National Party leader Simon Bridges. Photo / Mark Mitchell
National Party leader Simon Bridges. Photo / Mark Mitchell
It is a lot easier for Opposition parties to talk about elections in friendly countries than governing parties.
Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters may have views about the campaign and the upset result of the Australian election, as Labour leader and New Zealand First leader respectively but their views shouldremain private.
Their first duty as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister is to maintain and improve New Zealand's relationship with our closest friend, not to dive into their domestic politics.
Scott Morrison and Jacinda Ardern at Government House, Auckland in February. Photo / Audrey Young
On the other hand National leader Simon Bridges has the freedom to wallow in the vicarious victory of a sister party that most said couldn't win.
Speaking at his party's lower North Island regional conference, Bridges talked about Scott Morrison's strong campaign and simple strong messages about the economic policies.
He also drew heavily on the powerful opening to Morrison's victory speech which described the winners as the "quiet Australians" who had collectively exerted their influence.
But Australia's election result it is not necessarily all good news for Bridges, as Ardern knows but cannot say.
The issue of leadership is not one Bridges will dwell on because there may be too many parallels with Shorten.
Despite Labor presenting a strong alternative policy programme to the Coalition Government, despite it running a reasonable campaign and being relatively unified under Bill Shorten for almost six years, despite Labor being ahead for most of the past six years, it was not enough for Shorten to overcome his popularity problem.
The debate about what swung it for Morrison will continue.
Was it the franking credit issue, was it negative gearing, was it both, was it climate change policy, or was it an aversion to having yet another change of Prime Minister?
Maybe when those undecided voters got into the booth, they just decided to go with the more likeable person.
Scott Morrison, left, Bill Shorten before Sky News/Courier Mail People's Forum in Brisbane during the campaign. Photo / AP
Despite the common assumption that the death of Labor legend Bob Hawke would help Labor, it possibly highlighted which of the two candidates in 2019 was more like Hawke, which was the affable bloke with a beer in his hand at the local footy club, who didn't have to say he loved the Australian people because it was obvious.
Apart from a brief spell at the start, Shorten has always been less popular than Morrison.
Bridges may argue that Morrison's strong campaign was all about strong policy but it also gave the more popular leader in Morrison great exposure.
That is the quandary for National. In Bridges they have a young leader who may perform perfectly well against what he calls the "celebrity Prime Minister."
But with abysmal ratings as preferred Prime Minister, about 5 per cent, the fear is that the exposure of the campaign will turn undecided voters away from an already unpopular Bridges, in the quiet of the polling booth.
