Laws is a reheat from 1996. Announcing him really leans hard into NZ First’s retro appeal – the nostalgia for the good old days that the party is so openly courting.
Maybe it’s trying to remind people of the last time Laws was in the party with leader Winston Peters. It was the time that NZ First was at its biggest and most powerful, with 17 MPs. But it was also the time NZ First blew up the Shipley Government.
Former MPs Stuart Nash (above) and Alfred Ngaro are among the experienced political recruits joining NZ First for this election. Photo / Mark Mitchell
It also feels a bit desperate. Because, yes, Laws is indisputably bright and NZ First could do with lifting its collective IQ, but surely there was someone intelligent from this side of the past three decades who wanted to join the party in Parliament.
Laws brings with him a whiff of stale controversy that the others don’t. Nash was sort of controversial but not really. He made a mistake most people can’t even name now. Elliot Ikilei is a bit controversial if you have a hobby of closely following the micro-dramas of Hobson’s Pledge, which most of us don’t.
Laws, though, is a household name for several generations of voters. His word-association bubble would probably have “controversial” right next to “trouble-maker” as the two most common bits of feedback.
The historic seating of the first NZ MMP Parliament, December 12, 1996. Photo / NZME
It feels a little like NZ First has lost the momentum of the past few months. For quite a while there it was possible to imagine the party demanding the Finance Minister position again. Or perhaps the position of Treasurer to avoid having to actually do too much work. Or maybe even – like the persistent rumours suggest – a turn for Winston at finally, officially being Prime Minister for just half the term.
The party had captured the zeitgeist. Voters were (and still are) frustrated by decades of going backwards while politicians only tinkered. NZ First promised big change. Breaking up the gentailers. Buying back BNZ. Making the first $14,000 tax-free. Some of it was nutty, some of it was never going to happen, but all of it was bold.
Michael Laws’ political comeback evokes NZ First’s most influential – and most turbulent – period in Government during the late 1990s. Photo / NZME
The party went up in the polls. It hit 14. Then it all slowed down. The polls dipped a bit. They’re now closer to 10%.
Winston launched a weird attack on National, accusing it of secret unkind plans for Indian migrants.
It was classic Winston because he loves busting other politicians at secret stuff. But it was also weird. Because he was accusing his own coalition partner of doing the exact thing he wanted them to do, which was to cut down on Indian migration. It felt petty and unprincipled and a bit too shifty for the man who might like to run the country.
It doesn’t help NZ First that National – its greatest enemy in the polls – seems to finally have got into its stride with a well-received KiwiSaver announcement and a leader who is possibly finding some of his mojo at long last.
But it does rather feel like the past few weeks have been a bit off for NZ First. And that was before the weird Michael Laws announcement doubled down on that feeling.
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