Although a concise summary, the Dirty Politics book is likely only hinting at how nasty the nest of vipers in parliament really are. That's the only logical conclusion one can reach after reading about Judith Collins' self-interested attempt to oust the Prime Minster recently.
Yesterday, Stuff reported:
Peters, Key squabble over Collins 'coup attempt'
Winston Peters stands by his assertion he was approached to do a post-election deal with National with Judith Collins as leader, but the prime minister says Peters is headline-grabbing.
The NZ First leader today said he was prepared to swear an affidavit that he had been approached about the possibility of working with Collins, if he didn't want to work with Key post election.
Peters said he believed the approach had been an attempt to undermine the prime minister and that Justice Minister Collins was likely to have been aware of it.
I tend to believe Winston Peters. It would stand to reason that the hard-right Collins was looking at pushing the more centre-right Key out of his role as leader of the National party. She would obviously need to do some sort of back room deal beforehand. This would have been all about the numbers folks!
Thankfully Dirty Politics has now put an end to her unrealistic aspirations. Before Nicky Hager shone a rather enormous light on the scene, Collins was widely touted as the next National party leader. It sickens me to think that she could have even become the next Prime Minister of New Zealand. Oh how the tables have turned.
Prime Minister John Key has dismissed Winston Peters’ claim that he was approached by someone who asked him if he would work with Judith Collins if she was National Party leader.
However Key did add it would “theoretically” be a sackable offence if Peters’ allegation of treachery were true, before saying: “it won’t be true”.
The NZ First leader today said he would swear an affidavit that someone asked him and that he would “put his life on it”.
In my opinion, Key cannot simply take the risk of letting Collins off Scott-free. By failing to properly look into this matter, Key is simply trying to protect the National party from imploding! In fact he would be best advised to dismiss Judith Collins after an investigation into her misconduct provides a reasonable excuse that will be acceptable to the more pragmatic National supporters out there.
If Key continues to look weak on Collins, after she likely attempted to mount a coup against him, more voters will lose their respect for the Prime Minister. The scenario of people giving their support to Key just to end up with Collins is something that will be playing on many people's minds, and that's not a good position for National to be in just week's out from an election.
