Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Todd Muller - week one as National Party's leader

Kristin Macfarlane
By Kristin Macfarlane
Bay of Plenty Times·
29 May, 2020 07:00 PM5 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

National Party leader Todd Muller. Photo / George Novak

National Party leader Todd Muller. Photo / George Novak

Reshuffles, blunders, controversy and unity - Todd Muller's first week as the National Party leader has attracted plenty of attention.

In his first week, Muller has reshuffled his shadow cabinet, taken over the small business portfolio, been criticised for the lack of diversity in the party's top tier, been blasted for having a Make America Great Again cap on display in his office, before tucking said hat in a box out of eye's view.

Muller became the new leader of the National Party on May 22, after a behind-closed-doors caucus meeting that voted to oust Simon Bridges from the position. The emergency meeting followed two polls that put National at about 30 per cent support.

Muller told the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend he had enjoyed his first week in the job and was confident his party, which he would lead through to the September election, would win.

"Well, I've absolutely loved it," Muller said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"My kids think I've done well, I'm sure there'll be others out there who'll have, you know, everyone will hold a view on it but I tell you what counts, ultimately on September 19. That is the judgment, the judgment is which party has the best recovery plan for New Zealand and families and communities, and I have every confidence that we will," he said.

National MP and Rotorua MP Todd McClay, who held the small business portfolio before the change of leadership, said he would "easily" rate Muller a "10 out of 10" in his first week at the top.

"And that's not just because he's my boss, he's done an amazing job."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

McClay said the caucus was united and behind Muller and he was receiving a lot of positive feedback from the Rotorua electorate.

"I think he's had a great start."

Discover more

'Extraordinary privilege': Muller speaks out on workload, priorities - and Simon Bridges

22 May 05:00 PM
New Zealand|politics

Bridges reveals silver lining to losing Nats leadership

25 May 10:00 PM
New Zealand

Ousted National leader Simon Bridges reveals plans and disappointment

26 May 05:54 AM

'Most New Zealanders are unemployed but they don't know it yet'

28 May 03:08 AM

In regards to the controversy surrounding Muller's MAGA cap and criticism of a lack of diversity in the caucus, McClay said what would matter was the rebuilding of the economy.

"We are one of the most diverse caucuses in Parliament and everybody in that caucus has been given a job to do."

McClay's was tourism and he said he would deliver the "best policy New Zealand has seen for tourism".

Other features of Muller's first week as leader include claims of division caused by the challenge for the top job, chronicled Labour's failings, defending his deputy leader Nikki Kaye for her "error" of claiming a non-Māori MP was "obviously Ngāti Porou" and finished the week with his first media opportunity on home ground yesterday, at Apata Group Ltd, talking to staff and hearing first-hand how business was going post Covid-19 lockdown.

Muller yesterday announced his first policy, saying businesses will be offered a $10,000 cash payment for taking on more staff if it wins the election. He would also keep 90-day trials and said there would be "regular, incremental" increases in the minimum wage as part of the "JobStart scheme".

"JobStart will give small business owners greater confidence to hire new people," Muller told members of the Rosebank Business Association.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Small business owners who create jobs will be the heroes of this economic crisis, in the way that our nurses, doctors and all five million of us who stayed home were the heroes of the health crisis."

The scheme would start on November 1 and run until the end of March 2021, in the hope of creating 50,000 new jobs.

Western Bay of Plenty's Kaimai Ward councillor Margaret Murray-Benge said there were far more important things to worry about than a "memento" picked up in the United States such as the MAGA cap, describing it as a "memory".

"We want to know where we're going as a country," Murray-Benge said.

She believed Muller had done well in his first week as Opposition leader, saying she would give him a 7 out of 10.

Murray-Benge said she was "thrilled with the way he came out" and was impressed by his shadow Cabinet announcement, especially Kaye as deputy and Amy Adams in the number three spot.

"I think it's wonderful for New Zealand and wonderful for women," Murray-Benge said.

"I think it's a huge step forward for women," she said.

The only thing that let him down, she said, was while answering questions from the media, surprised that he "elaborated" too much. She would like him to stand up for himself and not be picked on but "it's early days".

Waiariki MP Tamati Coffey described Muller's first week as a "shambles", with National having disregard to Māori.

"It seems that when they rolled their first-ever leader and deputy leader with whakapapa Māori, their commitment to Māori went out the door, too," Coffey said.

"No Māori in their shadow cabinet, calls from his senior colleague Judith Collins about feeling demonised by the Treaty Partnership and now he's kicked off a petition to overturn the Environment Court decision to create marine reserves off Motītī Island. I'll leave it to Tauranga Māori to judge him on his actions."

Local Labour list MP Angie Warren-Clark said her focus was what they were doing in Government.

"Their politics is their business," she said.

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty TimesUpdated

BoP dairy targeted by armed robbers

16 Jun 01:00 AM
Bay of Plenty Times

'Quite fun': Hamish's quail egg business takes flight

16 Jun 12:09 AM
Premium
Bay of Plenty Times

Comvita forecasts another annual loss

15 Jun 11:39 PM

The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

BoP dairy targeted by armed robbers

BoP dairy targeted by armed robbers

16 Jun 01:00 AM

Police recovered a stolen silver Mazda used in the robbery.

'Quite fun': Hamish's quail egg business takes flight

'Quite fun': Hamish's quail egg business takes flight

16 Jun 12:09 AM
Premium
Comvita forecasts another annual loss

Comvita forecasts another annual loss

15 Jun 11:39 PM
Police find gun, drugs in stolen van

Police find gun, drugs in stolen van

15 Jun 09:33 PM
How one volunteer makes people feel seen
sponsored

How one volunteer makes people feel seen

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP