Sunday 12 April 2009

Quick hit: Saunders Unsworth Guide to the 2008 Parliament

An insight to the role of women in the National caucus? Maybe:
However, the Sunday Star-Times can reveal that Collins does not fare as well as Key or some of her other Cabinet colleagues. Unsworth claims she coasted in the last Parliamentary term and can lack patience. "Collins is one of the few women in the National caucus that feel really comfortable speaking their minds. Maybe it is this that upsets some of her male colleagues, as she is not the most popular MP in the party."

The profile also contains a warning for the minister, who has enjoyed a high profile since the election as a result of her suggestion to crush boy racers' cars. "Collins has been quieter in recent years and will need to really prove herself or other new women will come through and take her place."
Click through for the whole article from Stuff.

It's a bit strange that the SST has chosen to focus the headline for this article on Collins, given that it's about quite a few different National MPs and could just as accurately be titled 'National ministers cop flak' instead.

2 comments:

Anna said...

The thing I find strange about this is that it implies there's a finite number of places for women in the Nats' caucus, and women have to compete with one another to get there. It would be strange to say 'Nick Smith needs to lift his performance or another male will replace him'.

Craig Ranapia said...

While I find truly strange is that Saunders Unsworth wasn't directed to the advertising department. Hey, if folks want to pay a lobbyist a lot of money for what boils down to expensive gossip, so be it. But I'm struggling to see any news value whatsoever in this not-very-secret dossier.