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Bryce Edwards
democracyproject.nz
Dr Bryce Edwards is Political Analyst in Residence at Victoria University of Wellington. He is the director of the Democracy Project.
The main issue of contention at the conference was the decision to keep current party president, Peter Goodfellow on. Prior to the weekend, signs were shaping up for his replacement by former Cabinet minister David Carter – see my roundup: National’s internal discontent and mood for change.
However, Goodfellow survived with delegates electing new members to the National Party board who voted to keep him in place. This has amazed many commentators. In his column on Tuesday Luke Malpass writes that the necessity of ditching him should have been obvious, given the poor performance of the party last year. He says:
“The fact that he stood – and was elected again – points to a failure of succession planning and a lack of awareness about the need for generational change within the party. Any organisation – political or otherwise – that keeps the same leader in place for too long is at risk of stagnation and being overrun by those with newer ideas and innovative ways of doing things.”
Simon Wilson is also critical of the retention of Goodfellow, saying that he not only presided over terrible decisions, he isn’t even raising much money anymore:
“despite his supposedly very special set of skills, as a fundraiser – party donations have declined. When he was asked about this, he said no biggie, donations always wax and wane. But it was election year last year. That’s when the waxing is supposed to happen.”
In her column, Jo Moir reports insider accounts that Collins herself changed her mind about ditching Goodfellow, allowing him to stay on. Moir says, “it’s understood a last-minute change of tune by Collins secured his win”, and although Collins was expected to direct her fellow board members to ditch him and elect Carter instead, “somewhere along the way that changed and by Sunday Goodfellow was re-elected.”
Chris Trotter says Collins’ failure to get rid of Goodfellow reflects terribly on her:
“Either she wanted Goodfellow back, or she lacked the political chops to prevent his return. Whichever explanation is correct, National’s leader emerged from last weekend’s AGM looking stupid, weak, or an uninspiring combination of the two. Her references to the certainty of sunrises notwithstanding, Collins did not give the appearance of a woman who either wants, or expects, to lead her party into the 2023 election.”
A different explanation for Goodfellow’s survival is given by Politik’s Richard Harman, who says the new members elected to the National Board, who ultimately decide the party president, were the result of a concerted campaign:
“Goodfellow appears to owe his survival to a well-organised campaign headed by Epsom party member Sylvia Wood. She led a four-person ticket; herself, Stefan Sunde, Jannita Pilisi, and David Ryan to stand for four vacancies on the board. One electorate chair told Politik that they were the candidates ‘Sylvia wanted on the board’. All four were Goodfellow supporters; three were from his hometown, Auckland”
– see: Behind Peter Goodfellow’s re-election (paywalled).
Harman also reports that “Most party insiders were convinced [Collins] would vote to replace Goodfellow. That supposition was further stoked when there were reports that her Papakura electorate was canvassing board candidates to find out whether they supported Goodfellow.”
Party pollster David Farrar has also commented on Goodfellow’s win, saying it was a product of Auckland factionalism – see: National board elections.
Farrar suggests that because Goodfellow is an Aucklander his Auckland support base mobilised to get key allies elected to the all-important board:
“the key takeaway in terms of the board elections was that three of the four elected were from Auckland, which is where the conference was hosted. Hosting the conference is an advantage as your delegates can attend without travel or accommodation costs so local electorates will all have full delegations. And this was probably also an influence in the vote for President… If the conference had been in Dunedin, there may have been a different outcome.”
Rival David Carter didn’t take losing well, which led him to make some truly damaging statements about the party – see, for example, Thomas Coughlan’s David Carter has ‘no confidence’ in Peter Goodfellow to fix National’s fortunes. Amongst many scathing statements, Carter said:
“The review we did after the election raised two significant points: the governance of the party from board was dysfunctional, and second, we did not have enough money in our coffers to campaign… I don’t think either of those things will change while Mr Goodfellow is president.”
However, National’s conference delegates weren’t entirely in favour of the status quo, and voted for some important changes to the governance of the party, which were said to have “sent a strong message” about the need for change – see Henry Cooke: National Party members vote to rein in board and seat-hopping MPs.
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