Muller gets little in first foray as National leader

New National Party leader Todd Muller went toe-to-toe with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the House for the first time yesterday.

Muller — who rolled Simon Bridges to become National’s leader late last week — focused on small business and jobs over the course of his line of questioning.

Unlike Bridges, whose first question was strategically vague in a bid to make it harder for the Prime Minister to prepare, Muller’s first question was straight to the point.

“What is the Treasury’s most recent estimate of unemployment in the third quarter of this calendar year, and what is the Government’s specific plan to arrest the sorts of job losses we’ve seen over the past two weeks?”

Before answering, Ardern congratulated Muller on becoming the Opposition leader — but that’s where the pleasantries ended.

In response to questions about the plan, Ardern rolled out a familiar phrase — “we’ve gone hard, and we’ve gone early” before repeating job statistics unveiled in the Budget.

Muller came at her again — “does she accept that more direct cash support to businesses will help prevent job losses”.

National has been promoting a policy of giving Covid-19 impacted businesses direct cash grants.

Ardern poured cold water on this idea — instead saying her Government’s package was doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to saving businesses.

A recent survey, Ardern said, revealed that the subsidy scheme has made a difference to the “vast majority” of businesses being able to retain their staff.

But Muller continued to press her on National’s grants scheme — asking why the Government has not provided more direct cash assistance, aside from the wage subsidy scheme.

He got little out of Ardern, who used the questions as an opportunity to tout the Government’s Covid-19 relief packages.

Meanwhile, Muller told media his “Make America Great Again” hat is staying in its box in his new office. He said he won’t be unpacking it after it created a social media storm with claims it represented racial oppression.

The hat with the Donald Trump slogan was a piece of US political memorabilia picked up when he observed the 2016 US presidential campaign.