Why are they surprised?

The Herald reports:

He laments the poor relationship the CTU has with the current National-led Government compared to the John Key-led National Government.

The CTU used to meet regularly with Key, Finance Minister Bill English and Workplace Minister Michael Woodhouse. …

“We never meet with the Prime Minister. We’ve asked to. We’ve never met with the Minister of Finance. We’ve asked to.”

There is a reason for that – and it is all their own fault.

Of course, the frosty relationship might have something to do with the position the CTU took at the last election.

It didn’t exactly tell its members to vote for Labour, the Greens or Te Pāti Māori, but it campaigned against National in a very public way.

It placed a sinister-looking front-page attack ad in the New Zealand Herald, and on billboards targeting leader Christopher Luxon.

They ran a personal smear campaign against Luxon, and then cry that he won’;’t meet with them. Why would he?

There is a difference between advocating on policies, and personally denigrating a party leader.

Take Business NZ. Of course they much prefer the policies of a National-Led Government to a Labour-led one. And they will campaign assertively on issues that affect them such as Fair Pay Agreements and Capital Gains Tax.

But never do you see Business NZ run campaigns such as the CTU did. In fact Business NZ generally spends almost nothing during an election campaign, while the CTU goes all in.

This is why Business NZ does not get shut out. When the CTU runs a smear campaign against the opposition leader, of course it will affect your relationship in government.