Judith Collins was the woman of the hour and the right person to lead The National Party, but members of her team "lobbing grenades" have let the campaign down, a political commentator says.
Collins was faced with several challenges last week, ranging from MPs leaking to the media and accusing her of making up policy "on the hoof". National spokesperson for local government Denise Lee slammed Collins' plan to review Auckland Council as "highly problematic".
Former ACT Party staffer and political commentator Trish Sherson says Collins has done some heavy lifting since she took over National's leadership from Todd Muller in July.
Sherson suggests it's National's team that's failed, not Collins herself.
"You'd have to say she was the woman for the hour and, man, has she done some heavy lifting," Sherson told The AM Show on Monday morning.
"When you're in a 100 metre sprint, you literally want your team cheering for you on the side but her team's been lobbing in the odd grenade and ankle tapping her. Even look at last week - the shambles with Denise Lee having a crack at her.
"Does it say how, still, shocking the Todd Muller disaster was for that party?"
The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll had National on 29.6 percent with Labour dominating on 50.1 percent. Even with potential Coalition partner ACT polling at 8 percent, the high 20s wouldn't be enough for National to form a Government.
Sherson said National's campaign hasn't looked cohesive. Former Labour Party president Mike Williams, appearing on The AM Show with Sherson, said National had "next termism" - suggesting they were looking at the next election instead of this one.
"I've been involved in campaigns since 1978 and I've never seen a more incompetent one from National."
The party started by opening up an "own goal" and making a $4 billion mistake in its alternative Budget and "it's just got worse", Williams said.
Sherson said she was interested to see if Labour could get enough to govern alone on election day.
She said the Green Party, polling at about 6 percent, could be the wildcard.
Williams believes the Greens will make the 5 percent threshold needed to get back into Parliament.
"I think there's a core Green vote there; that's not going to go below 5 [percent]."
Labour will most likely form a coalition with the Green Party should it not attract enough votes to govern alone, providing the Greens manage to meet the 5 percent threshold.
