'She's got a lovely presence about her' - Paula Bennett praises Jacinda Ardern's skills of communication but says government lacks 'ideas'

April 23, 2018

The National deputy leader was asked to give a highlight and lowlight from the government’s first six months. (Source: Other)

She may have been coaxed into it, but National deputy leader Paula Bennett has admitted Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has a talent for communicating her political message.

The problem, Bennett claims, is there isn't much substance to it.

Speaking on TVNZ's Breakfast today, Bennett was asked to give the biggest achievement and biggest mistake of the Labour-led Government's first six months.

"I think certainly the Prime Minister is a really great communicator, as someone who is struggling for the words," Bennett joked as she tentatively worded her answer.

"She is, and she's pro New Zealand, and it comes across in everything that she does."

But unsurprisingly Bennett was far more fluent when articulating the main shortcoming of this government, in her opinion.

"The downside is they've more or less outsourced government," she said.

"It's like they don't have to do anything or come up with the ideas themselves, they've got 75 working groups now and they aren't able to actually execute a program because they haven't got one.

"But she's got a lovely presence about her and she does communicate that really well."

National leader Simon Bridges made the same criticism of the government on April 19, pointing out there are more working groups at the moment than Labour MPs.

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