Labour seem to think that the public believe Nicola Willis is a cross between Cruella de Vil and Miranda Priestly of The Devil Wears Prada. They can’t believe that she would do any better than Christopher Luxon as National leader, but they need to get out of their echo chamber a little more and listen to what voters actually think.
Wasting money on dumb projects is a sacred cow that Labour will defend to the last, whether it is the incomprehensibly expensive ferry project, the endlessly increasing public service staffing levels or overpaid, useless bureaucrats working from home when people with real jobs have to go to work.
Obviously Nicola Willis does not want to make a coat out of Dalmatians, or dress as well as Miranda, but Labour cannot see this any more than they cannot see that Willis is far more presentable and politically adept than Luxon. More importantly, she has the strong endorsement of John Key and Bill English.
Willis, however, is not the Messiah.
She has absolutely failed to blame Labour for the state of the government finances at every available opportunity. There is no ‘nine long years of Labour’s failures’ or whatever Key recited ad nauseam, or Helen Clark’s ‘failed policies of the ’90s’ or Labour’s own sledge: ‘nine years of neglect’.
This is a simple play that was overlooked by Willis and her team, which questions how politically adept they are as Willis now gets the blame for the state of the economy left in a mess by Labour.
Willis’ other major problem is that in a world where cultural issues matter she has not taken a position on the Treaty, Climate Change or woke nonsense. By not filling this space with sensible policy, she has ceded ground to Winston Peters and David Seymour, both of whom have much more empathy for what the public are thinking.
Labour have been negligent in not realising regular polls show National would do better under Willis than Luxon. They should be causing as much internal strife for National as they can but, under Hipkins, Labour appear to be drifting and relying on National being useless and the economy being bad at election time.
