Election 2020: Judith Collins shakes off 'distracting' week – now in 'high energy' mode

Liam Kernaghan and Judith Collins during the Opposition leader's brief visit to the O'Brien Group in Mosgiel on Thursday morning. PHOTO: Gregor Richardson

National leader Judith Collins is in "high energy" mode heading into the last week of the campaign, as she attempts to shake off a disappointing seven days.

Speaking to the Herald, she described a week where she has had MPs leaking against her and accusations of supporter planting on her walkabouts as a "distraction".

To make matters worse for Collins, her party is still well behind Labour in the polls.

Even with the support of Act, she's still well behind a potential Labour/Greens alliance.

But Collins has not counted herself and her party out yet.

On the contrary, she is confident she will be able to close the gap in the polls before election day.

To do that, she is taking a page out of her Australian Liberal Party counterparts' playbook.

"There is quite a big chunk of people who either haven't decided or else are refusing to say [who they will vote for]," she said.

The most recent 1News/ Colmar Brunton poll revealed that 13 per cent of New Zealand voters are so far undecided.

"What we are hearing back is there are a lot of quiet National supporters who don't want to tell pollsters [who they're voting for] – they don't trust people ringing them up and asking how they are voting.

"We have seen them with Boris Johnson and we have seen it with Brexit – people just don't tell pollsters necessarily what they are doing."

This is as similar sentiment used by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison in the 2019 Australian election.

Morrison's "quiet Australian" phrase referred to voters who simply plugged away at life, rather than raised a ruckus on social media or in the political world.

It is a new take on the old cliche of "ordinary, hard-working" Australians.

Collins predecessor, Simon Bridges, used a similar phrase when he was leader as well.
She said these are the people who she will be targeting in the coming week with her "high energy" campaign.

That starts tomorrow when she will be a "human hoarding" with some of her National MPs in Auckland.

"You do whatever you've got to do. I'm just keeping on doing my thing."

Although she said every day is different and things change at a moment's notice, she has tentative plans for election day.

She told media today she would probably be delivering food to National's volunteers.

"That's what I normally do on election day – although, if I have to do that I will have to take a lot of people with me to do it these days.

"Not quite so incognito as I would normally like to be."

After a pause in questioning, she said: "I may even be putting my feet up and doing some washing."