We told you there was a coup brewing inside National

ByMartyn Bradbury

Cough, cough, TDB told you there was a coup brewing inside National…

The anatomy of National’s failed coup

The week before last, National edged beyond the chatter phase and hit somewhere around 2.7 on the coup scale.

Much has already been written about the feverish speculation that Luxon was about to be rolled.

It reached its peak mid-week as MPs, lobbyists and business leaders mingled at Air New Zealand’s annual Parliament party. The gossip was tastier than the canapés.

An Ipsos issues monitor poll, which saw the Government’s performance drop to an all-time low, didn’t help.

For all Luxon’s insistence that he doesn’t pay attention to polls, the ninth floor couldn’t ignore the chatter rising up from the shebang down on the first floor.

By Friday, word came down that the Prime Minister’s Office was trying to hose things down.

Two things happened in quick succession. Late that afternoon, media received a sudden advisory that Luxon would (unusually) attend a regional gathering of National Party members in Upper Hutt.

Then the Praetorian Guard was stood up and the weekend briefing began. Political columns dutifully dismissed the rumours as just talk, with no solid or real challenge behind them. Nicola Willis’ voice was unmistakable in the backgrounding.

Upper Hutt is Chris Bishop territory and that was the point. Luxon fronted with National’s first substantive policy for next year’s election campaign. It would see employers required to match workers’ KiwiSaver contributions up to 6% of their wages.

Willis introduced Luxon – a speech full of over-cranked praise – and then stood beside him at the stand-up, selling the policy in lockstep.

In case anyone missed the signal: Willis had picked her side.

…Luxon didn’t win the National Party leadership because he was the best candidate, it was a last ditch revenge move by Judith to spite Simon Bridges for the role as she threw her votes behind Luxon.

So the factions are still bitter with each other on top of the 9 MPs about to be sacrificed for his economic incompetence.

Bishop is doing the sounding out, but he’s not running for Leader, he wants Finance because the backbench MPs know it can’t just be Luxon, it also has to be Nicola because it’s her economic agenda that has crashed National as much as Luxon’s fecklessness.

Nicola AND Luxon have to be removed.

Bishop will be Finance and meaning the Leader has to be Auckland based.

The leader can’t be Erica Stanford because she has too many skeletons that will be outed under Parliamentary Privilege.

It can’t be Simeon Brown because he’s a man child who isn’t taken seriously and who is loathed for destroying Public Health.

Louise Upston is the factional compromise with the argument being that she is from Taupo which is close enough to Auckland for South Island National Party conservatives.

The trigger is a fall for National into the 20’s on the TVNZ Poll. The fear is Winston will continue to devour National Party vote as the economy continues to under perform.

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6 Comments

  2. I was told again today, by a friend in the know, that Luxon would be rolled, over Xmas! Bring it on, but seriously replacing Clown, Luxon with Clown, Bishop & the ill-fated Upston, is not a solution! It’s not simply about Ministers, it’s their damned awful policies, their never-ending need for total control, arrogance, ignorance, continuous lies, corruption, distractions – I could go on forever here! This whole CoC-up is a disaster, not waiting to happen, it has already happened. Not only do they have a bunch of brain-dead politicians, they also have a bunch of dead-beat voters who either can’t work it out, or don’t give a stuff – take your pick. Whatever voters choose, surely it can’t be ANY WORSE! Again, what in the hell did we do to deserve this, and where is our media – DER??

  3. As National’s glaring economic ineptitude leaves Luxon bobbing in the water like a rotting whale carcass, beneath the rancid surface, what toothy critters will tear at that strangely unattractive underbelly, inspired by UK Reform to replace the old blues.
    Will it be:
    A) the rubber-faced irrelevancy Cmor and the Advocacy for Corporate Tax evasion?
    B) the superficially plausible but cat-hating TOP?
    or C) the endlessly revisionist NZF, & Winston, his hour come around at last, slouching towards Jerusalem?

  5. NZ Herald Headlines…

    ‘Pretty disappointed’: Mowbray’s personal text to PM amid social media lobbying

    Dallas Gurney: ‘National is screwing small business’ – here’s what needs to change

    But in Trevor’s New Zealand things are going great. Lobbying, corruption and closing down business is not sustainable for this CoC.

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