Election 2020: Law’s job is to destroy NZ First vote, says National’s Judith Collins

National Party leader Judith Collins said today that Act’s job is to destroy New Zealand’s first vote.

And the leader of the First New Zealand, Winston Peters, today virtually ruled out any prospect of going with National, explicitly making an offer to re-partner with Labor in government.

National leaders have never explicitly talked about getting New Zealand First out of Parliament, although that has been their wish, but Collins has changed that.

When asked to comment on Act’s rise in the 1News Colmar Brunton poll, Collins told reporters in Matamata that he didn’t think it was at National’s expense: “They [Act] They have two jobs: one is to win Epsom and the other is to get the rest of New Zealand’s first vote.

Act stood at 7 percent in the poll Tuesday night (it scored 0.5 in the last election), which would take the party’s deputies in Parliament from one to nine.

National got 31 percent in the same poll, Labor 48 percent, the Green Party 6 percent and New Zealand First just 2 percent, which would see it outside Parliament without a seat in the electorate.

Collins said New Zealand First always told constituents that they could work with National or Labor, but “every time they have had the opportunity to work with National, they have chosen not to.”

“I think unfortunately they represent a style of doing things that is not necessarily solid.”

The National Party caucus in February backed a call from a captain under then-leader Simon Bridges to rule out working with New Zealand First, a move they believed would reduce New Zealand First’s chances of survival.

Peters publicly mocked the move at the time, suggesting that National would call Peters on election night if necessary, and maintained the party’s position that it could work with anyone.

He mocked a television reporter today when asked about New Zealand First’s 2 percent in the 1News Colmar Brunton poll, saying the result was laughable and the poll was silly.

But on the next breath he said that polls showed the National and Act could not govern and made an explicit pitch to return to Labor.

“The Labor Party needs a stability party with business experience, which New Zealand First has much more than it has,” Peters told reporters at Kerikeri.

New Zealand First was the only hope for tens of thousands of forgotten New Zealanders: older people and provincial New Zealand in particular.

“If you want the government to be strong, practical and logical, your only hope is New Zealand First.”

Law enforcement leader David Seymour, who holds the Epsom seat with National’s blessing, said he disagreed that his party’s job was to get New Zealand’s first ballot.

“I would not agree with that. Our job is to listen to the voters and help chart a course in what is a really difficult time,” he said from Wanaka, where he is campaigning.

“I have never bought into the idea that a political party owns the votes.”

Seymour believed that some of his greatest support came from former New Zealand First supporters.

“But it is equally true that we also have people from the National and Labor parties.”

Act had risen six points and New Zealand First had fallen five points since the election.

“It would be heroic to think that all that has gone to Act.”