"You can go back to Jami-Lee Ross, Hamish Walker, Andrew Falloon, we had a leak just before the election, leadership issues," he told Chris Lynch.
"If you don't look like you can manage yourself, no one is going to trust you to manage the country.
"Quite rightly Judith Collins, who I 100 percent support, has said we are going to have to have a review and a bit of a reset."
The National Party scandals included Jami-Lee Ross who stood down after accusing Simon Bridges of corruption, Andrew Falloon who sent porn to a teenager, Hamish Walker who leaked Covid-19 patient details, leadership changes and the leak of an email to caucus from a frustrated Denise Lee.
He said a good Opposition was needed to "hold the Government to account".
People also voted for "continuity", he said, in an election dominated by Covid-19.
Although he held on to his Waimakariri electorate in Canterbury, Doocey's majority last election – 10,766 votes – was wiped away over the weekend, with him keeping his seat with a much slimmer 1976 majority.
National Party support in the electorate also dropped from 53.5 percent in the 2017 election, to 28.7 percent in 2020.
"Unfortunately I felt the effect of that."
Doocey arrived at parliament today and said it had been "a tough few days" and it was good to be back in Wellington.
He said he was humbled by the support he had received in his electorate.
National needed to have a culture where they don't have leaks and be unified, Doocey said.
"Because this job is about the people we serve in the country - it's not about us."
Labour was the big winner in greater Christchurch this election with nearly all of the seats going to the party.
Doocey and Nicola Grigg (Selwyn) are the only National candidates who won their electorates in the area.
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Comments
Did people vote FOR continuity or did they NOT vote for National's tired and outdated economic, environmental and social policy platform? In all the commentary there has been a focus on the leadership, the messaging, the internal discipline--no-one from National appears to have considered that their Neo-liberal ideology promoted predominantly by affluent white people may now be passed it's use by date.
I agree with this comment, it seems National is focused on finding excuses for their lack of support and really light on in-depth analysis of their performance. I believe the greater NZ public rejected National, as opposed to seeking continuity. National's opposition to Govt management of Covid-19 was treated with the contempt it deserved. They should have got in behind the Govt and supported it, not whined and carped around the edges. Their debacle in producing policy - even bad policy - just failed to inspire. The National team was totally disunited, to the extent that some candidates were running campaigns that avoided references to Crusher Collins and the National Party. National never recovered from their leadership woes and like Labour several elections ago, with Goff and the Davids, it will take same time and maybe a couple more leadership changes before they get it right.
But they should have the courage to do a strong analysis and commit to sorting themselves out, not just looking for excuses and chances to avoid responsibility for their mistakes.
"National needed to have a culture where they don't have leaks and be unified, Doocey said."
Maybe they need to have a culture of not doing the things that got leaked and led to the dis-unity.