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I just saw what he said, man you gotta give Winny his props, he has both praised Muller and stuck a couple of knives into National there.
8:55am - New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has sent his sympathies to Muller and his family.
"Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does have commercial experience, and he will bounce back.
"Leading a divided and incompetent caucus would have tested even the best leader. The National caucus now has the unenviable job of selecting its fourth leader since the Coalition Government took office.
"The National caucus, like too many parties in parliament, lacks business experience, life experience and political experience. Heaven only knows who will be the next cab off the ranks selected to lead such a dispirited and incompetent lot."
Peters said Muller "never had a chance given the fault lines of ambition, personality, and ideology that run deep through the National Party caucus".
"National has demonstrated to voters as clearly as it is able that it cannot govern itself.
"During a time of crisis, when stability and real experience is what the country needs from its politicians and their parties, National's instability and hubris takes it out of the running for the coming General Election.
"Voters will now focus on which parties have demonstrated stability and exhibited the experience required to help guide New Zealand through its present challenges."
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@nzzp said in NZ Politics:
@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
Really Nats are suffering for rolling English. He would have steadied things held Labour to account and organised a clean transition to a new leader mid 2019.
Did he get rolled or step down? Must be hard to continue mentally after getting 44% and having Winston pick the other lot
He left on his own
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@taniwharugby said in NZ Politics:
Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does have commercial experience, and he will bounce back.
From the few times that I've met Todd, I reckon Winston's line here is on the mark.
For anything else, he was a better option than Simon.
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National are pretty screwed right now, but if they bring Soimon back they take the chance to zero. Other politicians in the Nats might want him but the public can't stand him, as they've demonstrated on numerous occasions in polls.
Maybe it is a health/family thing, but Muller's short tenure isn't going to be remembered for anything other than own goals and some really average press conferences.
Key and English must be a bit horrified right now at how far the party has plummeted.
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@Donsteppa said in NZ Politics:
@taniwharugby said in NZ Politics:
Todd is a good man, unlike most of his colleagues he does have commercial experience, and he will bounce back.
From the few times that I've met Todd, I reckon Winston's line here is on the mark.
For anything else, he was a better option than Simon.
On a personal level he was a good option IF he could demonstrate the sound judgement factor that was the selling point.
On a political level it was always going to be difficult for an older white businessman to battle the younger 'caring' female without looking like an example of 'old school' thinking.
There are certainly some loonies out there that push this 'issue' stupidly but there is no denying that for decades the highest common denominator in 'controlling' roles in our society are the types that Muller looked be a caricature of. There is a desire among many to move away (or keep away) from a patriarchal 'rule'.
Rough on him and others like him. -
@Paekakboyz Me too. It makes no sense.
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What do you and others reckon his thinking was here? By quitting, after what? A couple of weeks?
He comes across to me as a bit of a pussy. He became leader and seemed to expect that he wouldn’t be faced with scandals and difficulties.
First scandal, he quits.
Not exactly a message to the voters that National is within the call park of being a government in waiting if the supposedly ‘safe’ pair of hands quits like that.
(I know some/most/maybe all of this is very unfair, but I just don’t see what the thinking was for someone who was supposedly the safe leader; he’s made things far worse)
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@gt12 I think he obviously felt overwhelmed and has for a while.
Missing press obligations for a lie down and a cuppa etc
Hiding to nothing when your strategy (quite a decent one IMO) was announced on Day 1 as "look at the strength om my team compared to the incompetents in Labour" and then......
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@Mokey said in NZ Politics:
@Paekakboyz Me too. It makes no sense.
When you play the game for as long as she did it is inevitable that somewhere along the line you will make an error that is hard to hide.
Giving that information to a rookie was a big error though.We haven't seen the result of the enquiry around this either and maybe more skeletons will come out of the closet. Although they may not have been Muller's fault he would be the one that would be bearing the weight of the media. If (and this is just theorising) he has heard that potentially more could be found from looking closely at Boag he was going to go down hard. Better to leave with a bit of dignity (and health) intact than to try and defend/explain more.
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@gt12 I'm wondering how much of his 'dedicated' support through the leadership contest was actually "anyone but Simon". So he's come in with a veneer of support, didn't measure up immediately in the leadership side of things (tough crowd), then the cracks started appearing and multiplying. Seems his castle was built on gunpowder rather than sand!
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@Crucial Giving that info to anyone was a big error let alone a loose cannon rookie and a dude who was already in the doghouse for the fake homeless guy story. Not sure Muller actually had control, he was exposed quite badly with dithering and changing stories and MPs saying 'well actually...'
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@Paekakboyz I think the election result against Soimon was actually a lot closer than we imagined and he had a caucus that was split almost 50/50 with a lot of bitter losers who didn't mind undermining him as most of the caucus has given up. Throw in (a lot of MP's) who will be looking for a new gig in two months and its not a happy place for sure.
He did look all at sea though almost from Day 1. Job was clearly much harder than he expected it to be. Corporate world clearly wasn't preparation for the death stare politicking no matter what Winnie says
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@gt12 Interesting paragraph from Audrey Young this morning:
Just how bad it had got is evident in the press statement saying continuing in the job has "become untenable from a health perspective".
The words "mental health" have not been used but Muller has had a breakdown, to the extent that he was unable to even make the emergency teleconference caucus call this morning to tender his resignation.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12347847
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@dogmeat said in NZ Politics:
He did look all at sea though almost from Day 1. Job was clearly much harder than he expected it to be. Corporate world clearly wasn't preparation for the death stare politicking no matter what Winnie says
I have a half baked theory that 2020 has taken a lot more of out of some people than they realise, and when they go to step up a few gears all of a sudden they can't quite do it the way that they once would have. Todd isn't the only one I've seen along those (very broad) lines.
NZ Politics