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Former Prime Minister John Key told National he needed to face the facts and acknowledge that the party’s own failures lost last month’s general election.
Speaking to a packed crowd at the Party’s annual meeting in Wellington, he said: “We have to be honest enough to admit that our own failures played a role in our defeat.”
“I know it sounds difficult, but it’s true. If we don’t recognize that, if we don’t take responsibility for it, we won’t learn from it, ”Key said.
He urged the party to be more disciplined and to stop filtering.
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“If you can’t stop filtering, here’s a hint, ditch the party,” Key said.
Key was the special guest speaker at the meeting and spoke alongside party chair Peter Goodfellow and leader Judith Collins.
Goodfellow’s speech addressed the party’s failures, but focused heavily on some of the barriers that, in his view, National faced from Labor and the media.
“The daily broadcasts became evangelistic, a form of gospel to the masses,” Goodfellow said of the government’s response to Covid-19.
“It was suddenly a crime for us to ask legitimate questions,” he said.
ROSA WOODS / Things
Former Prime Minister John Key urges National to recognize that its own failures cost the party the election.
Collins and Key took a more measured tone. Collins said the party had been too self-centered.
“I know, for the National Party, we were too focused on ourselves.
“We didn’t spend enough time thinking about the things New Zealanders cared about,” Collins said.
He said the party needed to spend more time listening.
But the hardest reckoning came from Key. He warned deputies and party delegates that simply waiting for victory was not enough.
“Believe me when I tell you that hope is not a strategy,” Key said.
He warned the party that waiting for the public to tire of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was not a strategy either.
“That is an error. It’s what the Labor Party said about me for almost a decade. If we underestimate Jacinda and her advisers, we will be in opposition for a long time, “Key said.
This is the first time that the party has fully met, after its electoral defeat. Parliamentarians, delegates and the party hierarchy will have a free and frank discussion about what went wrong and will begin to review the campaign.
The party will also elect three positions to its board. The board will then decide who of them will be the party president.
Goodfellow is currently seeking reelection for both the board and the chairmanship, although he faces a strong challenge.
