National has hatched on its attack line which we will hear about a lot over the next few months.
But it may have a problem.
Because the phrase “coalition of chaos” clearly applies to its leadership team.
Recent events suggest that National is rather chaotic.
As an example it appears that National’s announcement that it was ruling out a deal with the Maori Party was not a case of finely honed and timed racist dog whistling. The announcement was more akin to Keystone Cops than five dimensional chess.
As reported by RNZ’s Mediawatch Luxon’s announcement on Morning Report on May 10 appears to have been a misspeak by him. The conclusive proof is National’s urgently asking Mike Hosking to provide space on Newstalk ZB that morning so that Luxon could confirm National’s position, a request that Hosking was more than happy to allow.
I can only imagine what Judith Collins said at the time.
Then there were reports that a group of Auckland businessmen had approached Nicola Willis to roll Luxon as leader. She said there was no basis for the claim but she also pointedly refused to respond to questions asking if it was true that they had approached her with concerns about Luxon’s ability to become prime minister.
Then she amazingly asked this question in Parliament that afternoon and received a very predictable response:
Nicola Willis: Is he aware that Auckland business leaders are concerned that the economy is going downhill fast—[Interruption]
SPEAKER: Order! Order! Silence, please. I ask the member to ask it again.
Nicola Willis: —that New Zealand has the biggest current account deficit in the developed world, he’s run the books into the red, inflation’s out of control, and interest rates have climbed higher and faster than in our history?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I do spend a bit of my time with Auckland business leaders—possibly not quite as much as the member does—and they have expressed some concerns to me. One of those concerns was about the leadership of the National Party—I do admit that. I presume that’s the same concern they expressed to the member.
Why would you ask this question when everyone could see that the topic was laden with kryptonite.
But for some strange reason Willis chose to go to town on the issue. Surely she understood that this would give a story about Auckland businessmen’s concern about Luxon extra legs.
Then there was National’s preemptory ruling out continuation of free Pharmaceuticals for kiwis, a policy that has a significant rationale behind it. This one was led by Willis. Luxon had to walk her rhetoric back fairly quickly. I wonder if he was smiling quietly as he did so.
Some people think this was a carefully laid trap by Grant Robertson. I think it only emphasizes how completely out of touch National is.
The latest example is National’s opposing the Government’s grant to NZ Steel to ensure that the Government saves a lot of money in the future when it has to buy international carbon credits.
National’s response is lazy rhetoric. Especially their claim that this is corporate welfare.
How a party that provided the Warner Brothers tax break valued at $25 million should now complain about a grant to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions is beyond me.
And also because this is a really good deal for the Government. As noted by James Shaw:
The economics of this really stack up, especially compared to current carbon prices. The lifetime abatement cost is forecast at $16.20 per tonne. Current carbon prices are around $55 per tonne. In the long term this saves the Government and the country money.
The total price payable has some conditions that will improve further benefits from the deal. The base funding is up to $110 million. There is an additional $10m commissioning funding incentive paid if NZ Steel can get the furnace up and running by January 2027. And there is a further $20m of performance funding paid upfront if NZ Steel can achieve a further 800,000 tonnes of emissions reductions by 31 December 2030 over and above the base amount committed to in the agreement.
I hope that National keeps this performance up. Because everyone can see that at this stage put to one side its policy platform it has no ability to be a competent governor of the country. Luxon and Willis are the real coalition of chaos.
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