National leader Judith Collins on why her party should lead New Zealand through a pandemic and the economic fall out during the first of Newstalk ZB's Leaders Breakfasts.
OPINION
The least-startling news National Party leader Judith Collins delivered on the Mike Hosking Newstalk ZB Leaders Breakfast was that she struggled to "suck up" to people.
She said towards the end of the show: "I just say what I think."
She had indeed just said what she thought fortwo hours.
She had turned up half an hour late, which meant for the first segment, the video livestream shot just an empty microphone while Collins' disembodied voice spoke from a phone somewhere.
When she did arrive, she did at least bring content – and it was content that was relevant to her holdup: an announcement that National would review the Auckland Council, a decade after the Super City was set up.
Collins said an Auckland Council review would consider "what's gone wrong and what's gone right". Collins then added she suspected more had gone wrong than right.
Collins had clearly done her own little internal review – reeling off a list of her own bugbears.
Top of that list was Auckland Transport, which she claimed was arrogant and obsessed with walkways and cycleways, to the detriment of people trying to get their children or shopping home.
Collins' list of bugbears is exactly why it amounts to a good election campaign policy: everyone else in Auckland will also have their gripes with Council. It is a "water cooler" policy, one people in Auckland can talk about.
There will still be some, such as those on the verges of the Super City, who have long resented being included in the Super City boundaries who might see a review as a chance of escape.
Mike Hosking and Judith Collins on Newstalk ZB's Leaders Breakfast. Photo / Michael Craig
Collins may also well be right that is timely to review the Super City, 10 years after its introduction.
However, she also needs to be clear what the scope of any remedial action might be, including whether Collins would entertain dismantling the Super City.
The Newstalk ZB Leaders Breakfast is a two-hour-long stretch covering a wide range of topics and something of a test of a leaders' grasp on their own policy.
It also gives a fairly decent broad view of the differences in the parties' policies, from housing and education to tax and relations with China, and a leader's idiosyncrasies.
Collins certainly did not pussy-foot around or do much to endear herself to the left-wing populace of New Zealand.
During her two hours, Collins discussed Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr's embrace of "wokeness" and the "busybody type people" who interfered under the Resource Management Act.
She said there were too many "woke subjects" at secondary schools, and once again spoke of her belief that property values needed to drop in some areas – and would drop, saying it was inevitable given ongoing increases at a time of almost zero immigration.
She said National would bring back offshore oil and gas exploration and mining and even described New Zealand as potentially the "North Sea" of the Pacific.
She chose Sir Roger Douglas as the person who had contributed most to New Zealand.
She said National was likely to stand candidates in the Māori electorates in 2023 – despite its long-standing policy to get rid of those seats. That policy was put on ice when National was in government with the Māori Party but has never been scotched altogether.
She said she would welcome foreign buyers back, provided they also contributed to investment and job creation.
The session began with a prayer – or at least a discussion about a prayer: Hosking asked Collins about her visit to St Thomas' to pray when she went to cast her vote on the weekend.
She revealed she tended to ask for "general guidance" rather than issue a specific wish list to God.
Google Maps might have been a better option for guidance on Monday morning, for guidance in how to avoid getting stuck in traffic.
