Fran on Muller

Fran O’Sullivan writes:

Todd Muller has quickly jumped astride the unexpected gift horse that Jacinda Ardern sent him and played himself into being a clear contender for the September 19 election.

Muller was quick to capitalise on the comedy of errors at the border, showing he is not a busted flush after all when it comes to being National’s leader. His stirring speech in Parliament mid-week held the Government to account for the lax quarantine procedures.

Pity that the Government benches had emptied out.

But it was the speech the newbie National leader needed to make to persuade his colleagues that the decision to shaft Simon Bridges as leader — if by a narrow margin — was the right one.

And the quarantine blunders are not going away. Every day there are multiple new stories on them.

Particularly around his pledge that an incoming National-led Government would not raise taxes to pay down the mega-billions of debt the Coalition is borrowing to get New Zealand through the impact of the Covid-19 economic crisis.

National’s plan will be to grow the economy to pay down debt. Labour’s plan will be to tax, tax and tax again.