The Indian Weekender, 16 October 2020

4 NEW ZEALAND
Friday, October 16, 2020
The Indian Weekender
Election 2020: Has Judith Collins been served
well by National’s key tacticians and strategists?
SANDEEP SINGH FOR RNZ
Opinion - Sooner or later this question will
be asked - if National Party Leader Judith
Collins has been served well by her key
tacticians and strategists in this campaign,
writes Sandeep Singh.
One of the key tasks cut out for her
tacticians would have been to shore up
National’s chances and lead the party to
electoral victory and form the next government.
However, successive opinion polls show that
National is still lagging behind with just few
days before election night, with just one more
leader’s debate still pending tonight.
Will Collins be able to produce something
scintillating to sway a large voter base
decisively that can eventually turn around the
wheels of fortune for the National Party? That
remains to be seen.
However, until then, a quick review of
National’s key tacticians providing inputs to
Collins in decision-making and deciding the
party’s broad future trajectory is in order.
So far it seems that in the manner in which
Collins campaign is being shaped the focus
is on how to project “brand Judith” vis a vis
“brand-Ardern” - a formidable adversary -
and the one solely responsible for torpedoing
National’s-ship which was until six months
ago, sailing reasonably well.
In this endeavour, the choices available to
them were severely limited as they have to
emphasise the point of difference between
the two leaders, their personality and style
of leadership so as to offer a starkly different
choice to prospective voters in this election.
If you are done with Jacinda’s so-called
“waffle” in last three years then you have
Judith’s “firm, assertive style” on the offer to
choose for the next three years - that’s how
probably her advisers would have hoped to
frame the debate in the public narrative.
This was definitely the thinking that would
have propelled Collins in declaring resolutely
on national television during a live leader’s
debate that she will not hesitate clawing back
from businesses which have taken wage
subsidy from the government despite making
huge profits - causing some confusion and
concern - in the party’s supposedly core base of
business community.
Not to waffle unnecessarily and not to shy
away from taking bold assertive decisions
seems to be the key emphasis on which Collins’
strategy team would be working behind the
scenes.
There’s nothing completely wrong about
this approach, except that there would also be
the expectation to firm-up “brand Judith” in a
manner that further accentuates the credibility
of the National Party, as the alternative viable,
and stable government, and not otherwise.
However lately, on many occasions the
manner in which Collins has presented herself
out in the public domain - be it on announcing
policy on the hoof, or attacking her opponents
in Labour and Green Party and criticising
their policies vehemently to a level seen as
fear-mongering by some - seems that while
“brand-Judith” might be shoring up, it might
not have helped the cause of the National
Party in presenting itself as a viable and stable
alternative government.
The successive polls so far where National’s
vote share is seen to have plateaued at around
32 percent while Collin’s popularity as
preferred Prime Minister continues to rise,
seem to confirm worst fears in some quarters of
the National Party.
The recent media leak by a relatively low
profile National MP expressing dissent on
Collin’s Auckland Council policy announcement
without any communication with her also hints
at how some caucus colleagues might be seeing
a seeming lack of alignment between “brand-
Judith” and National’s credibility as a viable
alternative government.
The latest episode of doubling down on the
need for “personal responsibility” to address
the major societal issue of obesity, is another
example of how “brand-Judith” operates.
For a long time, this “brand-Judith” has
co-existed and operated without having
to simultaneously lift the responsibility of
nourishing the credibility of the National Party
amongst prospective voters.
That responsibility has been resting with
another leader, while Collins had the freedom to
operate without having any additional burden.
Things have changed in this election, and we
don’t know with confidence, how much “brand-
Judith” been able to shore up chances of the
National Party.
To be fair, she was reined in by her caucus
colleagues as an opportunistic last choice as
party leader, after their previous collective
decision of rolling then incumbent leader, by
a fresh, unseen, and untested challenger had
misfired.
Clearly, they were hoping to be rescued by
the personal brand that she has assiduously
built and cultivated over last two decades in
politics.
She is indeed National’s battle-hardened foot
soldier who resonates and reflects the party’s
core values, albeit in her own combative style,
which constitutes her own personal charisma.
However, if “brand Judith” was suited for
this critical phase of our nation’s history,
especially when New Zealanders seem to have
less appetite for any transformational change
for the benefit of future-generations, and are
more worried about maintaining the statusquo
- a status quo of safety - only remains to
be seen.
*Sandeep Singh is the editor of Aucklandbased
community newspaper The Indian
Weekender. The views expressed are
author’s alone.
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