Todd Muller
Todd Michael Muller is a New Zealand former politician who served as the Leader of the New Zealand National Party and the Leader of the Opposition from 22 May to 14 July 2020. Muller entered Parliament at the 2014 general election. He was elected as the MP for the Bay of Plenty electorate, which held until his retirement at the 2023 general election. In his second term, Muller became the leader of the National Party after successfully challenging then-leader Simon Bridges. However, his mental health suffered, including suffering panic attacks, and he resigned the leadership after 53 days.
Early life
Muller was born in Te Aroha on 23 December 1968, where his grandfather Henry Skidmore was mayor, and was raised in Te Puna, where his parents started a kiwifruit orchard. He attended St Joseph's primary school in Te Puna, Te Puna primary school and Tauranga Boys' College. Muller recollected in 2020 that for two years he was the only Pākehā boy at St Joseph's. He became interested in politics at a young age, once authoring a story in which he served thirteen consecutive terms as President of the United States.He studied English, history and politics at the University of Waikato and graduated with a master's degree.
Career before politics
Muller joined the New Zealand National Party in 1989. From 1994 to 1997 he worked as executive assistant to Jim Bolger during his second term as prime minister.Muller started his corporate career working for kiwifruit company Zespri as industry relations manager from 2001 to 2003. He lists his CV as including the role of general manager corporate and grower services from 2003 to 2006, followed by a move to the position of chief executive at Apata Ltd in January 2006. Apata, a Bay of Plenty company specialising in post-harvest operations, was founded by his father and others in 1983. Muller was approached to contest the Tauranga electorate for the National Party in 2008, which was being vacated by incumbent MP Bob Clarkson. Muller declined, preferring to progress his commercial career, and the seat was won by Muller's eventual predecessor as National Party leader, Simon Bridges.
Muller started work at dairy company Fonterra as manager of local government and regional relations from February 2011 to May 2012. He then became group director of co-operative affairs in May 2012. He was part of the leadership group that responded to the 2013 Fonterra botulism scare and product recall.
Muller held various directorships in the agribusiness sector. From June 2011 to June 2014 he served as a director of Plant and Food Research, a New Zealand Crown Research Institute that undertakes research and development to add value to fruit, vegetable, crop and food products. From August 2012 until June 2014, Muller served as a director of the Sustainable Business Council. He served as a co-opted Waikato University councillor from October 2007 to June 2014.
Muller left Fonterra and his directorships in June 2014 to campaign for the 2014 general election after being selected as the National Party candidate for the Bay of Plenty electorate.
Member of Parliament
Muller became a Member of Parliament in 2014. He was selected to replace Tony Ryall in 2014 as National's candidate in the Bay of Plenty electorate, and won by a margin of 15,096 votes. He retained the electorate in 2017, defeating Labour candidate Angie Warren-Clark by a margin of 13,996 votes. In his maiden statement, delivered on 27 October 2014, Muller stated that entering Parliament was the realisation of a childhood dream.Muller's first term in Parliament was the final term of the Fifth National Government. Muller served as the deputy chair of the local government and environment committee in 2015 and of the education and science committee in 2016. He was chair of the foreign affairs, defence and trade committee in 2017. During the 2016 New Zealand National Party leadership election, Muller was identified as part of an internal party grouping of influential backbenchers nicknamed the "Four Amigos" with Chris Bishop, Alfred Ngaro and Mark Mitchell. The group had come together campaigning for National in the 2015 Northland by-election.
National lost the 2017 general election and Muller was assigned spokesperson roles in the agriculture, biosecurity, climate change, food safety, and forestry portfolios by new leader Simon Bridges. He sat on the Primary Production Select Committee. He was ranked 16th in the shadow cabinet. While in Opposition he was given the task of working with the Government on its Zero Carbon Bill. National ended up supporting the bill, with some caveats. Muller's work on the bill earned him respect from across the House and a lasting friendship with Green Party climate change minister James Shaw.
In November 2019, Muller heckled Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick during her speech on climate change. Swarbrick quickly retorted "OK boomer." Although there was little reaction to her comment in Parliament, her two-word throwaway remark was covered in international news media.
In December 2019, Muller criticised a Te Papa display of bottles of water representing various water sources, with water dyed brown representing farm streams, describing it as "part of the museum's continued attacks on New Zealand's farmers."
National Party leadership, 2020
Leadership election
In May 2020, Muller challenged National Party leader Simon Bridges for the leadership on a joint ticket with Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye. The reasons cited were poll results in a Newshub Reid Research Poll. The day prior to the challenge, he had publicly denied having leadership ambitions and supported Bridges despite a media endorsement from Jim Bolger. A One News Colmar Brunton poll released the evening before the coup had Muller with the support of 0.2% of voters as preferred prime minister compared to Jacinda Ardern on 63% and Bridges on 5%.Muller won the resulting vote on 22 May 2020 with more than 29 votes cast for him. The party's caucus was said to be evenly divided over whether the leadership change was the correct course of action. Along with Kaye, MPs in National's group of liberal MPs such as Chris Bishop, Amy Adams, and Nicola Willis were among those supporting Muller's run. Senior MP Anne Tolley, a conservative, was among those who spoke out in opposition to Muller's leadership challenge, calling it "nutty stuff", announcing that she would be retiring shortly thereafter. Another National MP, speaking to media on the condition of anonymity, described Muller in contrast to Bridges as a "pale, stale male". Judith Collins, a Bridges rival, and senior MP Gerry Brownlee joined Muller at his first press conference.
Leader of the Opposition
Muller announced his shadow cabinet on 25 May, with senior caucus member Amy Adams announcing she was reversing her previous decision to retire. Other senior positions were given to Muller allies Chris Bishop and Nicola Willis. Bridges ally Paul Goldsmith was retained as finance spokesperson. Muller stated former leader Simon Bridges was offered a shadow ministerial role but declined, saying he was taking time to consider his future. Bridges quickly stated he was taking "time out" and would stand and help win the next election. National MP Jo Hayes criticised Muller for the lack of ethnic diversity present in the new frontbench, telling media: "This is not good. We need to remedy this or you need to front it and take it head-on and say why. You need to give a better explanation." On the same day, Newshub reported that several National MPs were already leaking to media against Muller and his deputy Nikki Kaye, four days after the leadership change had occurred.On 27 May, another leak against the leadership was made to Newshub claiming the campaign chair, Gerry Brownlee, had set up an "intelligence unit" to find negative information on political opponents. Brownlee said the leaks were "disappointing," untrue, and had come from "bitter backers" of former leader Simon Bridges. As a result of the leaks to media, inability to fend off criticism over his "Make America Great Again" cap display, and allegedly poor television interview performances, Muller was criticised by commentators traditionally supportive of the National Party, including Mark Richardson. Fellow conservative commentator Mike Hosking opined in his New Zealand Herald column that "Todd Muller's first full day out including Parliament was little short of a disaster."
New Zealand First, who had been relentless critics of Bridges and who Bridges had ruled out as coalition partners in any future government, warmed to the new leader. MP Shane Jones said that "... I do sense coming from , good vibrations in contrast to Paula and Simon." Muller indicated he would be willing to work with New Zealand First to form a new government after the 2020 election. He had previously known New Zealand First leader Winston Peters when Peters had been the National Party MP in Tauranga and Muller had led the Young Nationals at Waikato University.
Muller's first major speech was delivered at the Te Puna rugby club on 14 June 2020 and focused on the economy. Referring to the "decent society" policy under the Jim Bolger-led National Party of the 1990s, Muller stated that the New Zealand economy was not "truly internationally competitive or agile enough as green as should be." Muller's economic pitch was described by The Spinoff as "arguably pretty indistinguishable from the sitting government." Muller also distanced himself from some previous iterations of the National Party by describing the Treaty of Waitangi as the nation's "founding document." However, the speech drew attention for several new gaffes. An event organiser inadvertently hung the tino rangatiratanga flag upside down behind the podium and Muller accidentally referred to himself as having joined the Labour Party.
On 7 and 8 July, Muller moved to sack Hamish Walker after the first-term MP admitted to leaking personal details of COVID-19 patients to the media. The weekend after, Muller refused to appear on Q+A to discuss the incident and directed his inner circle to focus on National's energy policy to be announced the next week.
That energy policy was never announced. To the surprise of most commentators, Muller resigned from the leadership before 8:00 a.m. on 14 July 2020, stating, "I am not the best person to be Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party at this critical time for New Zealand" and that the role had had a negative impact on his mental health. At just 53 days, Muller is the shortest-serving leader of any political party represented in Parliament in New Zealand's history. After being replaced as leader by Judith Collins, and taking sick leave for nearly four weeks, Muller stated in interviews, "I had anxiety. I had experienced that quite severely and I had panic attacks" that began on 27 May, five days after taking the leadership. He also ruled out another bid for the party leadership.