A sad way to depart

It is sad to see Judith Collins ends her leadership in such a messy way, even if partially self-inflicted.

Judith took over the leadership at a horrible time. The sense of crisis in National at having had a newly elected leader resign 55 days after being elected and just before an election was massive. Everyone was in shock, and it was clear that Judith was the only sensible option as leader.

She actually handled the election period very well. Her handling of the Falloon issue was near perfect. She beat Jacinda Ardern in one (inarguably) or two (arguably) of the debates. Any unforced errors from her (such as obesity) were minor compared to errors from other and the poor election result wasn’t a refection on her. If she hadn’t taken over the leadership, National could have had a worse result in 2020 than ever 2002.

Since then she did help clean up some issues of poor culture around the party, and in recent months stopped the once weekly torrent of leaks from caucus. There has also been some very good policy work under her leadership.

The last few months, and definitely the last few days, didn’t see Judith at her best and the removal by caucus was not surprising. But we should acknowledge her many contributions both as leader, and as a Minister.