COMMENT:
When Scott Morrison won the Australian election it was a bit of a surprise. Just recently Simon Bridges met with ScoMo for an hour. People inside National say that the meeting between the two leaders left an indelible impact on SiBri and he emerged a changed man.
Off the back of that meeting, the most significant thing that occurred in New Zealand politics last week was when Todd Muller had the National Party climate change portfolio taken from him. National party supporters painted it as a move of confidence by Bridges. That Muller, an MP who many considered potential leadership material, being given the major portfolio of agriculture and a boost in the rankings was a sign that Bridges felt assured in his position.
It's more likely a sign that National has decided to go hard against climate change policies put forward by the Government. That for the next 14 months we can expect grimy disingenuous social media posts and press releases claiming that the cost of policies to mitigate against climate change will hurt New Zealanders. That for this reason we should vote National because National won't put in place these costs because it doesn't plan on doing anything about climate change. This is what happened in Australia and the nastiness and grime worked very well.
Todd Muller had worked with James Shaw on the Zero Carbon Bill. It was an attempt to do climate change politics by bipartisanship. Shaw recognised that this issue was bigger than party politics or trying to win votes and that the best way forward was to get everyone in agreement. Muller worked with Shaw in good faith on this. The resulting bill and subsequent changes to the ETS left everyone a bit annoyed. Farmers were dark that they were being brought in at all, environmentalists were dark that farmers weren't paying enough. This is a suggestion that both negotiating parties got a bit of what they wanted.