Leadership change a bloodless exercise
Collins clearly had an arsenal of policy changes in mind, alongside pointedly dissing the Government’s lack of vision.
Bar a few bruised egos, in vintage National Party style, regime change has been brought about bloodlessly. As Bill English is sworn in as New Zealand’s 39th Prime Minister, and Paula Bennett as his deputy, the Government has delivered a textbook performance on leadership transition.
Without the celebrity-style, alpha-personality pulling power of John Key at the helm, normal political transmission looks set to resume in New Zealand, as erstwhile Bill hits the big time.
Although one tradition that is being bucked, is the installation of some spark and vitality into the deputy prime ministership. Typically filled by the blandest of loyalists, so as not to overshadow the leader, Paula Bennett is anything but vanilla.
The pair also exemplify the broadness of National’s church, with English as the traditional southern family man of Roman Catholic stock, while Bennett is the livewire Westie, who has transformed her life triumphantly from solo motherhood at 17.
Her back story is every bit as inspirational as John Key’s. Together, they carry the banner for compassionate conservatism.
English is derided by some as a terribly dull policy wonk, but very few question his sense of decency or dependability.
It is indeed noteworthy that National’s caucus plumped for steady-as-she-goes leadership, rather than a revolutionary pivot to the more robust, tubthumping brand of Judith Collins.
Perhaps Jenny Shipley’s leadership conquest and ensuing election failure still haunts National. As much as Collins is a lightning rod, her popularity is immense with true blue heartland voters.
Her failure to seize the leadership certainly leaves the door open for Winston Peters to milk the provinces even further with his Trumpian political appeal.
It’s a pity that the leadership contest within National didn’t go the full distance, as it would have shed even greater light on the divergence of opinion around key policies.
The only significant insight we gained from Jonathan Coleman’s short-lived quest was his anathema for tax cuts, which was shared by Collins. I would have wanted to hear more, given his ambitions for higher office will keep burning.
Similarly, Collins clearly had an arsenal of policy changes in mind, alongside pointedly dissing the Government’s lack of vision.
In the few short days of the contest, she belted out her desire to blowtorch the new health and safety laws, axe the iwi participation provisions from the proposed changes to the Resource Management Act and curb immigration into Auckland.
The latter is surely destined to be a battleground issue in Election 2017, in tandem with affordable housing, as migrant flows into New Zealand continue to smash all records. Just as the wave of low-skilled mass-migration into the United States proved to be a potent current in the presidential election, there are broad parallels playing out here. According to Immigration New Zealand, over 209,000 work visas were issued in the last financial year.
Add to that, the hundreds of thousands of international students working here for three years, even if they aren’t engaged in a high-skilled job as a result of the course they supposedly came to here to undertake. It’s absolutely backdoor immigration, wracked with scams.
National has already moved to combat the family reunification racket, whereby New Zealand has become a dumping ground for the parents of many Chinese migrants, who then cut and run, saddling our country with the cost of their healthcare. But will Bill English have the courage to radically curb immigration in his policy reset, to quell the public discontent?
His most immediate task is to freshen the benches. I expect either Coleman or Bridges will succeed Stephen Joyce as Economic Development Minister, while Bridges is a sitter for tourism, too. English should also seize the opportunity to expedite Hekia Parata’s exit from the education portfolio.
But how far will he go to retire some of the old-timers, like Murray McCully, Gerry Brownlee and his close friend Nick Smith? I’m picking some of the new-bloods to win big out of the refresh will include Jacqui Dean, Simon O’Connor, JamiLee Ross, and Alfred Ngaro.
Bill English’s biggest personal challenge will be cultivating new ways to strike a strong connection with Kiwis. Painting more pictures and telling more stories will be the essential ingredients to add to his communication repertoire.