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Francesca Rudkin: Judith Collins proof confidence, likeability is key in politics

Author
Francesca Rudkin,
Publish Date
Sun, 19 Jul 2020, 2:07PM
Judith Collins. (Photo / NZ Herald)

Francesca Rudkin: Judith Collins proof confidence, likeability is key in politics

Author
Francesca Rudkin,
Publish Date
Sun, 19 Jul 2020, 2:07PM

I’ve been thinking a lot about confidence this week, because if there’s one thing that has been on show this week - one word that could wrap up Judith Collin’s performance this week - it’s confidence.

Confidence is the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something. Self-confidence is believing you can rely on yourself.

Self-confidence plays an important role for all of us, and we all deal with it differently; some people are seemingly born with buckets of it, some people project it while quietly struggling inside, others do everything they can to be confident by ensuring they’ll never be caught short.

And that’s what life is really; people with mixed competencies and confidence doing the best they can with what they’ve got. There’s the supremely confident, the confident but misguided, the fake-it-to you make its, the imposters, and people who struggle in all sorts of ways with competence and confidence.

I’ve lived long enough to know that most of us are to a greater or lesser extent making it up as we go along – which is at times comforting.

Few of us get our self-confidence tested like high profile politicians - even if a party leads a government and has the prime minister, most people didn’t vote for them. And many people will feel this strongly.

This week, the new leader of the National Party had shown confidence in herself. There’s the feeling she’s been preparing for this for a long time, and didn’t waste a moment getting on with it.

Whether you like her or not, like her tough, no-nonsense approach or not, agree with her policies or not; you’ve got to admit it’s been fun watching her relish this new role – one that most people in the know will tell you is the worst job in politics – with a smile on her face.

Her decisive answers throughout the week on various topics, and her lack of hesitancy when it comes to stating where she stands on issues such as the RMA is strangely refreshing. Concerning for those who prefer the ‘governing by review’ approach of the current government, but Collin’s knows she is up against one of the best communicators in the business in Jacinda Ardern, and she is making sure she too is clearly understood.

You can almost hear a collective cry from her fellow colleagues – “she’s got this” even though Collins has been in the role for under a week. There was no other option or choice after the fiasco of the last few months. The ship needed steading, and as commentators have been saying for months, Collin’s is the best person to do it.   

This must be a worst-case scenario for the coalition government.

In an ideal world, none of this bluster should matter – policy should.

With Judith Collins as leader of the National Party, I will be paying a little more attention to the detail of their policy than I might have otherwise. But isn’t she just announcing the same things Simon Bridges or Todd Muller would have announced? Did Jacinda Ardern announce much that was different from what Andrew Little would have announced back in 2017?

As much as we aspire to vote on the basis of policy, and the common good, it just doesn’t work that way. Likeability and confidence in party leaders is key.

Who knows how Collins will fare on Election Day – she’s got a mammoth task ahead of her and if the bookies are anything to go by, she’s far from the favourite to win the race.

One thing I do know is all this publicity will do wonders for her book sales. 

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