Stuff has an article about a National party Regional Chair telling a few home truths about one of the reasons why National did so poorly in the election.
A senior National Party figure has taken down a heated Facebook post in which he described Todd Muller’s leadership bid as “pathetic”.
National Party Central North Island chair and Bay of Plenty regional councillor Andrew von Dadelszen recently took down a Facebook post in which he blamed Muller’s leadership for costing National the election.
Awkwardly, von Dadelszen is chair of the National Party in the region where Muller is currently an MP.
When approached by Stuff, von Dadelszen would not talk about his relationship with Muller. It is very unusual for a party chair to criticise one of their local MPs so publicly and with such strong language.
Stuff understands that when the post went up last week it linked to a story in the NZ Herald by former Muller staffer Matthew Hooton.
Von Dadelszen said he was not asked to remove the post but took it down on his own initiative. He says it was up for just five minutes but a screenshot seen by Stuff suggests it was up for at least six hours.
“I did put it up for 5 minutes, I did not leave it up very long,” von Dadelszen said. “I removed it of my own accord.”
Well that was perhaps his only mistake, taking it down.
I too saw Matthew Hooton’s post on Facebook and wondered out loud just how much cheek he has.
Matthew Hooton, as a shill, paid or otherwise worked assiduously to undermine Simon Bridges. He often tried to inveigle me into his Machiavellian schemes, but after years of dealing with Matthew Hooton, I know that he is only working for his own ends.
And so it panned out, after working closely with the toxic Michelle Boag to undermine Simon Bridges he then ensconced himself in Todd Muller’s office only to watch as the self-proclaimed wunderkind imploded destroying any chance the National party had of making a recovery.
Those six weeks of the ill-fated Muller/Kaye coup were six weeks that could never be got back.
Matthew Hooton was donkey deep in it all, yet he waltzed straight back into his NZ Herald column with zero accountability for his actions.
What beggar’s belief is that Muller stuck around. Surely he could have scored another sinecure in a monopoly with a fat pay check?
At least Nikki Kaye left with honour and integrity after the “the most decent person she knows” turned out to be a fraud and a shabby little back-stabber with no real ability.
The damage the wets caused National will be felt for sometime.
I hope the review of the party, currently underway, sheets home part of the loss to that crew who collapsed at the first bit of pressure.
Andrew von Dadelszen only ever spoke the truth, a lost art inside the National party it seems.
Let’s hope other members speak out to the review team and start to hold others to account, like Peter Goodfellow and Andrew Hunt.
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