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# A Win Is a Win
- URL: https://goodoil.news/a-win-is-a-win/
- Published: 2026-11-08T20:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-08T20:00:00.000Z
- Description: I just had to get this off my chest. The split vote saved the day. So far, I don’t see anyone in National’s leadership prepared to recognise anything went wrong.
- Author: JC
- Tags: NZ Politics, Election 2026

That’s about all that can be said for a near disastrous night for the right. Even then it’s ‘more likely’ than certain. If those on the right had taken National and Key’s advice to party vote National, the election would have been lost. We would have awakened on Sunday morning to a four-headed monster on the left and with no way back. Instead, and with good reason, voters on the right basically told them to sod off and went and did the right thing and split their vote. These are the people who deserve thanks for, hopefully, returning the coalition to power.

I have never seen such obstinacy from a political party in all my life. The polls were screaming the opposite but on they went like the *Titanic* not seeing the iceberg. Unfathomable. The result was that we all nearly went down with the ship and there’s still an outside chance we could. As a result they have lost Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop, Gerry Brownlee and Paul Goldsmith among others. What were the party strategists thinking? Surely they saw the risk in continuing with their potentially suicidal plan. Bugger the polls is fine, but not when they are consistently sending the same message time after time, week after week. You had to be blind not to see it.

Here’s my take. The blame lies solely with Christopher Luxon and John Key. No one else: them. As I have said previously, a CEO business-type style is not suited to politics. You might be able to run a company with a ‘my way or the highway’ approach but you can’t do it in politics. It’s an entirely different game. When his leadership was questioned, twice, Luxon looked at his caucus as if they were his staff and stared them down. He is not a political animal and therefore I respectfully suggest he remove himself from office. He has damaged the party and must go.

That may well not happen. His political instincts are next to zero so he probably doesn’t see anything to be responsible for. I imagine he and Key decided how the campaign would be run and that was that. Even if people hadn’t split their vote, the party vote would have fallen far short of what was needed and, again, the election would have been lost. In that sense it was a disastrous campaign from go to whoa. The ‘two ticks blue’ never resonated and was never going to. Fortunately most on the right saw it and acted accordingly.

National has got to now go back to the drawing boards: applying conservative principles and reverting to what the party is supposed to stand for. Those principles might seem old fashioned to some but they are applicable, even in 2026 and beyond. National has to be more in sync with their coalition partners. They have to be more aggressive in gaining momentum and ensuring they, along with their partners, keep that momentum going. That was part of the problem in the first term. Nettles (promises that were made) weren’t grasped. People became frustrated and angry at the lack of pace and action when it came to getting things done.

If the coalition is lucky enough to get back into power, I want to see Luxon gone and a new leader in place to lead the post-election negotiations. If Luxon is not prepared to go of his own volition, then the caucus will have to show a bit of spine and get the job done. The right commentariat are talking a lot about Erica Stanford. Other picks might be Mark Mitchell or Simeon Brown. What I want is someone who, in a legislative sense, is espousing conservative values and principles. One thing is clear, National cannot afford to go on as it is.

A new minister of finance will be needed. It should be David Seymour, but it won’t. It must be someone who is prepared to take a slash and burn approach to the public sector. I would have every public sector employee sign a pledge whereby they agree to support the work of the government. Anyone caught not doing so should be shown the door. Trim the number of departments and trim the number of ministers. ACT’s policy.

Empty out the Wellington trains of little men in grey coats with briefcases and brollies scurrying to their offices to see what they could do today to disrupt the business of government. These people are not workers, rather they are parasites feeding off the taxpayers and determined to ensure the government (of the right) achieves as little as possible. They are all leftists. The proof is in the election results of Wellington and its surrounds – a bunch of traitorous types that we are paying for. This nonsense has to stop.

The other nonsense that needs dealing to is in the area of race. The Waitangi Tribunal must be gone, along with the Māori seats. The tribunal has no reason to exist in its current form. Put a date on final settlements and make sure they are FULL AND FINAL. The ridiculous gravy train with its continual top ups has to stop. We, as voters, are sick to death of the pandering to people of a certain race with a sense of entitlement. Māori street names and those to do with government agencies, central and local, must go. I went online to the council recently to read some documents and I was met with *Nga tuhinga Te Pae Whakawa Motuhake mo*. Excuse me?

THIS IS AN ENGLISH SPEAKING COUNTRY. You can speak Māori if you live in Aotearoa, wherever that is, but here in New Zealand we speak the language the colonisers brought with them. We operate the system of government the colonisers brought with them. In 1840 the Māori chiefs were so happy they ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria. To now try and suggest otherwise is a deliberate lie and an attempt to change the course of history. As a result we are supposed to be living as one people with equal rights. Instead we are presented with the clown circus of Willie Jackson and his racist brothers and sisters in the Māori Party.

If National want to avoid having another night like Saturday night, they need to realise just what went wrong. There seems to be a reluctance in the leadership of the party to recognise that anything went wrong. A lot went wrong and a possible loss was hopefully avoided, but no thanks is due to the National Party. A deliberate failure to deliver even a modicum of *mea culpa* does not bode well for the future. More of the same will produce exactly that. The party vote will keep sliding.