Thank you for your service, attorney general/defence minister/digitising government minister/public service minister/space minister/government communications security bureau minister/intelligence service minister…
New Zealand’s current longest-sitting female MP is saying goodbye. After 24 years in parliament, Judith “Crusher” Collins is bidding farewell to politics to take over as president of the Law Commission in mid-2026. Her last day is yet to be confirmed, with the government trying to avoid a byelection prior to the general election (which can be done if a seat is vacated less than six months before the big day, meaning Collins is likely to stick around until at least early May).
From her fifth-floor Beehive office today, Collins recounted the highs and lows of her extraordinary career in politics to gathered media. Her tenure hasn’t been without its controversies, but Collins urged reporters to “look at the record, rather than the rhetoric”. So here it is, in all of its high, low and WTF moments.
High: Comeback queen of New Zealand politics
Few politicians could have survived the career that Collins did. You don’t get to 24 years in politics without making a few enemies, finding yourself resigning from cabinet over some leaked emails or leading your party to a historic election loss. But more on all of that later.
High: ‘My husband is Samoan, so talofa’
You could hear the sucking of teeth of thousands of Polynesians across the country as Collins uttered these immortal words during a leaders’ debate during the 2020 election campaign. They were the best of times, they were the worst of times, they were simpler times. But The Spinoff is calling it: nearly six years on, enough time has passed for us all to admit it was honestly just hilarious, and a quotable quote for the decades.
Low: Leading the National Party
In an interview with The Spinoff last July, Collins described her time as leader of the National Party as “16 months of sheer hell”. Despite many iconic moments (see: above), Collins’ preference to say it straight without mincing words, her severe facial expressions and general un-Jacinda Ardernness resulted in her leading her party to its second-worst-ever general election result in 2020.
“I have thought many times since then, ‘well, that was a really dumb thing to do,’” Collins candidly told The Spinoff. “When I was dethroned as leader, that was a great moment of happiness, because it was relief. I dusted myself off, and I got myself up, and I kept on working. And that’s what you do.”
WTF: The Dirty Politics era
Perhaps the biggest stain on Collins’ career was her embroilment in the controversy around Nicky Hager’s groundbreaking book Dirty Politics. The 2014 book exposed the tight alliance and leaked emails between Collins and blogger Cameron Slater, which saw her forced to resign from John Key’s cabinet after she was found to be “gunning for” former director of the Serious Fraud Office Adam Feeley.
Collins was reinstated to cabinet in 2015, after an inquiry she initiated found her to be innocent of any wrongdoing. She described that era of her career to reporters on Wednesday as a “really hard time”. “I know I did [act ethically], but I wasn’t always in the position to say much at the time,” Collins said.
High: Being minister of everything
Collins leaves her post having represented 18 portfolios, including every single justice-related one except courts. She has served as minister of corrections, ethnic communities and police twice in her career, and leaves as the mother of the House.
Low: That Ponsonby walkabout
It was an unassuming October day in 2020 when Collins’ political career crashed and burned in a very public way. The Spinoff was there to witness it all: the retail worker who told her “we don’t want you here”, too hard questions from reporters, and seeing her political fate decided by M&Ms. “Dear God,” Collins was heard saying as she escaped the scene. Those two words inadvertently summed up the entire campaign trail.
WTF: ‘I am a woman of colour’
“The colour white,” she clarified on what was then known as Twitter in 2019. Can’t argue with that, but you can quickly regret it and call it a mistake. Or, later, double down: the following year, as National faced criticism for having no Māori MPs in its shadow cabinet, Collins uttered this line, which stands next to “my husband is Samoan” in the great Crusher lexicon: “Is there a problem with me being white?”
High: ‘Crusher’
Collins herself has never been the biggest fan of the nickname Crusher, bestowed upon her by Newstalk ZB’s former political editor Barry Soper after she successfully proposed legislation to seize and crush boy racers’ cars in 2009. By 2020, she admitted she could see the funny side.
High: Her stint as a Top Gear reviewer
Is this entry just a ploy to get you to click onto another article from The Spinoff? Perhaps.
Low: Oravida
The then justice minister landed herself in hot water in 2014, after making a stop on a taxpayer-funded trip to China to visit a company whose board included her husband. The trip to Shanghai was for the purpose of a law and business meeting, but Collins made a stop at the office of Oravida – a New Zealand export company – in the city and dined with executives, but failed to declare this meeting until she was forced to, and was put on a final warning by Key.
WTF: Trying to get Phil Twyford fired
Collins tried in 2018 to dob Labour MP Phil Twyford into his boss. The then transport minister was seen taking a call on an aeroplane while it was preparing to take off. Collins’ efforts didn’t result in any sacking, but it was a good reminder of the importance of following civil aviation rules.
High: Banning smoking in prisons
Based.
Low: The Arthur Taylor case
The consequences of based actions will always be being taken to court. Career criminal Arthur Taylor won a high court case against Collins’ smoking ban in 2012 – so instead of a ban on smoking, the government amended corrections regulations to deem tobacco products as “unauthorised items”.
WTF: “It’s going to die anyway?”
High: Those brows
There’s a lot of mana in a woman who can arch and furrow her brows like that.
High: That church photo
Everyone remembers where they were the first time they saw this image. Sat on the end of a church pew, knees on the hassock, hands folded in prayer over the seat in front of her and head bowed – this is how we all should be reacting to the loss of Judith “Crusher” Collins.
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