Yahoo News New Zealand opposition leader Todd Muller resigns just two months before election
The leader of New Zealand’s opposition party, Todd Muller, has resigned after just 50 days in the job.
Mueller ousted former leader Simon Bridges in May, but after a fortnight of scandals, Muller said he had realised he was not a good fit, saying the country needed an opposition leader who is “comfortable in the job”.
“It has become clear to me that I am not the best person to be leader of the opposition and leader of the New Zealand National party at this critical time for New Zealand,” Muller said.
Related: New Zealand opposition MP who leaked details of Covid-19 patients steps down
“The role has taken a heavy toll on me personally, and on my family, and this has become untenable from a health perspective.”
Political watchers across the spectrum were taken by surprise. No one expected a resignation from Muller so close to the general election, scheduled for September 19.
Muller said he intended to take some time out to spend with his family and “restore my energy before reconnecting with my community”.
Last week National MP Hamish Walker resigned after it was discovered he had leaked classified information on active Covid-19 patients to the media.
Muller’s handling of the crisis was criticised, and his honesty questioned after a second National MP came forward to say he, too, had received the leaked information – a fact Muller had not told reporters when questioned.
Ben Thomas, a former National government press secretary said no one saw the resignation coming, and the pressure had obviously proved too much for Muller.
“Lots of politicians fancy themselves as leaders … maybe the job is a bit harder than it looks once you get there,” Thomas told Morning Report.
“There have been discipline problems in National … so it could be that he just thought … that this wasn’t worth the effort.
“It was not the job he thought he signed up for.”
The prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, said: “No matter the side of parliament you’re sitting, politics is a difficult place. I have passed on my best wishes to Mr Muller and his family.”
Key names put forward to take over the National party leadership include veteran Judith Collins, current deputy Nikki Kaye and recently ousted leader Bridges.
In late May Muller won a secret party room vote against Bridges, a former criminal prosecutor who polls had found to be deeply unpopular with the general public. The vote took less than an hour. Nikki Kaye was chosen as Muller’s deputy.
After winning the leadership Muller described himself as a man from “heartland New Zealand” and said the nation needed a national government with the “experience and management skills to get our country through the worst crisis since the end of the second world war”.
Muller said he wasn’t interested in playing oppositional politics but he would hold the government to account. While he applauded their management of the Covid-19 crisis as “impressive” and praised Ardern as an “excellent communicator”, he said Labour did not have the skills to lead New Zealand out of an economic downturn and said the party only had two or three talented MPs in its cabinet.
Muller comes from a business background, with roles at the dairy giant Fonterra and at Zespri, the kiwifruit growers’ cooperative. He hails from a dyed-in-the-wool National party-supporting family and served as an executive assistant to Jim Bolger while he was prime minister in the 1990s.
