Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: What took National's leadership team so long here?

The fightback has started, hasn’t it?

National’s leadership team have clearly come out of yesterday’s caucus meeting with very clear instructions: get the National Party vote back off New Zealand First. And they’ve come out hard.

It started with Nicola Willis on Mike Hosking just after 7am, warning that Winston Peters might pick Labour after the next election. The attack from her on that show was so pointed I was actually surprised - because these two are mates. They drink together, they work together, they’re on the same floor as each other in the Beehive.

But then, five hours later, the Prime Minister is on The Country with Jamie Mackay, saying almost exactly the same thing. Which tells you Nicola didn’t just react in the heat of the moment, coming off the high of what happened in caucus. These are the lines they’ve decided to go out with.

They have decided to attack New Zealand First. The question is: what took them so long?

Because this is what they needed to do months ago, when it became obvious they were bleeding votes to New Zealand First. That is what’s happening here. New Zealand First - and Winston - are going up and the National Party is going down because National voters are shifting across to New Zealand First.

Right now, 52 percent of Winston’s supporters voted National at the last election.

This is exactly the right strategy Nicola Willis and Chris Luxon should be taking - because it’s true. There is a risk that New Zealand First goes with Labour. Even though Winston says it ain’t going to happen, there is a risk.

He’s done it before. In 1996 he told voters to help him put, quote, “Jim Bolger in opposition where he belongs”. And who did he pick after that election? He picked Jim Bolger.
Of course, Winston’s not going to admit he’s open to Labour - even if he is - because then he can’t rely on stealing all of those National Party voters. They’re not going to go to him if they think he’s going to put Jacinda’s lot back in charge.

This is exactly the attack Luxon and Willis need to launch on New Zealand First if they want to keep their jobs by keeping the polling up.

So let’s see if it works. I reckon it might.

Watch the next poll. Watch for National going up and New Zealand First either going down or plateauing. That will tell us whether the fightback is working.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever, Duplessy Allen Well, the fight backer started asn't it
National's leadership team have clearly come out of that caucus
meeting yesterday with very clear instructions to get the National
Party vote back off New Zealand first, and so this
morning they have come out hard. It started with Nikola
Willis on Mike Hosking just after seven warning that Winston
Peters might pick Labor after the next election, and the

(00:22):
attack from her on that show was so pointed. I
was actually surprised because these two are mates. They drink together,
they work together, they are on the same floor as
each other in the beehive. But then five hours later
the Prime Ministers on the Country with Jamie McKay, he's
saying almost exactly the same thing, which means Nicola didn't
just react in the heat of the moment, coming off
the high of what happened yesterday and caucus. These are

(00:43):
the lines they have decided to go out with. They
have decided to attack New Zealand. First question is what
bloody took them so long, because this is what they
needed to do months ago, when it became obvious to
them they were bleeding votes to New Zealand. First. That
is what's happening here New Zealand. Winston are going up
and the National Party is going down because those voters
from the NATS are going to New Zealand first. Right now,

(01:06):
fifty two percent of Winston's supporters voted for National at
the last election. And this is exactly the right strategy
that Nicola and Chris should be taken, because it's true
there is a risk that New Zealand First goes with labor,
even though Winston says it isn't going to happen, there
is a risk because he did this in ninety ninety six.
He told voters to help him put quote Jim Bolger

(01:27):
in opposition where he belongs, and who did he pick
after that election? He picked Jim Bolger. Now, of course
Winston's not going to admit that he's open to labor,
even if he is, because otherwise he can't rely on
stealing all of those National Party voters over eight because
it's not going to go to him if they think
that he's going to put Jacinder's loot back in charge.
This is exactly the attack that Luxon and Willis need

(01:47):
to launch on New Zealand First if they want to
keep their jobs by keeping the polling up. So let's
see if it works. I reckon it might work. Watch
the next poll. Watch for National going up and New
Zealand first, either going down or plateauing, and that will
tell us if the fight back is working. For more
from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to News Talks'
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