National Party has returned to "old guard" after briefly experimenting with the new and untested for the leadership, with the elevation of Judith Collins and Gerry Brownlee as the new Leader and the deputy respectively.
Judith Collins first entered in parliament in 2002 and is a sixth term parliament with two earlier unsuccessful shots at the Party leadership position.
The MP for Papakura brings with her years of proven experience of several important Ministerial positions, with currently holding the portfolios of National party's spokesperson for Economic Development, Regional Development and Pike River Re-Entry.
Gerry Brownlee her deputy comes with further rich experience with first entering the parliament in 1996, who first became Deputy leader of the party in 2003-06 and served various ministerial appointments in the fifth National government.
Clearly, the National caucus is once bitten and twice shy in trying again with any inexperienced and untested pair of hands, amidst reports of a contest for the leadership.
However, despite this preference for the old and tested safe pair of hands, and in eventually subscribing Judith Collins perennial claims on the top job in the Party, the road ahead will not be smooth.
While Judith's elevation will bring jubilation among the Party's loyalists and for a lot of political observers who are secretly hoping to avoid seeing a lopsided electoral contest ahead, against a formidable rival in the immensely popular Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, it is for the Kiwi voters to eventually subscribe the long expert fuelled faith in Judith's leadership.
Undoubtedly, Judith has never failed to surprise in making a mark, either in her Ministerial roles in the government or offering powerful rebuttals to a charismatic Jacinda Arden in the parliament.
She clearly is a crusher - with both her words and her now popular stare.
However, again, nothing will matter other than how Kiwi voters think about her in the 2020 elections.
Judith Collins led-National Party still cannot forget that everything she and her popularity rests is now safely packaged in the pre-Covid world.
Now we are in a post-covid world where the Kiwi-voters are largely in a jubilant mode and mesmerised with PM Ardern's government for successfully leading a public health response for restricting a pandemic in NZ that is still continuing unabated overseas.
Th road ahead is not easy, unless the Party, under the "old guard" chose to come out remarkably different and innovative.
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