’’, and particularly concerned at the use of their taxpayer dollars and fixed income.

The kind of older New Zealander who lives in places like Tauranga and maybe voted for the party of the previous MP in that city, Winston Peters.

If baring some political teeth pulled a few back into the National Party tide, that would certainly make the leader smile.