Todd Muller had long been seen as a prospective saviour for National
He became a household name in New Zealand less than two months ago. Todd Muller had aspirations of being the next Prime Minister when he usurped Simon Bridges in a coup to become the new leader of the National Party. On Tuesday, he stunned the country by resigning from that role . It has become clear to me that 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, Muller said in a statement . READ MORE: * National's leaks fiasco reveals an ethical weakness * Todd Muller's cautious reshuffle reveals deep tensions within National Party * Winston, it's Todd here. We should talk * Todd Muller elected National leader, Simon Bridges ends two-year reign The role has taken a heavy toll on me personally, and on my family, and this has become untenable from a health perspective. This piece backgrounding Mullers political and business career was first published by Stuff in May. ANALYSIS: Todd Muller is ambitious. That much is obvious. While most Kiwis have never heard of him, the 51-year-old second-term National MP is exceedingly well known around Parliament. Ask anyone to name a future National leader (a question thats illuminated many a whiskey-drenched conversation between MPs in the past three years), and Mullers name inevitably lands somewhere near the top. Hes been near the top of this list for longer than most people realise. A former staffer in the office of prime minister Jim Bolger, Muller was always slated for big things his colleagues speculated then that he may have taken the well-trodden route from staffer to MP. Bolger himself remains a big fan of Muller. He's always been capable. Otherwise I wouldnt have hired him for the prime ministers office, Bolger tells Stuff. To the surprise of many, Muller chose to go into the private sector after working for Bolger, instead of straight into politics. He swiftly worked his way up the ranks at Zespri, before stints at the University of Waikato and as a director of Plant and Food Research. Before coming to Parliament in 2014, Muller worked at high levels within Fonterra, before quitting to make a run in Bay of Plenty a safe National seat in 2014. That decision to finally have a go at politics would not have been easy. As group director of co-operative affairs at Fonterra, Muller would have been on a solid wicket, and had to move to Bay of Plenty from Auckland to make the run. MPs are well-paid in New Zealand, but Mullers position at Fonterra meant he took a substantial pay cut to get into politics. You dont make a move like that unless you think youre destined for the big time. Indeed, Muller had turned down the opportunity to have a punt at another seat way back in 2008 Tauranga, the seat Simon Bridges eventually won. But once he arrived in Parliament, the ambition was hard to hide. In his maiden speech, Muller noted it was the realisation of a childhood dream to represent his childhood home the Bay of Plenty in Parliament. He's been quite clear about his ambitions. Hes been upfront, a National MP firmly on the side of Bridges told Stuff. It wasnt until National came into Opposition after the 2017 election that Mullers public profile really grew. Bridges began his leadership of the party promising some new thinking on the environment and climate change. He gave Muller the task of liaising with the Government on its Zero Carbon Bill an overarching piece of emissions-reduction legislation that Climate Change Minister James Shaw desperately wanted the National Party to support. These negotiations took a long time although NZ First are as much to blame for that as National is but ended up with National supporting the bill, with some caveats. This was a big win for Shaw, but also for a lot of people in the National Party who felt that the party needed to look responsive on the issue, which was becoming increasingly important to voters. It earned Muller a lot of respect from across the House. Holding the climate change portfolio is not easy within the National Party. At a standing-room-only meeting at the National Party conference in 2019, Muller faced a hostile question that queried the existence of human-made climate change. His response was a lesson in political communication he made absolutely clear for the journalists in the room that he disagreed on a factual level with the question, but emotionally understood and shared the sense of aggrievement the rural sector was feeling. His old boss Bolger was very pleased with Mullers work here, and said it showed a commitment to what works over ideology. He's a bit like me. What works is important. I think the world has seen enough of ideologues who believe if you repeat and chant the same slogans everything will work, Bolger says. But Muller resists easy characterisation as a leftie within National. He voted against the decriminalisation of abortion and is proud of his rural roots. After Nathan Guys announcement that he would stand down from Parliament at the 2020 election, Muller gained the agriculture portfolio, a big get in a party that likes to think of itself as proudly rural. The swiftness with which Muller shed the climate change portfolio after negotiations on the zero carbon legislation wrapped up appeared to confirm that he was as ambitious for himself as he was for the planet. Holding the climate change portfolio didn't rule Muller out of contention for the leadership, but it wasn't going to propel him to the front like agriculture. Muller adjusted his style to suit the agriculture portfolio, becoming much more of an Opposition MP than he had been earlier most memorably when he picked a fight with a Te Papa exhibit on water quality . His slow but methodical ascension, potentially to the ninth floor is often used as a counterfactual to the promising career of MP and Bolger government minister Simon Upton. Only a decade Mullers senior, Upton rapidly rose up the National ranks, becoming the youngest MP in Parliament in 1981 and a minister under Bolger, taking the coveted health portfolio from Helen Clark, who had held it in the last days of the fourth Labour government. He was talked about often as potential PM. But he hit a political ceiling and retired in 2001. People who put Upton and Muller together say theyre similar people who chose very different paths: one, straight into politics and early ministerial responsibility, the other, a back-room guy who decided the best way to the ninth floor was to take the circuitous route through the private sector. Muller is held up as having made the right call. The National Party left by John Key places a high value on private-sector experience. If being prime minister was the goal, its too early to tell who made the right call. Upton was a minister Muller hasnt even served a second full term as MP, let alone held a ministerial warrant. He didnt just vanish into the private sector. Zespri and Fonterra are no ordinary private-sector companies, Zespri is a monopsony and Fonterra is effectively a monopsony, meaning a single buyer for multiple sellers. Both are corporate jewels, enjoying a privileged position in the New Zealand economy. Theyre private companies sure, but knowing your way around the corridors of power helps a lot. Muller's backers will say its given him an insight into the engine room of the economy and, certainly, he held forth on the organisational tension within Fonterra between delivering high milk prices to farmers, and maximising margin for its value-add products. The private sector was good to Muller. Auckland life was lucrative, but the call of the Beehive never went away. Indeed, the National Party made several overt attempts to parachute Muller into a safe seat during his years in the wilderness. Accounts of Mullers decision to take up the seat in 2014 differ. Some versions have it that he was told if he didnt give it a crack, National would stop ringing, but others say the party wouldnt just let someone like Muller go. Detractors lash Muller as a return to the pale, stale, male era of big business and bigger egos the party should have left behind. But Muller backers equally make the point that if National plans to torch Labour for a lack of private-sector experience, Crown prosecutor-cum-MP Bridges might not be the man to do it. Both men are known to be very hard-working as is prospective deputy Kaye. But there are lots of hard workers in Parliament. Leading a party, and leading the country, requires more than that.