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“Oh, I think we are doing very well here in Otaki,” he said.
As for the rest of the country, it’s on Collins.
National’s Wellington MPs hope they haven’t received a death kiss this campaign, especially in the fringe seats where National is at risk of being crushed.
National’s Hutt South candidate Chris Bishop and Ohariu candidate Brett Hudson are in their final days of the campaign, and Collins was asked if he could guarantee they would still have jobs as of October 18.
“I tell you what I can guarantee you, is that you will have better jobs than Phil Twyford,” he said, earning laughter and applause from the crowd.
Election night may not be that much fun.
Ohariu was closely won over by Labor in 2017, and the popularity of Labor leader Jacinda Ardern makes it even tougher for National’s fringe and list MPs like Hudson.
“It is going to be a competition between the four main ideas that I have put forward for the electorate and the popularity of the party leader,” Hudson told Newshub.
“I think Judith Collins is hugely popular,” she said, when asked if she wanted Collins to be as popular as Ardern. “I’m glad you’re here, I’m delighted!”
At least Collins visited Ohariu. Hutt South MP Bishop was left campaigning without a leader. He won the Labor stronghold in the last election, but only narrowly.
“I’ve been visiting Hutt South a lot,” Collins said, when asked why he wasn’t visiting the electorate on Tuesday.
“I think every MP wants their party leader to be in their constituency during the campaign, but you know, there are 68 electorates,” Bishop said.
Last week, Bishop liked a tweet about Collins after she prayed at a church before casting her vote in front of the media. It is not something they have discussed.
The tweet, from Sean Plunket, read: “Jim Bolger was the most serious prime minister I have ever met. Not once did I remember him using his church attendance for a photo shoot.”
“It’s totally ridiculous,” Collins said.
“They are my big toes,” Bishop added.
And possibly not just the hands-off issue, National Rangitata candidate Megan Hands liked a Facebook post arguing, “The National Party’s dishonest approach … is shameful behavior.”
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen it and don’t worry about silly things like that,” Collins said, when asked what he thought of the activity on social media.
His focus is on the economy and roads, and on Tuesday he again announced one peppered with familiar phrases, such as “we’ll get the economy moving” and “let’s do this.”
When asked if he was embracing some of the Labor slogans, Collins said: “I think I’m making fun of them, right?”
Analysis by political editor Tova O’Brien
There are only four days left until the elections.
On Saturday, fringe and list parliamentarians could be out of work and that’s the harsh brutality of politics and election night. It makes dreams come true, but it also ruthlessly destroys aspirations.
Labor can smell blood. Given the polls and the massive exodus of deputies in this period, those seats on the battlefield are really in dispute.
Labor is really concentrating on Chris Bishop’s Hutt South seat, and he’s also looking at Auckland Central, Wairarapa, East Coast, Nelson, and Whanganui.
Labor sees those seats as at stake and is determined to use Jacinda Ardern’s popularity to snatch them from National.
If Judith Collins cannot lift the National Party vote, the critical list of MPs like Paul Goldsmith are also toast.
In a few days, Parliament could end up looking and feeling very, very different.
