National creates two versions of election review, one with 'gory details taken out'

Newshub understands the National Party has created two versions of its election review - the full report, and a sanitised version with all the "gory details taken out", according to one party insider.

In an email to party members sent on Tuesday morning, National Party President Peter Goodfellow explained the move.

"I hope you can appreciate that we are unable to publish a copy of the Review Report online. To do so would give our political opponents the much-needed distraction they want from us holding the Government to account for its failings. We will not allow that to happen."

Newshub has been told the membership is frustrated with the closed process, that there is anger about how tightly held the report has been after everyone was asked to be open and share details during the actual review process.

In the very brief overview, Goodfellow attributed the loss to "disunity, leaks and poor behaviour", but did not go into detail of what that behaviour was.

"The Review Panel found many contributing factors to our poor election result in 2020. Chief among them the disunity, leaks, and poor behaviour that severely impacted public perception of National as an alternative to the Labour Government. But this was by no means an isolated factor."

Goodfellow explains there will be a series of meetings with regional committees where the review summary and recommendations will be shared.

MPs will be able to access the full report over the course of the week. 

The full report with all the gory details will be kept under lock and key and MPs will only be allowed to read it.

The party won't say under what circumstances - if MPs will be under surveillance, phones confiscated, or if the report will be in a steel briefcase handcuffed to leader Judith Collins' wrist.

Collins was loathe to comment on Tuesday saying it's one for the board.

The review was supposed to help National learn from its mistakes. It says it's accepted all recommendations but it's also passing the buck, annoying the membership and hiding key details - not a great start to the reset.