Luxon ‘denigrating the intelligence' of voters - ex-Nats leader pushing splitting strategy

Former National and Act leader Don Brash admits he is running “inconsistent” advertisements that encourage contradictory approaches to the vote-splitting strategy he is promoting.

Brash also says it’s unlikely he would have published an advertisement recommending people in Tāmaki and Epsom give Act their electorate vote if the party hadn’t required it, in giving permission for Brash to tell National supporters to give their party vote to Act or New Zealand First.

Brash’s ads ran in the Herald last week and are expected to continue this week. One of them urged people who don’t want a Labour-led Government to avoid giving National their party vote, given that the number of electorates National was expected to win could outweigh the share of the party vote National would receive.

If National secured more electorates than its party vote entitled it to, the party’s extra seats would create an overhang, boosting the size of Parliament from its typical 120 seats. The strategy aims to increase the odds that the three governing parties can form a majority in the House.

National leader Christopher Luxon has condemned Brash’s campaign, saying it was confusing voters and continued to call for both electorate and party votes from supporters.

However, Brash’s ad that ran in the Herald on Thursday was accompanied by a separate personal message from Brash, which encouraged voters in Epsom and Tāmaki to support Act leader David Seymour and Act candidate James Christmas respectively.

National is strongly contesting both seats, to the extent that former National leader Sir John Key has appeared in a social media video with National Epsom candidate Paul Goldsmith asking voters to support Goldsmith, who may not return to Parliament if he’s not elected as Epsom’s MP. Brash’s desire to see an overhang would be helped by National winning both electorates.

In the days after the ads were published, it was revealed Brash’s message to Epsom and Tāmaki voters was demanded by Act, who, alongside NZ First, had to give Brash permission to run the initial ad discouraging a National party vote.

Speaking to the Herald, Brash acknowledged he was being “slightly inconsistent” and “illogical” but rejected Luxon’s claim of confusion.

“I accept the fact that that is inconsistent.

“I don’t accept the argument that Luxon is making that the basic split-the-vote message is confusing.”

Both Key and Luxon have repeatedly warned National supporters against buying into the vote-splitting narrative, the latter previously describing it as “insanely stupid”.

Brash said National’s position on the matter “pretends right-side supporters are incapable of understanding basic mathematics”.

“Our voters are not that dim,” he said.

“It is a great sadness to me that the party I once led is now putting party over country and denigrating the intelligence of right-side voters, at such a dangerous time.”

On his contradictory ads, Brash admitted it was likely he wouldn’t have published his personal message to Epsom and Tāmaki voters if Act hadn’t demanded it. However, he said he was “very comfortable” putting his name to it.

Brash said he had engaged with Act Party secretary Callum Purves in the days before the ads ran to get Act’s permission. He said he had rung New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, with whom he had a brief conversation before being passed on to chief of staff Darroch Ball.

He didn’t appear concerned that the ads didn’t declare Act and NZ First had given permission for the ads to run.

“Those who know electoral law will know I can’t say that in an organised, structured, advertised way without their approval, but for most of the public, they probably don’t know and it doesn’t really matter.

“I wouldn’t have thought it was an issue for the general public at all.”

Brash said he wasn’t clear to what extent his campaign had resonated with voters, referencing how current polling didn’t paint a clear picture.

Asked whether the campaign had helped or hindered public cohesion between the coalition parties, Brash initially referenced prior instances of poor cohesion between the parties on both the left and the right of politics.

Pushed for an answer, Brash believed the parties’ reactions to his campaign were simply a feature of an election campaign.

“It simply reflects the fact that the parties are to some degree in competition for centre-right votes, but more particularly, it makes it clear that at this peculiar stage in our history, a party vote for National does not increase the likelihood of [a] centre-right government and that’s the fundamental proposition.”

Brash issued a challenge to Luxon, offering to debate the National leader on the topic in any forum Luxon wanted.

When Luxon was asked about Brash’s challenge today, he was beaten to the answer by Goldsmith and Nicola Willis, who both said “Don had his time”, with Willis adding: “He had a run being the Act leader and it didn’t go so well for him.”

Willis is also at risk of not returning to Parliament as she is not running in an electorate and therefore relies on National securing list seats, which will not happen if the party’s electorate wins outweigh its party vote.

Luxon restated his opposition to vote-splitting.

“It’s confusing messaging at a time of a tight election and actually risks a Labour Party coming through and forming a coalition Government.”

Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.