Talofa National, it's time to consider attracting the Pacific blue vote

Friday, 23 October 2020

National Party leader Judith Collins talks to Stuff's chief political reporter Henry Cooke after her party's heavy 2020 election defeat.

OPINION: As the shame of losing the election ebbs the National Party must open its borders and get the scalpels out.

Much of what has happened and needs to happen is brought to the party by the letter D.

Time has come for Deep reflection and a no holds barred review that must be surgical in its Dissection of a once great political force reduced to an impotent collection of recent once-were-squabblers scrambling for credibility and unity.

This will require a huge Directional shift by a political party used to trading with scant criticism of its so-called conservative pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps business-friendly schtick.

**READ MORE:

AUT Lecturer Richard Pamatatau says it’s time for National to move beyond talofa and take the Pacific blue vote seriously.

* Election 2020: A defeated National plays the blame game

* Election 2020: National's Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith won't resign after losing long-held seats

* Election 2020: Can Pacific voters, loyal to Labour, expect more from the Government this term?

The National Party has already proved it excels at Dirty politics, posturing, fibs and name-calling; voters have moved beyond that and want and Deserve more.

Perhaps many New Zealand voters in a globally interconnected Covid-19 infected world have looked at the shambolic behaviour of the Trump White House and its reckless Disregard for people, facts and manners and Decided that is not us.

Whatever the reason or reasons, New Zealand has spoken, and the Derisive, Destructive and Demeaning behaviour of the National Party has been called out.

Those whose electorates were considered a shoo-in have been stripped of a job and Dispatched on their way with a tray.

Some who lost their seats like Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith are sticking around. Take the message and the medicine. Accept defeat with grace. Your electorates didn’t want you and your rationale for staying Disrespects the will of the voters. There’s a place for you. It’s called seek.co.nz.

National leader Judith Collins fronts the media after her party's electoral disaster.

For those who remain there is work to be done.

The leader has made it clear she is staying. Decisive and Direct. Whatever the Disgruntled party people think, Judith Collins is the person for the job, at the moment. Her Devotion to the party cannot be questioned, she picked up the poison chalice and a blame game on any level is not helpful.

There’s enough for her to do without sniping Distractions.

Collins has to devise a process that cleans up a party that shoulda-coulda-woulda done better if it was Disciplined and on point.

While it makes sense for the country to keep its borders closed the opposite applies to National.

First up the review. Anybody who has ever taken part in a review either at the macro or microlevel in a workplace knows the terms of reference to Determine the outcome.

National party leader Judith Collins arrives at her election party with husband David Wong Tung to the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland.

For National, courageous conversations are needed to Deliver an honest and solid platform to build on. And as for the leaker or leakers – move on to what matters.

It needs to talk about and then embrace Diversity. The leader made her views on diversity clear in August when she said 'people have felt very segregated' because of it - but she has no plans to get rid of the Māori electorates. Diversity is so much more than that. Smell the kava, coffee, chai, kombucha, chardonnay, kefir, tea. Just as beverage choice is expanding, so too is the population.

How can a party needing to rethink its retail offering to such a changing market be so sediment in its practice?

The days of one size fits all, like it or lump it, are long gone and National needs to be with that.

The author of Being Digital Nicholas Negroponte said late last century that companies and organisations needed to be able to appeal to the market of one and the market of one million. Put simply, understanding the tastes of a market and its variant parts.

Does National understand, or want to try to understand, the new New Zealand landscape? Does it have the capacity to engage with that possibility?

An obvious place to start would be if the leader took talofa to the next level. With a Samoan husband and her knowledge of the Island nation she’s in a position to make a decent start of reaching out.

Instead of leaving Pacific talent to Labour and the Greens she can re-activate the Pacific Blues and get them on the mat. There’s a rich talanoa to be had there; DNA does not determine voting and loyalty.

It’s an opportunity for National to consider, especially if Labour does not meet the expectations of its loyal Pacific taxpayers and voters.

Returning to National’s border agency pitch earlier this year. Imagine if the party was able to reframe it, instead of the border being built on a premise of steel to keep out, it becomes a gateway through which fresh thinking, ideas and people could pass.

A no-faults equal-opportunity door that over time might enable National to be seen as relevant and ready to be a credible opposition. More importantly a place that might beckon and engage those whose look, feel and perspective has been long ignored but who could breathe life into a party decimated by attitudes belonging in the past.