Judith Collins hits her old enemy

National leader Judith Collins has gone on the offensive in Nelson, encouraged by a GreyPower crowd urging her to embrace her “Crusher” persona.

Collins treated the audience with a barrage of invective aimed at “wildly stupid decisions” by the government and launched an attack on Nicky Hager, saying that the investigative journalist “still needs to know his creator.”

Collins visited the South Island city on Monday, a day after a Newshub Reid Research poll put his party below 30 percent support.

Addressing an audience of GreyPower members, Collins let loose on his Labor opponents, accusing them of a lack of business experience and economic sense.

“I don’t believe for a moment that these people know how many pennies are in a dollar. Except they know that their dollar should be their dollar,” Collins said.

National spent much of the past week trying to defend its fiscal plan after multiple errors in its calculations were discovered.

Collins told the crowd that Labor Grant Robertson was the “disinformation minister” and his criticism was a departure from the fact that he had not yet published his plan.

National leader Judith Collins speaking with GreyPower members at a meeting in Nelson. Photo / RNZ

He also drew attention to Jacinda Ardern’s call to ban oil and gas exploration, describing it as one of the many “wildly stupid decisions” of the government.

“Do you think things have gone crazy? I think everything has gone crazy. This sign of virtue everywhere,” he said. “I know you may love Miss Ardern, but actually, I’m completely over her.”

After the speech, an audience member, Jim Williamson, jumped to his feet to thank Collins for “coming to the aid of the party” and offering some advice.

“I don’t know if your PR team has told you to soften your image or something, but in some cases what we need is Crusher,” Williamson said to loud cheers.

“Crusher needs to face Gnasher!”

Collins replied with a wry smile: “I am often accused of being too nice.”

He then proceeded to grant Williamson’s wish, unleashing in response to questions from the audience, ripping strips of Ardern at every opportunity.

Collins chided the Prime Minister for getting involved in the Ihumātao riot: “Total nonsense. Stupid behavior … What the heck is going on there?”

He admonished Ardern for suppressing his stance on recreational cannabis: “I suspect you may be hearing more from me this week.”

And he pointed to the Government for not insisting that people undergo tests for Covid-19 before returning to the country: “Weak. Weak decision-making!”

The bombing wasn’t just reserved for the Labor Party either, with author Nicky Hager, who did not attend, also caught in the dew.

When asked about Hager’s The Hollow Men and Dirty Politics books, featuring Collins, the national leader did little to hide her contempt.

“He’s a terrible man and what he wrote about me was disgraceful,” Collins spat.

“He still needs to know his creator.”

Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Collins clarified his comment, saying he had meant that Hager would one day have to answer for his decisions.

“We are all going to die one day and we are going to have to justify our actions,” he said.

“If you are a Christian, you believe it.”

By Craig McCulloch for RNZ

– Additional reports, NZ Herald