Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and National Party leader Simon Bridges in February. Photo / Jason Oxenham
Sometimes hope comes from strange places and for National Party leader Simon Bridges, it was delivered by a 51-year-old man in Australia.
That man was Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who defied the polls and expectations to triumph in the Australian elections against the Australian Labor Party and Bill Shorten.
Bridges was possibly even happier about this than Morrison.
A jubilant Bridges tweeted congratulations to Morrison at 5.36am on Sunday and issued a statement at 9am.
It offered his "heartfelt congratulations" and waxed lyrical about Morrison and the wisdom of the Australian voters.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern did not tweet at all and did not publicly respond until about 6pm on Sunday.
A presumably inadvertent typo in her statement served to highlight the difference in her response to that of Bridges.
It said she had phoned Morrison that afternoon and offered "my congratulation" on his victory.
That is one single congratulation coming your way, Mr Morrison.
Ardern's more subdued response reflected more than disappointment that a more like-minded party had not won.
Morrison and Ardern do have a constructive relationship. It was highlighted after the Christchurch mosque attacks.
Ardern's monthly ministerial diaries show Morrison was the first international leader she spoke to. That phone call was at 8.40pm on the day of the attacks.
But Ardern will have considered an ALP Government more conducive to New Zealand's own interests, especially under her watch.
Shorten had been encouraging about progress in areas such as taking up New Zealand's offer to accept refugees from Australia's offshore centres, New Zealanders' rights, and was an admirer of Ardern's style of politics.
The outcome of the Australia election put a bit of a spring in Simon Bridges' step not because his side prevailed over the left, but because Morrison prevailed over the polls.
The underdog had won, even in a country which does not appreciate the underdog as much as New Zealand tends to. And Bridges is very much an underdog.
Morrison is a hail-fellow-well-met sort of fellow rather than a tower of charisma, and Bridges will be hoping his caucus sees that as evidence it does not take a star to win the people over, but policy.
Much of the analysis since then has also pointed to an election won on the basis of policy rather than personality.
That may have been those who voted against the ALP's tax and environmental policies rather than in favour of the Liberals' package of more of the same.
The same points of policy difference are very much also in play here.
Policy is also what Bridges is putting his hopes on to triumph over his low personal popularity.
The National leader was very quick to pick up on Morrison's use of the term "quiet Australians" in his victory speech.
Morrison was referring to voters who simply plugged away at life rather than raising a ruckus on social media or in the political world. It is a new take on the old cliche of "ordinary, hard-working" Australians.
Bridges is presumably resting his hopes on an army of "quiet New Zealanders" also coming to his rescue.
Nor should Bridges' rivals completely discount the existence of such a group.
National's consistently high polling rather indicates they do exist.
But there are also holes in Bridges' hope. Morrison had two things Bridges does not.
First, Morrison was not up against a highly popular leader on the other side.
Secondly, Morrison had a friend. That friend was in the form of the Nationals, so closely wedded to Morrison's Liberals that they are treated together in the polls as "the Coalition".
Bridges' only friend (other than Act's David Seymour) is still little more than a glint in his eye.
That is Alfred Ngaro and his potential Christian party.
Getting that party into a position to get into Parliament in little more than a year's time will be as much of a miracle birth as that of Jesus himself.
As things have transpired, Bridges may also have to contend with some noisy Australians.
Immigration NZ stats showed a surge of inquiries about moving to New Zealand by Australians in the aftermath of the election.
If they follow through in the next few months, by the time of the 2020 election they will have lived here for the 12 months needed to allow them to vote here.
Those are presumably not the "quiet Australians" but loud, outspoken left-leaning Australians who had wanted Ardern to be their Prime Minister in the lead-up to the election.
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