Judith Collins: The farewell as rebranding job Interview

When MPs retire, unless that choice is made for them by voters, they can make a farewell speech to their colleagues. Valedictory Statements are a regular occurrence prior to an election.

This week's farewell was for former National Party Leader Judith Collins. It included the usual thanks, jokes, and fond memories, but the story choices suggested this nod to the past was also refocusing Judith Collins' brand for the next challenge.

Despite a heavy ministerial workload (18 different portfolios, including eight in this government alone), Judith Collins is not ready to retire. She is making an unusual segue. The Minister of Justice has anointed her as the next President of the New Zealand Law Commission.

It was, Collins joked, an "excellent decision-one of the best I've ever seen in a Minister of Justice, and I was one."

The Law Commission and an apolitical rebrand

A former politician leading the Law Commission is uncommon, but not unique. All previous presidents have been either judges or legal academics. One academic, Geoffrey Palmer, had also been an MP and former Prime Minister and, like Collins, Attorney General. Unlike Collins, Palmer's term as president was 15 years after leaving politics.

The Law Commission conducts in-depth reviews of areas of New Zealand law. The topics for review are initiated by the Minister of Justice, but the reviews are independent and apolitical. The validity and strength of the Commission and its reviews relies on its reputation as disinterested. That's a tough ask for any former MP, let alone a former party leader like Palmer and Collins.

Judith Collins' set the scene for her transition as she described her approach to politics as a new MP, before going on to bookend the valedictory with a matching sentiment about her future.

"I was a lawyer, not a politician, and I had extensively studied and practised law but never politics.

I approached everything as a lawyer. Looking to the facts, often oblivious to the way things would be portrayed in the media, and not really understanding that being fearless in my prosecution of issues, while admirable as a lawyer, might be seen as a little confrontational in Parliament…"

"I now leave politics behind and move into an apolitical world with gusto and even relish. I'm over politics and looking forward to going back to my first loves, my family and the law."

This was a common theme of her stories and reflections. Judith Collins was above common politics, independent, a purveyor of free and frank advice, and a servant of common-sense.

Collins does have a reputation for loyalty toward her immediate teams, and while thanking her former ministerial staff she particularly highlighted a senior Labour MP.

"The many ministerial staff were best when both professional and apolitical in their work, and none more so than the Hon Barbara Edmonds."

The stories of victory that were told were not ideological wins, or personal take-downs. They were cross-party and non-ideological achievements.

"Within that first term, I used my position as Associate Health Spokesperson and member of the Health Committee to get, first, the backing of National and, then, other parties to get an inquiry into the use of agent orange and its effects on our troops during the Vietnam War. This was against the advice to both National and Labour Governments from the Reeves inquiry and the McLeod inquiry...

"It was a lesson in working across parties. It showed me that the Government can eventually come to the party against its officials' advice when a backbench MP does their work, brings others on board, and is willing to share the credit."

She highlighted work done at odds with the thrust of her own government.

"Some other achievements of which I'm most proud include banning smoking in prisons. Yeah, I did that. I really did not have the support of the Government. I was in Government. "

In a similar vein, she highlighted doing the right thing-career be damned.

"As a first-term MP, I held to account a senior Minister who had leaked to the media a lawyer's legal advice letter to her 16-year-old refugee applicant client and then lied about it."

More than once she riffed on her reputation for frankness.

"I am genetically incapable of sucking up to hierarchy in order to get ahead. It's so true, isn't it, team? I can be a bit brutal."

As Attorney General, Collins held a cabinet position where a critical part of the role is the ability, even duty, to disagree with government plans when they may fall outside the normal constitutional or legal framework, and in accord with the stories she told this week, Collins has done exactly that.

It is normal for a valedictory to serve a purpose beyond simply saying thanks and farewell. Some departing MPs try to relitigate lost debates, some to settle old scores; some praise the institution, some rail against it. Many look to throw one last idea into the policy hat. There is typically fanfare for one's own glorious achievements, and often a lament and a plea for the work yet to do.

Much of what is said in valedictories feels like a biographical first draft, and maybe some image work, even a rebrand. But here it was maybe even a very public job interview. So, one final question to the applicant: other than the courage and honesty you have highlighted, what other qualities would you bring to the organisation?

"It is often commented that I have a bit of resilience," Collins said during her speech. "Well, you don't get to be resilient unless you have to be, and I sometimes quip that adversity is just an opportunity to show character-so much adversity, so much character-but I accept I am a resilient soul."

The audio version of this story, and the rest of the Sunday edition of The House, can be heard at the link near the top of this story.

The Hansard report of Judith Collins' valedictory statement is here.

Parliament TV's footage of the valedictory is here.

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