‘ High energy’ Collins keen to hunt quiet Kiwis
National leader Judith Collins is in “high energy” mode heading into the last week of the campaign, as she attempts to shake off a disappointing seven days.
She described a week where she has had MPs leaking against her and accusations of supporter planting on her walkabouts as a
“distraction”.
To make matters worse, her party is still well behind Labour in the polls.
But Collins is confident she will be able to close the gap.
To do that, she is taking a page out of her Australian Liberal Party counterparts’ playbook.
“There is quite a big chunk of people who either haven’t decided or else are refusing to say [ who they will vote for],” she said.
The most recent 1News- Colmar Brunton poll showed 13 per cent of voters polled were undecided.
“What we are hearing back is there are a lot of quiet National supporters who don’t want to tell pollsters [ who they’re voting for] — they don’t trust people ringing them up and asking how they are voting.
“People just don’t tell pollsters necessarily what they are doing.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison expressed a similar sentiment in the 2019 election, referring to “quiet Australians”.
Collins said quiet Kiwis and undecided voters are who she will be targeting in the coming week with her “high energy” campaign.
That starts today, when she will be a “human hoarding” with some of her National MPs in Auckland.
“You do whatever you’ve got to do. I’m just keeping on doing my thing.”
She also said she has tentative plans for election day – delivering food to National’s volunteers.
“That’s what I normally do on election day – although, if I have to do that I will have to take a lot of people with me to do it these days.
“Not quite so incognito as I would normally like to be.
“I may even be putting my feet up and doing some washing.”