Can Luxon? He's a godbotherer and against abortion although he says he won't act against it. The whole thing is a conscience matter for them, so not sure why they can't make their views known when Luxon has.
Printable View
Luxon has shown outstanding leadership in handling the issue :
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/cecili...TDC6PMM65VL2Q/
Paywalled
Excerpt :
When push comes to shove, we now know where Luxon stands. He took the decisive action to make his party's position clear and went a step further to confirm that these health services will remain funded under a National Government.
While Simon O'Connor's post may have served to aggravate many, it's a blessing in disguise for Luxon.
It's given him an opportunity to show pragmatic leadership and underline party behaviour he isn't prepared to accept. O'Connor's misstep has given Luxon the opportunity to put to bed the doubts around how his religious convictions could cloud his political judgment.
Outstanding leadership?
That's a bit of an exaggeration isn't it!
When the Supreme Court announcement came, all our political parties came out with swift strong condemnation straight away with the exception of one.
There was nothing from National, just silence.
Commentators all agreed this was poorly handled, allowing speculation & rumour to spread & for Simon O'Connor's post to be interpreted as the National party position. (according to both Luxon & political commentators).
As a result of poor judgement, Luxon's been on the back foot 'explaining' ever since & in politics explaining is losing the battle.
Further to this, although O'Connor had to take down the post, it hasn't stopped him talking about the divide in the National caucus between the religious conservatives & the progressive liberals.
And now this has blown up into a big issue & we have Amy Adams going on RNZ talking about it, its on TV1 News, Newshub, & a group of National women voters in Tamaki saying O'Connor can't represent them.
Look for many esp men it won't make much difference, but for younger voters & many women voters, it's a big deal & Luxon knows this & that's why he's trying to fix a problem he should have avoided & would have if he had more experience that being a 1st term MP.
He's being labeled 'equivocal' too often on too many things, trying to have a bob both ways & this contradiction between personal conviction & party policy will only reinforce that view in the eyes of many.
It doesn't help that women are a minority in the current National party.
What's happened to Mark Mitchell?
Is he scared of Chris Hipkins in parliament question time after attacking Poto Williams constantly?