Harry Hunt
Common sense: everyone has it, no one uses it. That’s how I would describe the current political world. Fewer facts, more attacks. All it is doing is hurting the team. National has always had my unquestionable support until last year. It’s not because of Judith Collins’s performance but rather it’s because of David Seymour’s. Let me explain.
After a failed coup by Todd Muller in 2020, Collins was (finally) picked to go up against the stardust of Jacinda Ardern. Handed a poisoned chalice, with limited time and an already spent campaign budget, and saddled with Muller’s hand-picked team of wets, she led National to an embarrassing loss. Although all of those things hamstrung her, they weren’t the only factors that contributed to National’s defeat.
On September 13th, 2020 I was conned into going to an ACT meeting. I was reluctant but was open to seeing whether my values could be found in other places. We arrived to see the big ACT van there and had made sure we were early enough to lend a hand to help set up, which we did for almost any party that was in town. We were greeted by a man in a clean-cut suit who introduced himself as Simon Court, a former green supporter who had turned to ACT due to believing more action could be taken with their policies. He asked for our names and took us around, giving us stuff to do to help. I have met many politicians in my very few years on earth, but the ones I was witnessing were different.
As we went along we met James McDowell and Mark Cameron, an immigration firm owner and farmer respectively. I realised why they were so different. It was because they weren’t career politicians. They were people who were fed up with the system and wanted to change it. Mark spoke so passionately about his farm and farmer friends who he had lost. When I would bring a policy up, or ask a question they would happily oblige, not in a way to shut you down or talk around it but to give you the answer they believed. As surprised as I was, I still wasn’t ready to trade my blue sweater in. The night continued with David Seymour arriving. He was met with some zest from constituents, yet he still made his way around and spoke to as many people as possible before the event started.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no cheerleader for ACT, but they were doing something right. Having been to many National Party events over the years, if you find out the leader is going to be somewhere, everyone in your electorate will show up for a photo. The leader would tend to approach a microphone and speak and answer questions. David did this, but in a way where he would turn it around and ask the audience “What problems do you have that we could help?”
This made me realise why Judith was having such a hard time. Not only was she trying to dull down Jacinda Ardern’s blinding COVID-19 light, but she was also trying to establish herself as the party leader while separating herself from John Key’s shadow. But day after day, she couldn’t get it right. Attack after attack made it almost hard to defend sometimes. The leaders’ debate became uncomfortable as both politicians would try to veer off the lined course. National’s big problem was that they couldn’t counter Ardern, and they were going to have a hard time finding someone to rival her.
National ended up leaving the election with 26.9% and 19 fewer MP’s. Seymour walked away with 7.6% and 10 new MP’s to join him. The longer we go on, the more I realise that ACT is the strong ghost of National’s past. ACT has never had as much TV media coverage as they are currently enjoying. With Seymour recently beating Collins in a preferred PM poll, it’s only a matter of time before something comes to fruition.
Collins is quoted saying “We did not spend enough time talking about the things that matter to New Zealanders. The consequence of that can be seen in our election result and our reduced caucus.” National has always been seen as “By big business, for big business” with no relation to the middle class they serve. ACT has been able to capitalise on National’s loss and is heading in the right direction to become a coalition handbrake in 2023. It may not be long before David finds himself sitting in the vacated throne of a 2017 Winston Peters.
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