Don, John, Harry, and all the angry dads drowning out National's 2026 campaign

This Halloween, Christopher Luxon is overhung by the ghosts of parties past.

A few months ago, Simeon Brown reached for a generational metaphor. National’s coalition partners, the campaign chair told party conference faithful, were “those two kids”, squabbling with each other and leaving “Mum and Dad to keep the peace”.

Leaving to one size the cojones on the guy to cast himself as Winston Peters’ daddy, the reality of this moment, with just a few days of the campaign left, is that Brown, Christopher Luxon, and their colleagues are surrounded by father figures of their own. 

It is Halloween and the ghosts of National past are at war. They are fighting about vote-splitting, the overhang, and the greater good. But just who are they and what do they want?

To begin: Don Brash. Former National Party leader, former Act leader, and the chap who once signed our banknotes. Not since his midriff stunned the nation 12 years ago has Brash so imposed himself on an election year. 

In 2026, Brash has been tirelessly campaigning for the overhang strategy: urging anyone who wants the current coalition returned to give National their electorate vote and one of the smaller parties (those two kids) the party vote, all with a view to exploiting the overhang provision. 

A full page advertisement under Father Brash’s name in the NZ Herald declared: “Want to keep the Left out of government? Then DO NOT party vote National!" Call it pragmatic, call it a rort, call it MMP-maxing. Luxon calls it nonsense, and Brash calls him a naughty boy who is “misleading the public”.

Sir John Key is the superdad of the National Party – the man who towered across close to three terms as prime minister by preaching the brighter future. He answered the call at the National Party campaign launch last month to try to knock this overhang malarkey on the head. Didn’t work. 

Key has been enlisted once again in the last few days to make the case for two-ticks-blue. He even fronted up with Paul Goldsmith, who, along with Nicola Willis and Chris Bishop risks becoming collateral damage in the overhang election, urging the voters of Epsom to pour the tea back into the pot and vote for Goldie this time, no actually, really, not kidding, this time. 

Key might be the most powerful dad, but he is outnumbered in his stance. Take Harry Mowbray. He is no National grandee, but is afforded paternal status here as father of New Zealand’s richest people, one of whom describes himself as “National’s largest donor”.   

Mowbray Senior has been singing the song of the overhang for years. As long ago as 2020, he was seeking to make the Heartland Party a constituency-only outfit to exploit the overhang’s potential to achieve strength disproportionate to votes cast. 

This time, Mowbray has funded a campaign replete with impassioned ads and anti-vaxx influencers, even risked the wrath of the Electoral Commission in the cause of Mission Overhang. You might say he is giving Luxon and co an unspreakably horrific headache. But Pater Mowbray is fixed on something bigger: locking the left out for the foreseeable future and, you know, completely discrediting the MMP system by “showing people how bad it is”.

Who else? Let’s not forget Maurice Williamson, who has taken time out of his hobby as an Auckland councillor to pound the drum of split voting. The former long-serving National MP has been tireless in urging people who back National not to back National, or at least not in their party vote. 

Asked how it felt to have a giant of the party such as Williamson arguing against a National party vote, Luxon said that Father Maurice was no giant. "I'd call John Key a giant of the party. I might call Keith Holyoake a giant of the party, or Sid Holland, Rob Muldoon, and Jim Bolger,” he said, as his mind's eye panned across the National Mount Rushmore. “There's six of us that won elections for the National Party over that period of time."

Yes, I'm just going to say it: as far as Luxon is concerned, it is a big grey rainbow that overhangs Pakuranga today. 

Moving on. Michael Laws and Winston Peters are both former National MPs, and both are keen on the overhang strategy – the former more explicitly than the latter. But they’ve long since jumped ship to NZ First so don’t meet the category of National dad. Laws is more the eccentric uncle. Peters transcends generations. 

There is at least one other dad, however, that warrants mention. Don Brash. The former National leader launched a bold repudiation of Don Brash in the Herald at the end of last week. In an ad placed directly opposite delivering a "personal message" to local voters, he exhorted: "I urge you to give your two ticks to Act in Epsom and Tamaki electorates." 

Don Brash subsequently acknowledged that his message was “inconsistent” with that across the page from Don Brash, owing to the fact that it was utterly inconsistent. According to reports, Don Brash had booked this advertisement contradicting Don Brash because Don Brash could only get approval from Act to run the ad if Don Brash posted the other one.

Some consolation, at least, for Christopher Luxon; while the National dad Don Brash might be ruthless with his tough love, at least there is some kind of flexibility from the more considerate Act dad Don Brash.

But whether it’s Harry, or John, or Maurice, or Don, or Don, doubt not this: they love their party. Even if they don’t always know how to show it. Who amongst us, after all, can say they haven’t gone down to cheer on their kids at Saturday sport, only to find themselves in a flaming row over the rules and tactics with the referee and a range of other dads of children who are on the same team as yours, only to notice, suddenly, chasteningly, Christopher Luxon sitting there on the turf, gazing into the middle distance.