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Heather du Plessis-Allan: National need to act more like a government

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Thu, 5 Aug 2021, 6:11PM
National leader Judith Collins. (Photo / NZ Herald)
National leader Judith Collins. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Heather du Plessis-Allan: National need to act more like a government

Author
Heather du Plessis-Allan,
Publish Date
Thu, 5 Aug 2021, 6:11PM

If that poll on Sunday night told us anything, it’s that there is a real chance it’s game on at the next election, simply because Labour is killing its own vote so fast.

But if National wants to capitalise on that, and be a credible alternative government in 2023, they need to drop nonsense like calling for a referendum on Aotearoa.

Definitely, there are lots of people out there who are frustrated by the fashion for using Māori names: Aotearoa, Tāmaki Makaurau, Waka Kotahi instead of the Transport Agency, the list goes on.

But while it’s nice to know you’re not alone in feeling like that’s, that’s not a vote changer, that’s just a frustration.

And actually running that out is possibly hurting the Nats more than helping, because they look schizo on it.

The MP calling for it, Stuart Smith, doesn’t even know which way he’d vote in his own referendum.

Judith keeps saying Aotearoa doesn’t bother her, but she wants a referendum because it bothers other people.

That’s so clearly politicking for votes that’s actually a turn off, it’s hollow.

But hope isn’t lost for National.

If only they started following the example of Erica Stanford. 

Erica was a breath of fresh air yesterday.

We know we are hugely at risk of losing our foreign doctors back to their home countries because Kris Faafoi can’t make up his mind on whether he wants to give them residency or not.

So, Erica comes up with a plan.

Keep them, give them a contribution visa, they’ve been through the pandemic, they’ve made a contribution, they already qualified to come in on a visa, so let them stay.

It was just refreshing to have someone suggest something to solve a problem when we have a government happy to let the problems pile up without any ideas.

That’s what National needs to do.

They need to throw idea after idea after idea at the problems we’ve got. 

And if they do that, they could look every bit the capable and credible alternative government that we don’t’ have at the moment.

They don’t need kooky and divisive stuff.

Labour is kooky and divisive enough.

Labour is actively driving voters away; they’ve lost 20 per cent already.

If National wants to those voters to come to them instead of ACT, they just need to look like grown-ups.

Drop the Aotearoa nonsense, do more like Erica. 

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