David Cormack: The biggest virtue signaller in New Zealand politics

Ministers James Shaw, Damien O'Connor and Megan Woods, with, from left, Interim Climate Change Committee members, from left, Jan Wright, Michael Clark and David Prentice. Photo / Mark Mitchell

COMMENT:

When Scott Morrison won the Australian election it was a bit of a surprise. Just recently Simon Bridges met with ScoMo for an hour. People inside National say that the meeting between the two leaders left an indelible impact on SiBri and he emerged a changed man.

Off the back of that meeting, the most significant thing that occurred in New Zealand politics last week was when Todd Muller had the National Party climate change portfolio taken from him. National party supporters painted it as a move of confidence by Bridges. That Muller, an MP who many considered potential leadership material, being given the major portfolio of agriculture and a boost in the rankings was a sign that Bridges felt assured in his position.

It's more likely a sign that National has decided to go hard against climate change policies put forward by the Government. That for the next 14 months we can expect grimy disingenuous social media posts and press releases claiming that the cost of policies to mitigate against climate change will hurt New Zealanders. That for this reason we should vote National because National won't put in place these costs because it doesn't plan on doing anything about climate change. This is what happened in Australia and the nastiness and grime worked very well.

Todd Muller had worked with James Shaw on the Zero Carbon Bill. It was an attempt to do climate change politics by bipartisanship. Shaw recognised that this issue was bigger than party politics or trying to win votes and that the best way forward was to get everyone in agreement. Muller worked with Shaw in good faith on this. The resulting bill and subsequent changes to the ETS left everyone a bit annoyed. Farmers were dark that they were being brought in at all, environmentalists were dark that farmers weren't paying enough. This is a suggestion that both negotiating parties got a bit of what they wanted.

Except I'm told that Bridges was displeased. After his meeting with Scott Morrison and hearing how attacking Australian Labor's climate change policies had been a vote winner, Bridges felt that Muller had been hoodwinked by Shaw. That he'd given too much up. That there would be votes in attacking climate change policies and Muller had undercut that. It didn't help that Muller did an interview with Newshub's The Nation saying that he supported the Government's EV feebate scheme that was proposed helping encourage people into EVs by giving them a discount while discouraging the purchase of high emitting cars by adding a further fee to them. The interview aired after National had spent several days attacking the policy with fallacious arguments that it was a "car tax".

This brought us up to this weekend where the Green Party had their AGM. In a televised interview prior to the AGM, James Shaw was asked if he would entertain the idea of going into coalition with National after the next election. He ruled it out by saying "I would never empower someone with as little personal integrity as Simon Bridges to become Prime Minister".

Shaw then doubled down on this in his speech to the AGM saying that Bridges was a new kind of "climate denier", he said that Bridges spreads Trump-like "misinformation." Bridges has said that declaring a climate emergency is political posturing and virtue signalling. Virtue signalling is a phrase the right has latched on to with glee. It's when you say that you should do something good about a bad thing and then actually do nothing at all. Which funnily enough is actually Simon's position on climate change. Simon Bridges is the biggest virtue signaller in New Zealand politics. He's told us that he's a firm believer in the science behind climate change. He says change needs to happen. But then he misleads and exaggerates what the Government is planning on doing and fights every climate change policy proposed.

National Leader Simon Bridges is hoping to replicate the underdog success of the Australian Liberal Party and has met with Aussie Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Shaw's speech focusing on Bridges, and his comments that Bridges has little to no personal integrity is excellent politics. It's probably been the best few days of Shaw's political career since becoming a Minister. Highlighting Bridges serves to remind New Zealanders that he's the Prime Minister in-waiting and very few people want that. After a few days of good coverage for National, Bridges managed to SiBri it all up and demonstrated to us all why he's polling a woeful 6 per cent as preferred Prime Minister, lurching from terrible media interview to terrible media interview.

The AGM also allowed the Greens to show off what they've achieved in Government, and it's actually a remarkably impressive list. For those buying into the rubbish narrative that the Greens have lost their environmental edge, they only need look at the environmental improvements - both big and small - that have occurred under this Government, things National would never dream of doing. But Bridges will tell you how much he cares about the climate anyway.

In a week that started off positively for National, it ended with the Greens emerging from their virtuous chrysalis for the first time in a long time and showing themselves to be a butterfly with teeth, and Bridges' lack of integrity laid bare for all.

• David Cormack has worked for the Labour and Green parties and interned for Bill English while studying.