National turns guns on NZ First as Michael Laws drags party into yet another scandal
National leader Christopher Luxon’s stump speech had a common theme as his campaign bus wended its way through Hawke’s Bay on Wednesday afternoon.
NZ First supported the ban on offshore oil and gas exploration and administered the planting of a billion trees, often on productive farmland, in coalition with Labour, and opposed the India free-trade agreement in coalition with National.
He made this point in his speech with Tukituki MP Catherine Wedd in Havelock North and again about an hour later with Napier MP Katie Nimon in Napier.
Labour got a mention, with Luxon claiming the party had $18 billion of unfunded spending promises, which collectively amounted to “free stuff”.
“Mark my words it isn’t free and you’ll be paying for it if they get in on Saturday night,” Luxon said.
But mostly he attacked NZ First, and for good reason. NZ First does well in Wairarapa. Despite not standing a candidate there in 2023, it polled about a third higher (two points) in the electorate than its nationwide party vote. This time, the party is standing former MP Ron Mark in the seat, who may shave some votes off National’s candidate Mike Butterick, who faces a tough race against Labour’s Kieran McAnulty.
In Tukituki, Wedd faces a challenge from former All Black captain Taine Randell. He won’t win the seat, but he might peel off some party vote.
But there was a bit of venom to Luxon’s attacks on his junior coalition partner. It’s not hard to get the feeling he’s sick of them.
NZ First had a truly disastrous day on the campaign. In the morning, the Herald published sexist remarks made by candidate Michael Laws on The Platform.
This shouldn’t rattle what people think of NZ First — it’s always been scandal-prone and, like the Lost Boys without Wendy, has always been a home for candidates, often male, who have a habit of saying outrageous, often offensive things.
But what should rattle supporters is whether the party has lost its grip on handling these controversies.
NZ First has had a truly disastrous year. After peaking at about 13% in the Taxpayers’ Union-Curia Poll this year (equal to the party’s best election result), the party’s support has dropped by about 40%.
It’s been beset by scandal. Candidate Stuart Nash dropped out of the race after making sexist remarks about Nimon, alleging she had neglected her MP’s duties in favour of motherhood. Peters lost control in the House, embarking on a racist tirade against Green MP Lawrence Xu-Nan, and now Laws has blown up, making grotesque remarks about Opportunity candidates. Against the backdrop of this has been opposition to the India free-trade agreement, which has not infrequently lost track of good-faith critiques of the deal itself and veered into racist attacks on the Indian diaspora.
Questions must be asked about the wellness of this party and whether Peters is still able to exert sufficient control over it.
These repeated blunders, all connected by a thread of bigotry, suggest the party is unwell.
This scandal will be particularly challenging for Peters. Nash was an outsider, not particularly adored by the party and actively disliked by powerful figures such as Shane Jones, the party’s deputy leader, and his wife Dot Jones, who sits on the board.
Laws is different. He and Peters are close personally and go back decades, to when Peters was a National MP and Laws was working for the party.
History means a lot to Peters. And the history he has with Laws will probably mean he struggles to exert discipline on him.
It may not hurt NZ First electorally. There’s a constituency for grumpy politics like this, and some of the party’s voters may not be upset at the language the party uses. If you’re voting NZ First, it’s unlikely politesse and decorum are top-tier issues anyway.
But Laws’ tirade may damage National by association, in much the same way that the Greens’ and Te Pāti Māori’s gang pad visit threatened to damage Labour. In the end, of course, the visit didn’t damage Labour, so there’s good reason to be sceptical that Laws’ comments will have a decisive effect on National.
After yesterday’s blow-up, it’s not hard to imagine that somewhere, deep down, many in National (and Act) would rather the party went into government with a tax-free version of Opportunity Party than NZ First, so fatigued are they by the party’s constant controversy.
Luxon was unusually decisive yesterday. Having developed a reputation for faffing about on matters of coalition discipline this term, he took mere hours to promise Laws would never serve in a government he led.
National found out about the remarks during the morning in Wairarapa. As Luxon disembarked the bus outside a Masterton record store, his press secretary indicated the media should hang around outside the bus for an unplanned stand-up.
There, with flecks of wool from a sheep Luxon had been shearing minutes earlier clinging to his jacket, Luxon ruled Laws out, ending his chances of having a role in the ministry.
It was a disastrous day for the coalition, capping off a horrific few days on the campaign trail in which National had been scrapping with right-wing campaign groups urging supporters not to give their party votes to NZ First and Act to trigger an overhang.
Ironically, the best argument against that strategy seems to be coming from NZ First itself.