Large caucuses can be devilishly dangerous as National showed

Written By: - Date published: 12:19 pm, October 25th, 2020 - 17 comments
Categories: labour, national, Politics - Tags: , , ,

A post mortem of the 2017-2020 parliament shows that far from being the “opposition from hell” as they had threatened, National’s caucus was as ineffective as Donald Trump dealing to Covid 19.

It is a salutary lesson for the new Labour caucus which has won 64 seats in the new parliament. Depending on whether the Green Party with their 10 or 11 MPs is accommodated into government, there may be many backbench MPs who are underemployed.

NZ Herald: Photo / Mark Mitchell

Many in the National Party refused to accept that despite winning 56 seats to Labour’s 46 in 2017, it was the latter which would form the government. They vowed their revenge would be to make life hell for the new multi-party coalition government. In reality, numerous National’s back and frontbench MPs had too much time on their hands and used it to make mischief and pursue personal agendas.

Emma Espiner (Wehipeihana), writing for Newsroom, shortly before Winston Peters made his decision for NZ First to side with Labour in 2017, echoed many in the commentariat that forecast National would be a formidable opposition.

She noted Labour had in opposition “clawed its own eyes out” during its long stint opposing John Key, trialling five successive opposition leaders. But that wouldn’t happen to National she opined “because National are intrinsically more stable or less prone to backstabbing and eye gouging than Labour”.

Well it didn’t turn out at all like that. Andrea Vance in the Dominion Post’s post mortem of this year’s election not only reveals that National’s election campaign was shambolic, but many of their own goals had their genesis in the disruption emanating from the likes of Judith Collins and Todd Muller early on in the term.

Some National MPs, who spoke to Vance on condition of anonymity, said not only did Collins and campaign director Gerry Brownlee run an inept campaign that delivered “electoral slaughter”, it was ill-discipline throughout the term that was the root cause.

“Let’s be honest about the team of 2017,” said one departing Nat MP, “they have been the bane of National’s life. There have been nothing but leaks, a sense of self-entitlement and real arrogance.”

But it wasn’t just the newbies who destabilised and leaked. Collins, with her Gertrude-like ambition, has been a dark and disruptive force within her party for over a decade, even when the popular Key was leader.

She, and others, undermined Bill English for his failure to get Winston Peters on board during the 2017 post-election negotiations. After all, National’s only raison d’etre is to keep Labour out of power so wealth and assets can be protected. So his failure to do the business meant he had to go.

For nine months English’s successor, Simon Bridges, kept party support at a healthy 44 percent despite many in the party not liking him and his personal poll support being ugly. His spat with former friend and party whip Jami-lee Ross ended his honeymoon.

The resulting party poll slide allowed those with similar ambitions to Collins, such as Muller, backed by the likes of Michelle Boag, to proceed with their dirty work.

But back stabbing has its consequences.

“The way it was done was dirty and … as a consequence of that, they couldn’t stand there in front of us and say you all need to be loyal united,” said one MP who has lost their seat.

Some saw support by Collins in their electorate as a liability as some Republicans view Trump.

On her selection as leader after the disastrous Todd Muller interlude, Collins dragged the entire caucus out to front the media to display unity. But many in that caucus and the public knew it was a sham. Some, not too covertly, distanced themselves from her because of her previous modus operandi of dirty politicking and most well understood she was a polarising figure with the public.

Collin’s billboards shouting “Strong Team” came from the Trump/Goebbels school of lies that if you are going to tell a porky, make it a whopper. It was soon exposed for what it was by the leaking of the Denise Lee email that accused Collins of making up policy on the fly.

Collins and other duck-shovers later tried to blame the leak for a five point dive in National support but the leak only made crystal clear what everyone knew.

“She destabilised three leaders,” said one National MP of Collins. “She did it to John Key in 2014, she completely destabilised Simon Bridges, and she was behind the coup with Todd Muller.”

“Judith crawled over broken glass for a decade to get this job, she isn’t some Joan of Arc figure. Sadly, when she got there, there was nothing. She didn’t even have an A4 of a plan,” another departing MP complained bitterly.

Interestingly, in the same edition of the Dominion Post, two of National’s high fliers who played major roles in rolling Bridges, Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop, were interviewed about their parts in the election debacle. Each were promoted for their assistance in back-stabbing their leader and neither took responsibility for their part in the ensuing election debacle.

Minimising her role and with unintended irony, Willis said: “I see this as a team sport, where you are only as strong as your team. Everyone wants a team to be unified if they are going to put their trust into it. “

Asked about her responsibility for being prominent among the Bridges coup plotters, she again minimises, saying finger pointing is unhelpful. “That’s in the past – my focus is firmly on the future.”

“I reject the idea that I have been disloyal,” she said, adding “what remains important is that I am back in Parliament.”

Similarly, Bishop claims it was a collective decision to change leaders. “We made a decision to change the leader from Simon to Todd, and then from Todd to Judith later on. Those were collective decisions, so the party is collectively responsible and I take my share of responsibility with everyone else.”

Labour is unlikely to have those issues while Ardern retains her popularity as leader. However, while she may be inclined to offer ministerial posts to experienced and capable Green Party former ministers, Ardern may take cognisance of National’s experience that the devil makes use of idle hands.

(Simon Louisson worked as a journalist for Reuters, the New Zealand Press Association, and The Wall Street Journal among others and worked two stints for the Green Party as a media and political adviser prior to the recent election).

17 comments on “Large caucuses can be devilishly dangerous as National showed ”

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  1. mac1 1
    25 October 2020 at 12:48 pm

    Work-place bullying…………. watch the bullies blame shift and minimise.

    To me it's not just the size of the caucus, but for National it was the size of the egos, the size of the 'dickhead' element, the size of the disconnect between the paper qualifications of many MPs and the quality of their performance as thinking, sensible people, the size of the disconnect between the party's alleged membership, and their ability to select decent candidates, between the much vaunted managerial skills of National members and their practice.

    I somehow don't think that the warning from the Rangitata National electorate head that was featured in part one of Andrea Vance's column will be heeded.

    As for what the talent in the Labour caucus can do, since there is so much in the caucus on the list, they can get busy about the country building community connections between Labour party and government and the people in the provinces to keep and build on the election result which resulted from belief, and hope, and trust in the first three years' achievements.

  2. Sacha 2
    25 October 2020 at 1:09 pm

    “Judith crawled over broken glass for a decade to get this job, she isn’t some Joan of Arc figure. Sadly, when she got there, there was nothing. She didn’t even have an A4 of a plan,” another departing MP complained bitterly.

    Just like Muller. You can tell when people only want power for its own sake.

  3. mango 3
    25 October 2020 at 1:24 pm

    I'd like to see some analysis of ACT's new MPs. I have a feeling that they have been cursed with success far more than any other party.

  4. Patricia Bremner 4
    25 October 2020 at 1:48 pm

    It became obviously self-aggrandisement, which is the last thing NZ needs… or National. Those three Leaders, Bridges Muller and Collins are seriously lacking in social and emotional intelligence.

    They need to go back to the drawing board in a big way, as they are stale and bereft of ideas to improve Kiwi's lives, if they ever used that view of the world, and they are not representative of the community they wish to serve. As I write this I have a wry smile.

  5. Obtrectator 5
    25 October 2020 at 2:09 pm

    On first seeing the headline, I thought this was going to be a hark-back to the gigantic National caucus of 1990-93, and its gradual fragmentation. I'm sure there's some lessons to be learned from that episode, too.

    • swordfish 5.1
      25 October 2020 at 3:15 pm

      Exactly. It's the experiences of the outsized first Bolger Govt that Labour should be studying with care.

      • Hunter Thompson II 5.1.1
        26 October 2020 at 8:41 am

        Too right. With such a large caucus, there will likely be one or two members who do something truly insane (or perhaps criminal) and provide the Natz with ammo to fire at the government.

        With so many newbies running around it shouldn't take long for an MPs' expenses rort to be generated. They never seem to read the Cabinet manual, let alone understand it.

  6. Mad Plumber 6
    25 October 2020 at 2:38 pm

    There is plenty to do for backbenchers. Get out and about those Blue Electorates that turned Red and find out why and is there a bit of a disconnect between Federated Farmers and their members. Get out of your comfort zone.

    Help some of the members with large electorates and learn.

    • mac1 6.1
      25 October 2020 at 5:37 pm

      Amen, mad plumber. And out into the small towns and into the still blue electorates and take the message to them. This blue electorate has a blue MP but 45% voted party red to the blues 30%. Remind the people why they saw Labour as a better party to vote back in for a third and fourth term.

  7. Adrian 7
    25 October 2020 at 5:36 pm

    Exactly Mac1 and Mad Plumber, there’s plenty of money for flying squads of list MPs particulate urban ones to get out in the country electorates and meet the people, ask what they want and expect and just make bloody contact . some of those electorates are vast Kaikoura is almost 400 yes hundred kms long and the Tory incumbent has a huge advantage in money and staff.

  8. McFlock 8
    25 October 2020 at 7:45 pm

    Besides the work of idle hands, I reckon that Labour should be prepared to lose a couple of MPs. Not necessarily crossing the floor, but by-elections and suchlike. The current level of support will not last three years, and life happens.

  9. Sanctuary 9
    26 October 2020 at 5:47 pm

    Send the electorate MPs back to their electorates wherever possible, and tell them to be diligent local MPs and turn their seats into personal strongholds.

    • Michael who failed Civics 9.1
      27 October 2020 at 1:56 pm

      Great idea. Assign the list MPs to electorates where Labour needs to look after its base to stop them from marching off to the neofascist drum beat – it's only real threat now.

  10. newsense 10
    26 October 2020 at 10:44 pm

    And here's the spinoff saying they may need the greens to be ministerial talent…

  11. Michael who failed Civics 11
    27 October 2020 at 1:54 pm

    Labour has a good bunch of MPs for its next term. Some capable, experienced Ministers and some very able backbenchers. Jacinda and her whips ought to be able to make use of their talent pool – there's plenty of work to do, if this govt wants to be a reforming govt and not a neoliberal status quo govt.