She’s trying to topple a political superstar, but Judith Collins says she’s not disheartened.
The new leader of the New Zealand National Opposition Party – nicknamed “Crusher Collins” after her stint as hard-line police minister – will need all her resolve to defeat Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in the September 19 election.
“It’s extremely difficult work, and that’s why I have it,” Collins, 61, said in an interview in his parliamentary office in Wellington. “I’m not at all afraid.”
National enters election campaign as the underdog after Ardern’s skillful handling of the pandemic wiped out local transmission of the coronavirus in New Zealand, helping his Labor Party soar in the polls. National’s chances have not been helped by a string of scandals and internal denunciations that have seen the party appoint Collins as its third leader in two months.
Labor had 53% support in a 1News / Colmar Brunton poll released yesterday, while National gathered 32%.
Collins, who has been compared to the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, has just seven weeks to restore public confidence in his party and gain support for his promise of sound economic management. While popular among conservatives, the question is whether she can win the center dominated by 40-year-old Ardern, whose brand of empathetic leadership has won worldwide admiration.
Collins is “a traditional National Party right-winger,” political analyst Bryce Edwards said. “In a way, that means she’s more attractive because she’s a staunch politician and someone who seems more genuine.”
Closed border
The election comes as New Zealand faces its biggest economic challenge in generations, with unemployment expected to rise after the loss of international tourism, a key source of foreign exchange. The next government will need to create new industries and jobs and find a way to safely reopen the border, which has been closed since the pandemic hit.
Although Ardern has been applauded for its handling of the crisis, its center-left government has failed to implement some key policies, such as a pledge to build 100,000 new homes to alleviate a housing crisis. National, which oversaw eight straight years of growth and surplused the budget before losing to Labor in 2017, says it is better able to navigate the recovery.
Collins was born on a dairy farm in the Waikato region on the North Island of New Zealand. She became a lawyer, later specializing in taxation, and ran several businesses with her husband before entering Parliament in 2002.
It was as Minister of Police that she got her nickname “Crusher” by cracking down on illegal street car racing and saying the vehicles should be sent to the compactor.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been praised for her handling of the crisis.
“Dirty politics”
His political career has not been without controversy. In 2014, she was accused of approving dairy products made by a company her husband was a director of when in China on government business. Later that year, she resigned from her portfolios after allegations she had engaged in “dirty politics” by trying to undermine an official. An investigation erased her and she returned as minister at the end of 2015.
She unsuccessfully sought the party leadership twice, in 2016 and 2018, before finally winning the support of her colleagues this month, the best bet to get them out of the turmoil.
Collins is flattered by the comparisons to Thatcher, who she credits with pulling the UK out of its economic quagmire in the 1980s, and says National can revitalize New Zealand in the post-Covid world. The party has already released some flagship policies, such as spending NZ $ 31 billion ($ 20 billion) on roads and other infrastructure, and Collins says he’s working on a plan to reopen the border completely. security.
Collins is firmly on the side of the farmers in the debate over New Zealand’s dependence on dairy exports and the impact of cows on the environment, such as the degradation of rivers and the non – river bathing.
“The only people who think this is contentious don’t understand where the money is coming from,” she said. Industry is the backbone of the economy, but dairy farmers are treated “as if they are enemies of the state”.
Scandals
National is on the feet after one of its politicians leaked confidential details about a Covid-19 patient, while another resigned amid allegations he sent pornographic images to young women.
“It was a few backbenchers, most people wouldn’t know who they are,” Collins said. “It’s not like he’s a minister,” she added during a search in Ardern, which last week fired its Minister of Workplace Relations for an affair from a year with a former staff member.
Despite the recent goofy headlines, Collins insists she will run a clean campaign. She has a penchant for one-liners and a confident, easy-going style of communication, and says she looks forward to debating the prime minister when the election campaign begins next month.
Ardern’s popularity could be an Achilles heel, she says.
“One of the things I learned during my time in politics is not to get carried away too much,” she said. “This is a great danger to the current Prime Minister – a lot of adulation and people who tell you how good you are can very quickly become, let’s say, useless.”
National won the largest share of the vote in the 2017 election and only lost to Ardern because it was able to win the support of small parties.
New Zealand’s German-style electoral system lends itself to coalitions, and National will need partners if it is to regain the seats of government.
He can count on the small libertarian party ACT but has ruled out working with the populist New Zealand First. The National is also unlikely to team up with the Greens, who are strongly allied with the Labor Party.
Collins concedes her path to power won’t be easy, but says she enjoys the competition ahead.
“It is always difficult to remove and replace a first term government of any kind,” she said. “I love challenges.”
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
