John MacDonald: Why is changing his mind so difficult for Luxon?

Christopher Luxon’s ongoing refusal to work with The Opportunity Party is looking sillier by the day.

Maybe it’s reached peak-silliness with this new poll out today, which shows that Luxon’s own supporters think he’s doing the wrong thing.

As well as nearly 50 percent of business leaders who took part in the NZ Herald’s Mood of the Boardroom survey.

The Freshwater Strategy poll found that 57 percent of National voters want him to change his position.

And just 35 percent of his supporters want him stick to his position, even if it means costing National the election.

How pig-headed is that? But then if those 35 percent are seeing their man being so pig-headed, we probably shouldn’t be surprised that they are too.

But the majority of National voters, according to this new poll, think that Luxon is doing the wrong thing.

I think he is too. I don’t give two hoots about his political career. But I think, at the very least, he should be saying that he’ll let the voters decide who they want him to work with.

I think he should go further than that and go whole hog and rule-in Opportunity.

Because it’s not just National voters talking to the polling companies who want him to have a re-think.

When he was at an event in Wigram, a National voter was telling him straight that he was doing the wrong thing ruling-out Opportunity.

Yesterday, he was having his ear chewed again at a cowshed meeting with farmers.

Iain Wright was one of the local farmers and he was saying he wanted Luxon to come out and say that he would work with Opportunity, to avoid National ending up in opposition.

He said if Luxon doesn’t change his tune, he sees Opportunity forming a government with the left. And that’s the last thing he wants.

Remember, though, that Christopher Luxon is the guy who was asked during one of the leaders debates to say when he’d last changed his mind on something. And he said he couldn’t remember.

That’s the kind of attitude that I bet has his National colleagues at their wits end.

He’ll be getting under the skin of his coalition partners too.

Especially, when they see the latest NZ Herald poll of polls saying that the likelihood of Labour, the Green Party and the Opportunity Party being able to form the next government is almost as likely as the current coalition being re-elected.

What’s more, this new poll doesn’t just show that the majority of National voters think he’s doing the wrong thing.

Many ACT and NZ First voters do too.

In the same poll out today, 56 percent of ACT voters and 51 percent of NZ First voters spoken to said they were in favour of the door being opened to Opportunity, as well.

Because they can see it all going pear-shaped for them and seeing their parties out in the cold come the day after the election.

All because the leader of the National Party can’t see that he’s boxing himself into a corner. And can’t bring himself to change his mind.

But what good is a mind, Christopher, if you can’t change it?

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