Judith Collins didn't give National MP Jacqui Dean a dressing down after the party's housing spokesperson falsely claimed the last Government built 30,000 state homes.
Dean, who took on the portfolio in July after Collins rose to the party leadership, appeared on The AM Show last week, falsely claiming that the previous National Government built 30,000 state homes. National later said she had made a mistake.
Kāinga Ora (formerly Housing New Zealand) built 2670 new homes during National's last reign, and community housing providers built 95. However, many were also sold.
Collins said Dean made a mistake that she won't be making again.
"She just got the numbers wrong. She is new in the housing portfolio, though she is very experienced in conservation and local government areas. She just had the number wrong in her head, even though she'd read it," Collins said.
"She rang me straight away and said she was deeply mortified and words to that effect. Everyone makes mistake. Obviously, that is a mistake and she won't be making that mistake again."
The National leader said she didn't need to give her MP a dressing down.
"She was giving herself a dressing down, didn't need me to tell her off. It's not like she has promised 100,000 houses and then delivered what 300 and something, which is the KiwiBuild thing.
"She hasn't wasted the taxpayers' money. She hasn't promised big and then delivered nothing. She's accepted she got it wrong and she was utterly mortified and, I tell you, everyone makes mistakes."
The Government promised to build 100,000 homes over 10 years through its KiwiBuild programme. In the scheme's first year, 1000 houses were meant to be constructed, but hadn't come close to that by the time it reset the programme in September.
Asked if MPs were allowed to make two mistakes under Collins' leadership, she said if they were too scared of mucking up, they wouldn't get anything done.
"Oh yes, I mean, goodness sake. The trouble is, if you have a no mistakes rule, then you end up with nobody doing anything, everyone too frightened to go on TV."
National's claim of being a "strong team" has been put to the test over recent months. After Simon Bridges was rolled as leader in May, the party had Hamish Walker leak private COVID-19 data, Todd Muller step down as leader, Andrew Falloon be accused of sending indecent images to young women and a flurry of MPs resign.
But Collins believes new talent is about to be pumped into the parliamentary caucus.
"We have got a lot new people coming in too. Obviously, whenever there is an election, we do actually lose some people but we also bring in new people. I am not worried about that.
"The fact is that I have been in Parliament for a wee while and I have seen some great people come and great people go, but ultimately, its the quality of those coming in as well and the experience they bring into Parliament that is really important."
But National is polling poorly. The latest Newshub-Reid Research poll found the party on just 25.1 percent, down from its 2017 election result of 44.4 percent. The number of National MPs in Parliament would therefore be slashed.
