Who will be the next National leader?
National’s top office is now vacant after Judith Collins performed a ‘kamikaze job’ on her own leadership. Here’s a look at who could replace her
Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Friday, November 26, by Justin Giovannetti. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.
In today’s edition: A big expansion to Covid-19 rapid tests; NZ media seeks collective bargaining with social media giants; the rise of Today FM; but first, the National party’s implosion.
Judith Collins demoted Simon Bridges, then she got fired by National’s caucus. (Hagen Hopkins /Getty Images/Tina Tiller)
National’s former leader had few good choices and left her caucus with only one. Judith Collins’ fall was inevitable, and after months of poor polling and questionable political choices, the former National leader finally made her caucus push her off a cliff. With Simon Bridges on a book tour and grinning widely when asked if he would contest the party’s leadership, Collins sent out an unexpected press release around 9:30 on Wednesday night, stripping her rival of all his portfolios after an “allegation of serious misconduct”. Auckland barbers were only hours away from opening and the news that day had been dominated by a rushed government Covid-19 bill attracting criticism from the left and right. Then, with breaking news banners, all eyes turned to Collins and the National party. As Toby Manhire wrote in The Spinoff, National’s caucus was left with no choice and, in an emergency meeting yesterday morning, voted to end her tumultuous leadership after 499 days.
What did Simon Bridges say? At 176 words, Collins’ press release was short, but it ended her leadership, may have torpedoed Bridges’ much-rumoured run and has now left the party’s president facing an uncertain future. The former leader said she had to act after allegations of serious misconduct “relating to Simon Bridges’ interaction with a caucus colleague” were brought to her attention. As Stuff reports, some of that description has been challenged by Jacqui Dean, the MP involved. Facing reporters, Bridges explained he’d been speaking with a group of MPs five years ago and made a lewd comment about how to conceive a girl. He chose not to repeat the comment yesterday. Bridges apologised to Dean soon after and added that he has apologised more in the years since. Speaking with the Otago Daily Times yesterday, Dean said she’d mentioned her experience to Collins some weeks ago in the context of improving the party’s internal rules, and was “surprised and disappointed” by how her words were used by the former leader.
There’s now a power struggle within National for the leadership. Dr. Shane Reti, Collins’ deputy, has been made interim leader until caucus elects a permanent leader on Tuesday. Speaking with reporters, Reti said that yesterday was “not our best day” for National. Reti has spearheaded the party’s health approach in recent months. I wrote a profile on Reti last year that delves into who he is as a doctor, father and politician.
There will be at least three main contenders for the leadership. One is Christopher Luxon, the former Air New Zealand CEO who is broadly considered the party’s future leader-in-training. Whether he’s ready yet is up to caucus. Bridges is still in the running, as the NZ Herald (paywalled) reports. He looked calm and composed yesterday, speaking with media after what must have been a sleepless night. Most shortlists also have Auckland MP Mark Mitchell, whose name seems to come up at every leadership coup. Reti also didn’t rule out a run.
The chaos of a coup, without the leadership change. The situation in the National party brought me back to May 2020 and my first week as The Spinoff’s political editor. That week ended with Todd Muller executing a well-planned coup and removing Bridges from the leader’s office. That coup was rushed and a little chaotic at the time, but in comparison to yesterday’s event, it was a well-oiled machine. New staff entered the fray, documents were printed out and ready, while a press conference was quickly assembled with a happy caucus. Muller’s leadership lasted less than two months, but the party still acted like a solid institution. Yesterday, the phones were ringing at National but no one was there to take the call. It was unclear if anyone was in charge and reporters waited for hours to find out what was going on. As Ben Thomas wrote in Stuff, Collins executed a “kamikaze job” which marked the end of a leadership where she succeeded in dispatching a number of her own MPs and few across the aisle in Labour. National now looks like it’ll need a complete rebuild.
As this newsletter reported on May 25 of last year, National was looking for a fresh start when it chose Muller. It had the luxury of thinking it could change its leadership and still compete. Here’s what Alex Braae wrote at the time: “Muller steps into the top job as a largely unknown figure to the wider public. I'm not trying to be cruel here, but one advantage he will have here is that he is not Simon Bridges, who polling showed had become a widely disliked figure, in particular over the course of the Covid crisis.” Now 552 days later, National has Act nipping at its heels and is looking for someone to right a very leaky ship.
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What you may have missed while National was fighting: A big expansion for Covid-19 rapid testing. The government rolled out a $1.5 billion package yesterday to support Covid-19 community cases in the coming months, a key part of which is allowing for the widespread use of rapid antigen tests. As RNZ reports, the tests will be available in pharmacies from mid-December for the general public. The take-home tests have become an incredibly useful tool in Europe, however it looks like the government might be following some of the mistakes made in the US. The tests won’t be free and you’ll need to use it as you purchase it, under the supervision of a pharmacist.
The Covid numbers: An Auckland man in his 50s died of Covid-19 on Wednesday. Stuff has written about the man, Peter Griffiths. There are 77 cases in hospital and 8 in ICU/HDU. There are now 7,760 cases in the delta outbreak. 149 new community cases were reported in Auckland yesterday, 16 in Waikato, 9 in Bay of Plenty, 2 in Northland, 1 in Rotorua and 1 in Pahīatua. 18,623 people were vaccinated on Wednesday.
The Spinoff’s Covid data tracker has the latest figures.
New Zealand media wants to collectively bargain with Facebook and Google. A number of publications, including The Spinoff, Stuff, NZ Herald and the Otago Daily Times has asked the Commerce Commission for permission to bargain with the social media giants as one. The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive explains why many of the country’s media brands are getting together to try and negotiate a new deal with the powerful companies.
Auckland’s great haircut. Hair salons and barbers received thousands of calls for appointments this week after the rules were changed for Auckland. Stuff spoke with barbers who reopened a minute after midnight yesterday to begin the massive task of taming three months of growth. Some patrons were looking for less cutting, instead booking a shampoo, trim and head massage. The whole point of the salon reopening is to test the new vaccine passes and early feedback is quite positive.
Soon on your radio dial, Today FM to replace Magic Talk. Headlined by a new breakfast show simply called Tova, the rebranded station is looking to take on the local radio scene next year. Boasting Tova O'Brien and Duncan Garner, it'll have a full roster of talent. In an interview with The Spinoff, the man behind the reset talks about why he thinks Today FM will succeed where Magic Talk failed. One lesson: Don’t try to be a better Newstalk ZB.
Wellington and Christchurch councils are moving to make some things free. In the capital, the Dominion Post reports that council will trial free or heavily discounted public transit on weekends next March. The idea is to see what happens when fare isn’t much of an issue. In Christchurch, overdue book fines could soon be abolished, according to The Press. Council received $300,000 in fines last year, which cost $42,000 to collect. At least 12 councils have already dropped late fees, including Auckland, and it doesn’t seem to have much of a negative impact. Quite the opposite, some people who owed fines started coming back and books long gone suddenly reappeared.
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Right now on The Spinoff: Siouxsie Wiles provides a guide for how you can prepare to help Covid-19 cases recovering at home this summer. Toby Manhire looks back at five terrible days in the recent history of the National party. Sam Brooks lists the things he did and didn’t accomplish in 100 days of lockdown. Charlotte Muru-Lanning writes about the serious problem with pulse oximeters. Te Kuru o te Marama Dewes speaks with a translator on a quest to translate 100 popular book titles into te reo Māori.
For a longer read today, the growing debate over denser housing. Sam Sachdeva from Newsroom looks at how a rare bipartisan policy development to allow multiple homes on every lot in the country has attracted a fury of criticism. A number of councils, including fast-growing Hamilton and Selwyn, have called for the bill to be withdrawn. Some of their concerns about infrastructure use have been explained away by experts—people use infrastructure, not buildings. There are supporters of the bill, who want housing, much more housing, of every type. Even they have suggestions on how it could be improved. Simon Wilson called it a ‘slum enabling act’ in the NZ Herald (paywalled), and although I disagreed with many of his column’s conclusions, it’s still an excellent read.
Australia considers diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics. While it certainly doesn’t feel right after the delayed Tokyo games, we’re only a few months away from the Beijing winter Olympics, which start in February. The UK, US and now Australia are debating whether a diplomatic boycott is a good idea, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. It would be a pretty simple gesture for Australia after the country hasn’t sent any government officials to China in two years. Added to the growing list of grievances is the disappearance and continued questions over the safety of tennis star Peng Shuai.
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