‘Not good enough’: National president Sylvia Wood says her party must beat Labour in party vote
Saturday, 20 June 2026
National Party president Sylvia Wood says a second-place finish at this year’s election is “not good enough”, even if the coalition holds onto power.
The party is gathering in Lower Hutt for its annual conference with its polling stuck at around 29%, and consistently behind Labour.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has generally dismissed the polls, but after one particularly bad poll for National in April noted that the numbers would still see the current parties of the coalition returned to power.
“Any polls, any public polls that I’ve seen, have said that this Coalition Government would be re-elected if there was an election today,” Luxon said at the time.
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Wood used her speech at the first day of the conference to call for a full victory in the party vote.
“We must win the party vote, because a strong party vote means a strong National-led Government with the mandate to continue the work of repair and renewal now under way.
“Let's get out there, let's make the case, let's win the party vote on Seven November and win it well.”
The Post asked Wood after her speech if the coalition winning back power but National coming second to Labour would be “not good enough” and Wood agreed.
“No, not good enough. We've got so much work we need to continue to do, and if I look at my lineup of National ministers and the heavy lifting they're doing in key portfolios, we really need a very strong party vote.”
Wood would not say whether she was worried that some highly-ranked ministers like Nicola Willis and Paul Goldsmith could lose their place in Parliament should the party vote come in low.
“I'm convinced we're going to have a good party vote, and we're going to keep some great people, and we're going to keep those great ministers.”
Depending on how many electorates National retains, a low party vote number could result in it winning very few list MPs.
Wood emphasised in her speech the birth of the National Party 90 years ago as a coalition of farmers and businesspeople and those who believed in aspiration, and told The Post the party was still a broad church today.
“The really interesting thing is they were conservatives, liberals, it was from the Reform and the United Party - they actually probably didn't agree on some things, but they really believed that there was a need for a party to support aspiration, and that is still so consistent today.”
Party missing membership targets
The National Party booklet for party members at the annual conference revealed the party was in rude health financially, but had missed some membership targets.
A goal to grow membership by 15% year-on-year had not been met in the last two years, with 7% growth in 2024 and 6% in 2025.
Wood said the party had moved to a new annualised membership system that was still bedding in, but the party was still working on it.
She encouraged people to join so they would “have a role in selecting candidates, a role in developing policy”.
The booklet noted the party also had a goal to make 50% of office holders women by June 2026, but as of the booklet’s printing it had not reached this, with 41% of officeholders women.
Willis big ups KiwiSaver in keynote speech
Finance Minister Nicola Willis used her keynote speech to announce that the Government’s push to raise the default rate of KiwiSaver had been a success.
She noted that since the 0.5% increase of the default rate to 3.5% for employers and employees in April, just 0.5% of regular KiwiSaver contributors had opted out.
“In overwhelming numbers, Kiwis have instead chosen to save more for their futures, almost three months after the default contribution rate for Kiwisayer was increased, only half a percent of regular contributors have opted out.”
Willis also used her speech to say that her “strong conviction” was that Kiwis would avoid the “sugar hits and slogans” from the Opposition.
“Kiwis have had a very recent experience of what reckless short-term thinking leads to, and my bet is that in this year's election campaign the usual suspects will ask Kiwis to suspend that bit of judgment and vote for sugar hits and slogans and favour short-term thinking instead of durable reform. My strong conviction is that politicians who choose that shallow approach are underestimating their fellow New Zealanders,” Willis said.
She said Labour had “not learnt the lessons from its last stint in Government” and referred to the “$18b gap” she started to push as an attack against Labour last weekend.
Her calculations for this gap include several policies Labour has not actually committed to.
Members upbeat
Members spoken to by The Post were generally positive about the party’s prospects.
Young Nats vice president Gabby Bird said her team had knocked on 1500 doors across the the country recently and was feeling positive.
“It's really good on the doors. Everyone's saying: ‘Yep, it's feeling good, and we're on the right track’.”
She said young people had understood the decision to cancel the final year of fees-free.
“Honestly, I think everyone can kind of see that it wasn't working, it wasn't doing the job it needed to do.”
Nelson member Bruce Fraser said he was confident National could outdo Labour at the election, especially as the economy improved following the Iran peace deal.
“With things having settled down in Iran, I think we will start to see those benefits flow through, and I think people will see the wisdom of continuing,” Fraser.
Selwyn’s Jonathan Greenwood said first terms were always difficult.
“We spent the last three years getting the structures in place for growth in our second term. I think that's where New Zealanders will start to feel it a bit more.”
“The first term of a new Government is always the hardest. Turning around the previous behaviours, getting the costs under control, and results are not always immediate.”