National, a party in disarray

National Party has been thrown into chaos by its leader Todd Muller with the shock resignation with only around two months in the job and so close to the elections. The reasons he cited for his abrupt resignation are stated to be personal and related to his health, saying that he could not take too much pressure of the events taking place in the party. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern reacted to his resignation by saying that politics is a tough place to work, irrespective of whatever side in the parliament you may sit, one should be prepared to take on challenges.

National party has been having the leadership issues ever since John Key resigned, before even completing his tenure as PM and party members and its MPs are chasing his shadow ever since, failing miserably in all their experiments one after other. The resignation from Muller came after a brutal week of unsavoury events taking place where his leadership and integrity were severely tested as one of his MPs admitted of leaking the health details of Covid patients. It looks like Muller was not mentally prepared to face the challenges of the party leadership and even struggled to make his mark in the unrelenting world of political and media environment. Many members within the party mostly Simon Bridges loyalist like Paula Bennett and Judith Collins openly defied him and pointed finger at him, this can be very challenging and frustrating for a party leader. Muller had an awful run as a party leader ever since he took over from Simon Bridges in a swift coup, exactly 53 days ago, before his resigned. This is perhaps what happens when you do not have a deep political experience. Muller might have fancied the party leadership but did not envisage of the thorns attached with it.

With elections only two months away, National Party could not afford to waste much time, hence they needed to decide urgently as who is going to take it from here to give a tough fight to almost invincible Jacinda Ardern. Lo and behold, who they have elected to lead their party, yes, its Judith Collins who got lucky in her third tilt at the leadership. She sounded full of confidence when first thing she said after her election was that she is absolutely and 100 percent ready to go. She, as president of the National Party and Gerry Brownlee as her deputy will lead the party into election. The election of Judith Collins as National Party leader will surely change the turf for her opponent Jacinda Ardern, who so far was going almost unchallenged. Anyone, who know Judith Collins would agree that she is a go getter and a no-nonsense person and a tough task master. Even if she is not able to make it to the top job, she will be a tough opponent to Jacinda, and she has the ability to turn the tide in her favour if she gets any opportunity.

Whichever party wins the elections, one thing is for sure that the party in power will have to face an uphill task of bringing the economy, back to track. It feels good to get support from the government during tough times which current government has done during the entire Covid crisis period. But this good will gesture has emptied government coffers and the surplus budget has turned into a budget full of borrowings, which are large enough for our future generations to keep paying it back.

Judith Collins will need to demonstrate her best political skills to strike a fine balance between making businesses sustainable and also making the common man happy along with fighting with the Covid-19 crisis at the same time. If she can mange to convince the voter on this, one should not be surprised if she puts a up tough challenge to Jacinda in coming election.

-Yugal Parasher