I have been described as an “idiot” for saying this, but I really do think Labour, and the left in general, are running scared of Judith Collins. The latest cab off the rank is Willy Jackson. In a Facebook post, rather too well written for anyone to believe that he wrote it himself, he describes his feelings about the prospect of Judith Collins becoming prime minister, and as you might expect, he was not kind.
I’ve worked with Judith Collins for almost a year on The AM Show’s political panel so have a very good idea of her nature as a politician and because of that, I am redoubling my energies to ensure she doesn’t become the Prime Minister.Don’t get me wrong, Judith is great talent for TV political panels and I have enjoyed working with her. Her sharp wit and put downs are the perfect mix for Breakfast TV shock jocks, but New Zealand doesn’t need a quick witted sarcastic entertainer as Prime Minister right now, we need someone who can make difficult decisions in real time with empathy, insight and kindness and of course that’s Jacinda not Judith.
Judith is capable of making difficult decisions in real time (?) with insight, but I think what Jackson means is that Judith is not a hugger. But let’s face it, we need a prime minister who can make decisions; not simply hug people. Jacinda might be “kind” but she is incapable of making tough decisions, such as sacking her health minister when he broke the rules and failed spectacularly to do his job. He had to sack himself. So did Clare Curran.
We don’t need a PM like Judith with her legacy of dirty politics scandals, and we don’t need a PM who has a very casual attitude towards the treaty and comes up with ridiculous lines like “is there something wrong with me being white”. She knows how stupid and racially divisive that comment is but she says it deliberately to attract the anti treaty, anti Maori right wing vote.
Is there something wrong with being white? Judith is just asking a question that many of us wonder about. The majority of New Zealanders come from a European ethnicity and we are frequently treated as if there is something wrong with that. Jackson is actually being extremely racist and divisive himself here, rather than Judith, but that’s okay, of course, as he is a Maori.
The ironic part of course is that she is not a raving racist or redneck but more the politician who will do anything and say anything to get her team across the line.
Just as Jacinda will do or say anything to get her team across the line, Willy.
We need a Prime Minister who can run New Zealand for all of us, but Judith is a ‘Us-Them’ type of politician.
Judith, who has a Maori at number 4 in her caucus and has just promoted Shane Reti to her front bench, is an Us-Them politician? It doesn’t seem so to me, but then again, Judith appoints people on merit rather than gender or skin colour, which makes her team much more powerful than Jacinda’s. Labour’s policy of using quotas for women and non-white people has resulted in a front bench almost completely bereft of talent, and it shows.
In the wake of Covid and the pandemic we need a PM who can reach across the broken edges of society and bring everyone together, Jacinda does that to the point whereby we feel pride at her leadership.
I feel absolutely no pride in Jacinda’s leadership. I think she is a lightweight, incompetent politician in charge of what is essentially a bunch of fools, albeit a diverse bunch of fools. Her idea of leadership is photo opportunities and hugs.
I believe Judith winning the election would be a disaster for New Zealand. Her divisive political instincts was the reason why she could never win the national leadership and is why John Key never supported her.
John Key was caught in a difficult place in 2014 because the media’s pursuit of Collins was becoming a major distraction from the upcoming election. While Judith has expressed disappointment about her treatment at the time, she has bounced back and I read somewhere that she has had a call from John Key in the past week. That sounds as if he is supporting her now.
Everyone who has been impressed by Jacinda and have felt taller for her leadership need to rally now to the cause to ensure a second term, because a first term of Judith Collins would be as culturally shocking to us as Trump’s victory in America.We need builders, not dividers. Jacinda is a builder, Judith is a divider.
Ah yes. The inevitable comparison to Trump. It had to come, I suppose. He repeatedly calls Judith a “divider” but gives no explanation for his claim. I see no reason to call her a “divider”. She is decisive, yes, and has a sharp wit, can think on her feet a million times faster than Jacinda, and models herself on Margaret Thatcher. Does any of that make her “divisive”?
We never heard any of this when Todd Muller became National leader. We can hardly expect anything else from Labour, of course. Everyone runs to Jacinda’s aid because she is so hopeless. Trevor Mallard has her back in the house, expelling people who ask her hard questions. But we need a prime minister who is not a damsel in distress. We need someone who can stand up for themselves. Jacinda cannot, but Judith can.
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