Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Michael Laws won't be a good get for NZ First
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Let me hit you with absolutely the weirdest political news of the day. Michael Laws, it's being reported, is going to announce he's running for New Zealand First.
The '90s called and want their man back.
It's not a good move for New Zealand First, it's a bad move. Michael Laws is trouble. He was trouble in the National Party when he was an MP. He was trouble in New Zealand First when he was an MP. He was trouble at Radio Live. He was trouble when he was Mayor of Whanganui. He is trouble right now in his role on the Otago Regional Council.
He's a really, really smart guy, don't get me wrong, but he is not the guy New Zealand First should be trying to bring on board if they want to convince voters they are capable of running this country.
Michael Laws is not their guy. He is fringe. He's been running a show on a media outlet - no disrespect to it - that has a very small audience of loyal followers and to everybody else it looks a bit weird and fringe.
New Zealand First's biggest challenge right now is to appear credible because they really, really want to be supersized in this coalition. And if you believe the rumours going around, Winston Peters wants to finally, after all these years, have a crack at being Prime Minister.
A few weeks and months ago, that kind of seemed possible because they'd captured the zeitgeist. They were promising bold policies that were cutting through to a large group of voters who had become incredibly frustrated by the normal run of things - run-of-the-mill politicians, policies, parties and so on.
But in the past few weeks, that momentum seems to have evaporated and things have got a little bit weird, haven't they?
Winston might have pushed it a bit far with the infighting involving his colleagues and the anti-Indian document, which seems to have given him what he wanted, yet now he's complaining about it and narking on us to the Indians.
Then you've got the Michael Laws announcement which, if it happens, is going to double down on that weirdness.
Taine Randell was a great get for New Zealand First. Stuart Nash was a good get for New Zealand First.
But Michael Laws is a bad get because he brings the whole party down by association.
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