John Armstrong's opinion: National 'deserves the book be thrown at it' after rogue MP's 'low-life behaviour'

“Any questions about the road?” Those words uttered by Todd Muller as his Wednesday afternoon press conference was coming to a close was combined with what is fast becoming one of the hallmarks of National’s leader of just seven weeks.

Muller’s question was more a statement. It was voiced with a self-deprecatory laugh which, without him saying so directly, made it very clear that he had zero expectation of being quizzed on the matter which was ostensibly the reason for his summoning reporters.

Muller’s purpose was to announce that National would set aside $1.5 billion for the construction of a four-lane expressway between Christchurch and Ashburton should the party return to power following September’s general election.

The actual rationale for reporters showing up for the announcement was the opportunity it presented to probe National’s leader on his handling of the despicable antics of one of his party’s MPs in leaking details of patients who have tested positive to Covid-19. In addition, there was the associated matter of the party’s response to the astonishing and similarly appalling lapse of judgement on the part of Michelle Boag, a former president of the party, and who had passed the information about the patients to Hamish Walker, the MP in question.

This crisis has served as the first test of Muller’s political management skills. Given the gravity of the low-life behaviour of the two members of the party responsible for this disgraceful episode, it might be just as well that Muller is in possession of a wry sense of humour. 

It is an attribute which is both charming and disarming — and consequently quite endearing even if you don’t share his politics.

It is a humour born of a willingness to make a joke at his own expense. It makes Muller someone who is hard to dislike — unlike his predecessor in National’s top job. The ability to laugh at oneself serves as a means of communicating with the ordinary punter. It is a characteristic which comes to the fore when he is quizzed by the media on tricky matters.

Like his other attributes which suggest he could become a prime minister of the highest calibre, it is something that is going to take time to register in the consciousnesses of voters to the extent required to generate a two-way rapport. 

Muller does not have that time — at least not in the run-up to this year’s election.

The press conference summed up his predicament in a nutshell. His efforts to get voters to switch on and listen to his message has too often been hampered by static generated elsewhere in National’s ranks be it a colleague soaking up time and space to promote her memoirs or — as in the latest case — a backbench MP going rogue.

Walker’s manufacture of a deception that had him leaking the Covid-19 patient details to news media organisations struck a new low for a party which steadfastly argues that dirty tricks are not part of its modus operandi.

For once, National has been caught red-handed indulging in such tactics, rather than being found out long after the event. Walker’s botched attempt to undermine public confidence in the Ardern Administration’s handling of the quarantine and mandatory isolation of New Zealand citizens and residents re-entering the country backfired in spectacular fashion. His efforts to embarrass the Government only succeeded in trapping Muller and other senior MPs into making angry statements alleging Government incompetence when the leaks were in fact of National’s doing. 

Muller’s handling of this self-inflicted crisis has engendered mixed reviews. There are valid questions as to why — apart from stripping Walker of his portfolio responsibilities — it took him the best part of 24 hours to dispense punishment commensurate with Walker’s offence.

Or rather promise to dispense such punishment. On Wednesday morning, Muller was very clear in saying that he had written to the governing board of the National Party seeking Walker’s removal as a member of the party.

Under National’s constitution, the board has the power to cancel or suspend the membership of any person whose actions, in its opinion, “prejudice the interests of the party”. 

What Muller actually ended up securing was Walker’s withdrawal of his candidacy for his Southland seat at the coming election. That is not the same thing as being ejected from the party. It is not even clear whether the MP has been ejected from the caucus. As much as one can tell, that is not yet the case. 

Despite that reservation, it is likely that Muller will be seen as having acted with speed and decisiveness by most voters.

As appalling and unacceptable, as is the leaking of patients’ details, the public won’t be casting their votes in order to make a verdict on that specific instance.

The wider National Party is likely to sustain some collateral damage from the episode, however.

The covert attempt to persuade the public that Ardern and her ministers are not up to the job ended with the rug instead being pulled from under Muller. 

He and Michael Woodhouse, National’s health spokesperson, had been exploiting failings in the Government’s response to the coronavirus to send a wider message about the overall competence of Ardern’s Government and its proclivity for promising much and delivering little.

That line of attack has been nullified in a flash. Muller claims that his party’s ability to critique aspects of Labour’s management of the pandemic will not be affected by this latest clanger of National’s own making. 

It will have an impact, however. In order for voters to make a mind shift on an issue at hand, they have to believe that the information that they are being fed is reliable.

National has breached that trust  — trust which had already diminished as a consequence of Woodhouse being unable to produce evidence of his claim that a homeless man who did not have the virus had somehow managed to fool the authorities into accommodating him in a room at a five-star hotel for a couple of weeks courtesy of the taxpayer.

It all adds up to a week when National’s time and energy has been consumed with clearing up a mess completely of its own making.

It all adds up to another week when National is not being heard on the matter which is central to the election — specifically which of the two major parties is best capable of generating a revival in New Zealand’s crippled economy — a revival which creates real jobs, not ones that are part of a nationwide taxpayer-funded work scheme. 

That all adds up to an ugly equation which is confronting Muller — and one that will prove daily more difficult for him to resolve to his satisfaction.

This conundrum goes like this. Muller has been National’s leader for seven weeks. The official period permitting people to cast their vote prior to Election Day is less than nine weeks away. 

That deadline is bearing down on National like an express train. There is no latitude for blunders or mistakes of Muller’s or his colleagues’ making.

This week is now a wipe out for National. When it is over, Muller will have been in his job for eight weeks but there will be just eight weeks to go before advance voting begins.

In this context, something else is worth noting. There are calls for the independent inquiry into the leaks to be conducted by Queen’s Counsel Michael Herron to now be wound up as those responsible for the mammoth-sized breach of privacy have fessed up.

That would be the wrong thing to do. It is incumbent on officialdom that the public is told whether others apart from Walker and Boag were party to this sorry and sordid business and whether anyone else in National’s food chain was aware of what was going on and whether they were in the position to stop it, but did not do so.

The inquiry’s findings will place National on the defensive. The party will be obliged to once again talk about something that it doesn’t wish to talk about.

National is very much in the wrong, however.

Accordingly, in the court of public opinion, the party deserves the book be thrown at it — and nothing less.