From Newsgroup: nz.general
On Wed, 12 Aug 2026 21:59:36 GMT,
wn@nosuch.com (Willy Nilly) wrote:
On Thu, 13 Aug 2026, Crash <nogood@dontbother.invalid> wrote:
is the political incompetence that Luxon has displayed that is the
reason National may not be re-elected to lead the Government.
True, but there is a counter-point: This is first time that Luxon is
seen to be a strong leader, even if he actually isn't. That
perception may be worth an extra 1 or 2 percent of votes.
So Luxon is a strong leader when threatened with dismissal. Pity he
does not demonstrate political strength to the same decisive degree.
National have done little to address balancing the books and reducing
debt currently at historic heights in both the amount and the
percentage of GDP.
As for Chris Penk, I never even heard of him. Now he is gone. A
non-event. Maybe Simeon Brown can advance a placing now to be in
place the next time there is a challenge to Luxon. At least I've
heard of Brown, he looks a contender.
Penk was incredibly stupid to try to put together a leadership
challenge at this point in the 3-year Parliamentary cycle. No-one
will sanely put up their hand to lead the party into the upcoming
election, but if National lose out then Luxon cops the blame and
rightly so, and there is a sane reason to challenge. If I recall
correctly, the Labour Party constitution requires a leader who loses
an election to face a subsequent caucus confidence vote.
--
Crash McBash
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