Help my head hurts.
Just over a week ago Simon Bridges ruled out working with NZ First after the next election. From Henry Cooke at Stuff:
National leader Simon Bridges has ruled out working with NZ First after this year’s election, telling voters he can’t trust the party.
Bridges’ move, announced at a caucus retreat in Havelock North, sets the stage for a no-holds barred election campaign between the three parties that make up the Government and National.
It echoes a move made by then-oppositon leader John Key ahead of the 2008 election, when he too ruled out working with NZ First.
Bridges said Kiwi voters deserved to have a clear choice between National and the coalition – and that a vote for NZ First was a vote for Labour and the Greens.
Then yesterday there appeared to be a softening of his position. From Stuff:
National leader Simon Bridges won’t rule out working with Winston Peters and NZ First in the future and isn’t yet calling for him to stand down over the NZ First Foundation saga.
He is now calling on the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to confirm that she trusts Peters, in the wake of yesterday’s news that the the NZ First Foundation donations have been referred to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) by police.
Bridges also called on the SFO to make a decision on whether to investigate Peters before the election.
But Bridges stopped short of saying Ardern should stand Peters down during any investigation.
Today we had all guns blazing Simon with a no way no how no time response.
Simon Bridges has completely ruled out working with New Zealand First for the upcoming election – or any future elections.
“No ifs, no buts, no time,” said National leader Bridges when probed by The AM Show host Duncan Garner. “I want to end this charade we’ve been in.”
Bridges said voters deserve to know what the situation is following allegations surrounding the New Zealand First Party and its donation practises.
On Monday, it was announced the Serious Fraud Office is weighing up whether to probe accusations the party is hiding donations in a slush fund.
What has changed? Well nothing. The SFO is still investigating the NZ First Foundation. My initial impression is that what has happened is a cheeky circumvention of the existing law. And it provides the country with a perfect opportunity to review electoral laws, hopefully free of the spin and histrionics that accompanied the last major attempt to invoke law reform.
Simon’s position is extraordinary. If the test is that Simon will not work with a party implicated in a SFO investigation into the way it treats donations then he should stand down as leader. It appears that he had more than a nodding acquaintance with what was happening when a donation to the National Party was packaged to avoid scrutiny.
If anyone can make sense of his statements concerning Coalition with NZ First please let me know. A chocolate fish to whoever can reconcile these statements and show they are consistent.
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