Party tries to stall the Jacinda effect
OPINION: With the National Party grassroots still reeling from the unexpected onslaught of the Jacinda effect, Bill English needed to pull something out of the bag at his campaign launch.
English did that with a promise to give every kid a chance at learning a second language and an expansion of his Government’s flagship National Standards scheme – National Standards Plus.
His promise that parents would be able to keep up to date with their child’s achievement on their mobile phone is something that will resonate with middle New Zealand and draws a line in the sand between National and Labour, which plans to scrap the student assessment scheme.
English also hit the mark with his promise to put more resources into maths and digital leaning, though there was a sense of policy on the hoof when English was caught out being fuzzy on the details.
It was the sort of forward looking and visionary hook that National needed, however, to launch what is otherwise shaping up as a negative campaign geared around the new threat to the party’s hopes, Jacinda Ardern.
After having had the luxury of being able to ignore its opponents for years, National’s campaign launch was all about the Labour leader, even if no-one could bring themselves to speak her name.
It was there in the lineup of high profile, young National women who took the stage before English – Education Minister Nikki Kaye, and Deputy Prime Minister Paula Bennett.
Bennett even talked about the choice between ‘‘selfies, smiles and substance’’ – in other words, the choice between Ardern and English – the irony apparently lost on the National Party faithful that this was exactly the comparison that anguished Labour Party faithful used to make about English’s predecessor, John Key.
And it was there in the repeated references to a confused Opposition that would squander National’s hard work.
As for National’s campaign theme – forget what all those glossy and upbeat billboards and promises of a better future say. They’ve been stripped bare by the Ardern effect and there is only one theme National will hammer between now and September 23.
That is that an Ardern win puts everything it’s worked for at risk.
The sight of nearly 3000 National supporters drumming their seats to that theme should have given euphoric Labour supporters cause to pause and respect that their opponent is anything but down and out.