Jacinda Ardern: National Party in turmoil again as senior MPs quit

New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern’s re-election hopes have been bolstered again today, with her opposition plunging into worse turmoil.

New Zealand’s opposition party has been plunged into disarray again, with two senior MPs quitting days after the abrupt downfall of National leader Todd Muller.

Mr Muller resigned the leadership on Tuesday, just seven weeks after taking over from Simon Bridges, and with fewer than 70 days left before the September 19 election.

He said the job had taken a “heavy toll” on him and had become “untenable from a health perspective”.

“It has become clear to me that I am not the best person to be Leader of the Opposition at this critical time for New Zealand,” he admitted.

Mr Muller was replaced by veteran MP Judith Collins, 61, a former justice and police minister who has been in parliament since 2002.

The National caucus selected former foreign minister Gerry Brownlee to be Ms Collins’ deputy leader.

Speaking after the leadership vote, Ms Collins promised she would hold Labour Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to account. She said there was “no chance at all” that she would let Ms Ardern “get away with any nonsense”.

Ms Collins said her “experience, toughness” and “ability to make decisions” made her a better option to lead the country.

“I’m different from the Prime Minister. I think she is an excellent communicator. But communication is not execution, and that’s where she has fallen down,” she told RNZ.

Ms Collins promised announcements on specific policies “within weeks”, and said voters should expect “something mildly radical”.

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New Zealand’s new Opposition Leader, Judith Collins. Picture: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

Her ascension to the leadership was always going to spark a shadow cabinet reshuffle, but that job became more complicated this morning, with the news that senior MPs Nikki Kaye and Amy Adams had both decided to leave politics at the election.

Ms Kaye, 40, served as Mr Muller’s deputy leader during his brief stint. She is a former education minister, and was seen as a potential leader of the party going forward.

“Judith and I have become pretty close and I backed her as leader. She will be a formidable prime minister and I will be campaigning for her,” Ms Kaye told Morning Report.

“I believe the party can absolutely win.”

She said she recognised some people would be “gutted” by her choice to leave politics, but it was the “absolutely the right decision”.

“What I promise National voters is that I will be on the phones, I will be doorknocking, I will be backing Judith, I’ll be doing everything possible to ensure that there’s a National government.

“I am replaceable. There are many others that are candidates or in parliament that will step up.”

Ms Kaye was forced to take leave from parliament in 2016 to be treated for breast cancer. Speaking to Newstalk ZB this morning, she said her cancer fight had given her a different perspective on life.

“This is the moment where I decided to do the best thing for me,” Ms Kaye said.

“I have given 12 years of my life to public service. I have given everything.”

Ms Adams is a former minister for justice and social housing. She was planning to retire at the election, until Mr Muller took over the leadership in May and offered her a portfolio running National’s response to the coronavirus.

“I’d already come to terms with the fact that I was going to sail off into the sunset and have a nice, quiet life, and then COVID-19 came along,” she said today.

“I was offered the pretty incredible opportunity to co-ordinate our policy response to COVID, and that was something I couldn’t turn down.”

Speaking to Stuff, Ms Adams revealed Ms Collins had offered her a “senior role”, but would have shifted her out of the coronavirus portfolio. She respectfully declined the offer.

“Everything’s changed in the past few days,” she said.

“They’re rearranging what they need and while Judith was very gracious and made it very clear there’d be a role here for me, it’s not the same role that’s the role I stayed on to do. She’s got every right to do that. I support her fully.”

Nikki Kaye has been an MP since she was 28 when she took Auckland Central from Judith Tizard. She ran a hell of a campaign to do that and I’ve always respected how hard she worked. She’s 40 now. I say fair call. Go, be free.

— Anna Rawhiti-Connell (@AnnaGConnell) July 15, 2020

Ms Collins released a statement thanking both departing MPs.

“Nikki and Amy have both made incredible contributions at very senior levels with consistent dedication to their work and to their constituencies,” the new Opposition Leader said.

“They are both highly skilled professionals who will continue to make a difference in their next careers.

“I thank them for everything they have done for the National Party and New Zealand politics over the years, and I wish them the very best for the future.”

At a media conference detailing the shadow cabinet reshuffle, she revealed that both of her predecessors in the leadership would receive senior portfolios. Mr Muller will be shadow trade minister, while Mr Bridges will take foreign affairs and justice.

“I’m not so pleased that they’re leaving, but I understand it,” Ms Collins said of Ms Kaye and Ms Adams.

“She is the bravest person I know, but she has found the deputy leadership role has taken a big toll on her,” she added, referring specifically to Ms Kaye.

This week’s drama comes on the heels of two more high profile resignations. Last month Paula Bennett, the former deputy prime minister, and Anne Tolley, a former minister with 34 years in politics, both announced they were retiring.

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A challenging start for Judith Collins. Picture: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images

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Ms Collins has very little time to make her party competitive before September’s election.

On paper, it should be a challenging re-election fight for Ms Ardern, who won power in 2017 despite claiming ten fewer seats than the incumbent National government, led by Bill English.

Both major parties were short of a majority, giving the minor party NZ First – roughly equivalent to Australia’s One Nation – the chance to choose who formed government.

That party’s leader, Winston Peters, decided to go with Labour. In exchange, Ms Ardern made him Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.

The numbers in parliament have not changed since. Ms Ardern’s government remains on a knife-edge, relying on NZ First to keep power.

At the start of this year, the Prime Minister seemed to be in some trouble, as a political donations scandal rocked Mr Peters and she refused to publicly criticise him.

Media commentators accused Ms Ardern of being “gutless” and having “all the backbone of a spineless jellyfish”. Multiple polls showed National inching in front of Labour.

Then the coronavirus pandemic struck – the third major crisis of Ms Ardern’s time in office, after the Christchurch terror attack and the White Island eruption.

The Prime Minister has received high marks from voters for her response to the pandemic. In recent months, Labour’s polling has surged over 50 per cent, and National’s share has fallen into the twenties.

There is, perhaps, one reason for Ms Collins to be optimistic – Ms Ardern became opposition leader just seven weeks before the 2017 election, when Labour seemed certain to lose, and she managed to turn it around.

National will hope history repeats.