Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

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

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

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

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

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 / Northern Advocate

Election 2020: The National Party resoundingly defeated in landslide election

Claire Trevett
By Claire Trevett
Political Editor, NZ Herald·NZ Herald·
17 Oct, 2020 05:06 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.

Judith Collins speaks after conceding a devastating defeat to Labour in the 2020 election.
Vote2020

Judith Collins will head to Wellington to face the consequences of her party's dismal election result, and potentially a fight for her job as leader of the National Party.

The election result was devastating for National and means the party has lost a number of experienced MPs.

But Collins put on a brave face when speaking to supporters after it was clear National had suffered a significant defeat.

"Even though tonight has been a very tough night for us all ... three years will be gone in the blink of the eye. I say to everybody, we will be back," she said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Collins said she knew it the campaign would be tough and thanked her supporters, as well as outgoing MPs.

Before the speech, she had called Labour leader Jacinda Ardern to congratulate her on what she called an "outstanding result for the Labour Party".

"The National Party will ... take time to reflect and we will review and we will change. National will re-emerge from this loss a stronger, disciplined and more connected party."

She did not stop to talk to media after her speech, leaving at around 11:30pm

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

But the writing appeared to be on the wall from the outset last night.

With less than 15 per cent of the vote counted, National Party president Peter Goodfellow had already essentially conceded defeat.

"30 [per cent] is a great base to run a strong opposition," he said.

Senior MP Mark Mitchell said there was no way to anticipate such a loss and losing so many MPs was "devastating".

There were a lot of grim faces as the few supporters who were at the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron watched the coverage throughout the night.

Collins made it clear in the last week of the campaign that she intended to try to stay in the job she had wanted for a long time in the event of a defeat.

She also reversed from her previous statement, made in 2018, that 35 per cent was the threshold at which a leader of the National Party should step down.

It ends a roller-coaster campaign for Collins, in which she will feel the deck was stacked against her.

In the last days of the campaign, Collins pointed to the "quiet New Zealanders" who she believed would vote National but were not showing their hands in the polls.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

It was a reference to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison's poll-defying win, to which he attributed the "quiet Australians".

However, those quiet New Zealanders did not come through for her. Her campaign had low moments, and some highs – but was at least never boring.

Collins took over a poisoned chalice when she got the leadership in July after Covid-19 wrought a dramatic change in fortunes for the National Party in the polls.

Its polling collapsed from the mid 40s in March down to a low of 29 per cent at the point former leader Simon Bridges was rolled by Todd Muller.

The attempt to save it by changing leaders ultimately failed – Muller himself stood down after anxiety attacks.

Despite Collins' comparatively good showings in the preferred Prime Minister polls of about 20 per cent, the disruptions and instability within National proved too much for her to haul the party out of the doldrums.

Her campaign faltered in the first few weeks after the second Covid-19 breakout brought it to a dramatic halt just two days before Collins' big campaign launch.

The delay in the election brought some more time – but Collins was up against both Covid-19 lockdowns in Auckland, and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern holding daily press conferences to deal with that second breakout.

Collins began again strongly enough, out-performing Ardern in the first two debates on TVNZ and Newshub and releasing some attention-grabbing policies. Her biggest play was the policy for temporary income tax cuts.

Collins' main campaign plank was National's record on economic management, which National had hoped would draw voters back as the economic hit of Covid-19 became apparent.

However, Labour's discovery of a $4 billion "hole" in National's fiscal plan ended up overshadowing the policy and denting National's claim to the economic management high ground.

National claim to a "strong team" also lost credibility after the leadership changes and several resignations.

Collins herself performed well on the campaign, but there were grim moments such as a walkabout down Ponsonby Rd with set-up encounters with supporters.

Perhaps the most damaging was the leak of an email from MP Denise Lee to caucus complaining about Collins' decision to announce a policy to review Auckland Council without consulting her.

It served to further highlight disunity in the caucus.

In the last two weeks Collins' was also up against footage of throngs of people surrounding Ardern on her "walkabouts".

Rather than try to compete, Collins shifted her focus to trying to hold on to National's core base. Her messaging changed to trying to dissuade National voters from splitting their vote.

Save

    Share this article

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

Latest from Northern Advocate

Premium
Opinion

Joe Bennett: Hungarian barman shares fears for future

04 Jul 05:00 PM
Northern Advocate

'Major concern': 200 children lack safe beds in Northland

04 Jul 05:00 PM
Opinion

Why being physically active is good for student learning – John Wansbone

04 Jul 05:00 PM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Premium
Joe Bennett: Hungarian barman shares fears for future

Joe Bennett: Hungarian barman shares fears for future

04 Jul 05:00 PM

I visited Budapest last in the 1980s when it was under communist rule.

'Major concern': 200 children lack safe beds in Northland

'Major concern': 200 children lack safe beds in Northland

04 Jul 05:00 PM
Why being physically active is good for student learning – John Wansbone

Why being physically active is good for student learning – John Wansbone

04 Jul 05:00 PM
On The Up: McKay leads Samoa's green transport with solar-powered electric catamarans

On The Up: McKay leads Samoa's green transport with solar-powered electric catamarans

04 Jul 05:00 PM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

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
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • 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
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP