Collins unleashes in Nats’ Virtual ‘telethon’ launch
Beamed in from Avalon Studios in Lower Hutt, with the extremely recognisable figure – and voice – of outgoing National MP Maggie Barry hosting live hook-ups across the country, the whole thing had a sort of old-school early 1990s New Zealand vibe.
It was almost like an old telethon – Telethon 1980 was also filmed at Avalon Studios – or like a cross between an infomercial and Palmer’s Garden Show. Lots of live crosses from party events around the country giving updates and belting out ‘‘two ticks National’’.
All in all, however, National’s virtual campaign launch yesterday was a slick event: a mixture of prerecorded videos and fireside-style live chats with senior MPs talking about how good National’s plans were, and how abominable Labour was. National’s finance spokesman, Paul Goldsmith, said of the attitude of Labour’s Jacinda
Ardern and Grant Robertson to his proposed tax cut package: ‘‘They hate the thought of money going back into the hands of New Zealanders.’’
The purpose of this campaign launch – like any ordinary nonCovid party launch – is partly geared to get some lines on the 6pm news but mostly designed to enthuse and encourage the party membership to get involved: donating money, knocking on doors and handing out flyers.
This was not about new policies but giving a broader narrative about the ones National already has. By the time Judith Collins appeared on stage, the socially distanced crowd was really getting into the swing of things.
‘‘Our policies will grow the economy, not the bureaucracy!’’ Collins said.
‘‘The economic morphine pump is running low and the pain is very real,’’ she grimly pronounced. ‘‘As much as Jacinda Ardern tried to paint one week’s economic activity in Auckland off the back of a strict
lockdown as a sign of positivity – a tortured piece of spin if ever there was one – there is no prospect of a rapid return to business as usual.’’
She used the opportunity to lash Labour for having no plan and a big-government agenda that ignored ordinary New Zealanders. ‘‘The Labour way is short-term, low-value, make-work schemes – like pest and weed control. Laudable as these are, they are not the answer to economic recovery. Labour’s erratic, unplanned governance and lazy incompetence are what we have come to expect.’’
This is the Judith Collins most people expected when she took on the National Party leadership: a no-holds-barred Labour basher who would castigate ‘‘the other mob’’ as much as she could.
Speaking of ‘‘the other mob’’, Collins even employed the old Muldoonism in her speech.
Afterwards, she told assembled media, which had spent the launch in a socially distanced room off the main studio, how much she enjoyed writing the speech.
Yet, the day was overshadowed by an unforced error from Goldsmith in his policy costings.
Goldsmith fronted a quick media conference to apologise for what he called an ‘‘irritating’’ mistake in National’s policy costings.
That was in reference to a $4 billion shortfall in National’s policies over the next 10 years caused by using old budget figures to calculate how much money National would save from ditching contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund.