National’s problem with its candidates

• mickysavage
• 1 year ago
• Categories: bill english, brand key, Christopher Luxon, john key, national, religion, same old national

Another day, and yet another report a National candidate has done something really stupid.

This time it is Taieri candidate Stephen Jack who had been caught posting posted deeply offensive “humour” on his facebook page.

To augment the strong sense of misogyny it was recently revealed that National’s Maungakiekie candidate Greg Fleming had previously compared same-sex civil unions to incest and polygamy.  He was previously the managing director of Conservative Think Tank Maxim.

Subsequent events show that National still has a problem with its handling of candidates.  Christopher Luxon was blindsided by the comments and was not aware of them.  He had to issue a somewhat shaky response and said that he supported civil unions and same-sex marriage.

But then Luxon was forced to confirm that Fleming had disclosed the remarks to the Party ahead of the selection.

As Andrea Vance notes:

The random idiot generator that selects National Party candidates has spat out another couple of beauties.

Other current candidates present their own particular challenges.

There is Simon O’Connor who said at the end of the debate on Abortion Law Reform in 2020 “Mihi vindicta: ego retribuam, dicit Dominus (Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord).”  He said at the time that saying it would probably get him into trouble and boy was he right.

There is Simeon Brown who put up an amendment during the debate on Abortion Law Reform that would force women to tell the state how many abortions they have had.

National’s New Lynn candidate Paulo Garcia is also a member of this conservative clique.  He a conservative Catholic.

He believes that abortion is wrong and that raising children is harder for same-sex couples.  He also does not believe in recreational fornication and says that intercourse should be about procreation.  Those views will go down well out west.

His birth control beliefs are the sorts of beliefs that conservative Republicans have.  He thinks that sense will overcome teenage hormones.  Can he let me know if this works because so far I have seen no evidence that it does.

And there is Barbara Kuriger who is under challenge for her hold of the King Country seat after deeply inappropriate intervention in a prosecution involving her husband and her son.

There are of course more historical examples of National’s difficulty with its candidates and MPs and senior officers.  Who can forget:

• Richard Worth and what was it that he did which so incensed the Malaysian Government;
• Pansy Wong who resigned after her husband was caught conducting business when accompanying her on a Ministerial trip to China;
• Mike Sabin whose activities Cameron Slater said were almost too horrible for words;
• Don’t you know who I am Aaron Gilmour who also had CV accuracy problems;
• Claudette Hauiti who used her parliamentary charge card for a Christmas trip to Australia and spent approximately $23,000 on MP’s expenses after she had announced she was standing down;
• John Key’s ponytail pulling fetish;
• The police investigation into Todd Barclay and his use of personal recording devices;
• Bill English’s mischaracterisation of the truth relating to his police statement;
• The complaints by four women about Jami-Lee Ross’s behaviour;
• Andrew Falloon’s resignation for depression caused by the drunken sending of inappropriate graphic material to a woman who was not his wife and was a teenager;
• Michelle Boag who stood down from all party positions because of the leaking to National MPs of confidential personal health information;
• Sarah Dowie who in her valedictory speech said that she would claw at the windows or walk across hot coals to get out of the National Caucus;
• Hamish Walker who was willing to trash the Country’s covid response for political advantage and who racistly claimed that Indians, Pakistanis and Koreans some infected with Covid were on their way to Queenstown while at the same time sending confidential medical information to the media;
• National’s Palmerston North candidate William Wood who had photos of himself on Social Media impersonating Hitler.
• Jake Bezzant whose problems with the accuracy of his CV had been communicated to the party and whose former girlfriend had accused him of impersonating her and using explicit images of her in order to impersonate her in sexting conversations with other men.
• Sam Uffindell who was asked to leave his exclusive boarding school after viciously beating a younger student late at night.  This was also disclosed to the Party before his selection.

My biggest concern is the increasing hold that conservative Christians have on the party.  The process that clearly was under way under Simon Bridges’ leadership appears to be accelerating.  And it is clear that branches are being infiltrated.  I could not believe that New Lynn National chose Garcia and not Ruby Manukia Schaumkell who I thought could present a major challenge.

Luxon’s deeply held beliefs are well known.  And they keep creeping out.

I am pleased that the party is in such disarray.  A disciplined focussed National Party that actually appeared to be representative of Aotearoa New Zealand could be electorally dominant.

Update:

As pointed out on twitter how could I forget Matt King who morphed from being a conservative farmer into a climate change denier and anti vaxxer?