National Party leader Todd Muller's 'compassionate conservative' pitch puts economy at fore

National leader Todd Muller. Photo / File

National Party leader Todd Muller painted himself in the David Cameron-mould of a compassionate conservative as he put the economy at the forefront of his election campaign.

While thousands of urbanites marched in Black Lives Matter rallies in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin, Muller was fleshing out his personal history at the rugby clubrooms of his hometown, Te Puna in the Bay of Plenty, in his pitch to win the general election on Sept. 19.

"I have put myself forward as a candidate for Prime Minister at a time when our country faces its greatest economic and unemployment crisis since the Great Depression," Muller said.

Pointing to the 40,000 new jobseeker benefit claims since late March, Muller drew on Infometrics predictions that another 80,000 workers will be out of work in the second wave of job losses, and raised the prospect that still more jobs could go in a third wave.

"Every small town, every suburb in the cities, will be hit. Those who can least afford it will suffer most.

"Even families who have never imagined unemployment will find themselves without work and income, just in the lead-up to Christmas," he said.

Stats NZ data showed the unemployment rate at 4.2 percent, or 116,000 people, in the March quarter. Treasury forecasts the number of people unemployed will rise as high as 268,000 in the September quarter.

Chief among Muller's arguments is that the public trusts a National-led government in times of economic crisis, and Muller said he'd sought advice from John Key, Bill English and Steven Joyce in recent weeks.

He backed the country's basic macroeconomic framework established by the fourth Labour government in the mid-1980s, and worried that the current administration was eroding those principles by mistake, rather than design.

"Among other things, that means National will not increase the taxes New Zealanders pay. Nor will we ever cut benefits, and we will continue to increase New Zealand's investment in hospitals, schools and the welfare safety net," he said.

Muller said the original 1980 reforms were done too fast, and could've been done "more gently, more caringly and with a greater sense of love for our fellow Kiwis."

Similarly, he lamented successive governments' lack of investment in social institutions that have embedded intractable problems and led to wider inequality, and said he will adopt the Treasury's living standards framework to measure his government's progress

He also touted his work with Green Party co-leader James Shaw on climate change and identified water management as an area in need of reform.

Muller's speech was in contrast to the growing focus on racial inequality dominating the headlines. An estimated 20,000 people attended the Wellington Black Lives Matter march yesterday and 5,000 in Auckland.

Meanwhile, the government continued to pitch its credentials in responding to the covid-19 pandemic.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson, who spoke at the Highlanders-Chiefs Super Rugby Aotearoa match, penned an op-ed on the Stuff website reiterating the government's focus on protecting jobs.

And today, Regional Economic Minister Shane Jones said the provincial growth fund will provide $60 million to councils and KiwiRail for road and rail projects estimated to create 800 jobs.

- BusinessDesk