ACT leader Rodney Hide has resigned as leader of the ACT party, saying former National Party leader Don Brash is the right person to lead the party into the November 26 election, and he supported Brash as leader
Hide and Brash held a news conference Auckland at midday, arriving together to make the announcement. Hide had told Brash this morning he supported him to lead the ACT party.
Hide will keep the ministerial portfolios he holds in the current National-led government, including Minister for Local Government, and Minister of Regulatory Reform.
Former National leader and Reserve Bank Governor Don Brash said in the weekend he would challenge for the leadership of ACT.
See Alex Tarrant's article on Tuesday detailing the likely leadership bid.
Brash joined the National Party in 2002 after stepping down as Reserve Bank Governor and soon after rolled then-leader and current Finance Minister Bill English. Brash then led National to a narrow election defeat in the 2005 election before stepping down for current Prime Minister John Key.
In recent years Brash has chaired the government's 2025 taskforce, which was set up as part of National's coalition agreement with ACT following the 2008 election. The group was tasked with looking at ways New Zealand could catch up with, and match, Australian incomes by 2025, leading to a series of recommendations considered too radical by centre-right National, which largely ignored the suggestions.
Brash told the news conference he and Hide had not decided whether Hide would stand as an ACT member at the November 26 election. Whether Brash was appointed to cabinet depended on Prime Minister John Key, they said.
Dunne wants the votes
Meanwhile United Future leader Peter Dunne was first out of the blocks following Hide's announcement, saying Brash's hostile takeover of ACT would delight one in twenty voters, but that alarm bells would be ringing for the other 19.
“Today the reality of what will be at stake in the November 26 election has been spelt out clearly for all New Zealanders – and it should scare them. National will lead the next government. Labour is in meltdown and out of the game," Dunne said in a media release.
“There is only one question now – which party do New Zealanders want to be influence that government – Don Brash’s ACT driving them to the far right, the Maori Party pushing them to activism and race-based laws, or UnitedFuture keeping National anchored in the centre?” Dunne said.
“The vast majority of New Zealanders – and easily nineteen out of twenty – will be horrified at the thought of a Don Brash-led ACT forcing National to the right. John Key will be horrified at the prospect of being dragged to the right,” he said.
“Don Brash is a rigid right-wing ideologue – give him influence and a hand on power and watch the New Zealand we know become a harsher, more brutal place,” Dunne said.
Labour's warning
Labour leader Phil Goff said a new "extreme right-wing deal between National and an Act party led by Don Brash would have a devastating impact on the lives of middle and low-income New Zealanders".
“John Key has described Don Brash as an extremist. But he has also made it very clear that he is prepared to work with his former boss in a future Government. That would be a disaster for our country," Goff said in a media release.
“We know what Don Brash stands for. He wants to slash the minimum wage by NZ$100 a week – putting more New Zealanders into poverty. Superannuation would also be on his hit list. Don Brash wants savage cuts to Government spending, including health and education. Working for Families and interest-free student loans would be gone and there would be a wholesale sell-off of our valuable community-owned state assets," Goff said.
“This is what Kiwis could expect under a Government led by John Key and Don Brash," he said.
“We know how close Don Brash and John Banks are to National. Don Brash is National’s former leader and they are both National Party members. The links are already there and there are grounds for suspicion that today’s outcome is the result of collaboration between the two parties."
A relationship involving Don Brash and John Banks, at the head of the Act Party, would allow National to pursue all the policies it had wanted to pursue but had been afraid to admit to so far, Goff said.
“These are not the kinds of policies mainstream New Zealanders support. These are the kinds of policies that will hurt middle and low-income New Zealanders at a time when they are feeling the financial squeeze as a result of rising prices and National’s shambolic handling of our economy," he said.
“Labour will fight tooth and nail against the agenda of Don Brash and John Key. Our policies are designed to grow our economy, create jobs and higher incomes, put our children first and stop asset sales. The policies of a Government led by John Key and Don Brash will do the opposite and devastate our country,” Goff said.
(Updates with Brash background, Phil Goff, Peter Dunne comments)
86 Comments
Arsk cousin Rodney if he's aware that at the next Hide family picnic some of us intend throwing lamingtons at him ! ...
..... More than a little bit unimpressed that he biffed out Mad-Dog Prebble , only to lead ACT into a wildeness of irrelevancy .
Where's the tough economic and fiscal questions that needed to be asked of Bill English during the GFC and the Chch 'quakes ?
Why are you allowing JK to dismiss OECD retirement recommendations out-of-hand , when most other countries are looking seriously at them ?
Makes no difference who is the leader of Act or any other minor party.
From an article on Public choice theory:
If voters are fully informed, if their preferred outcomes can be arrayed along one dimension (e.g., left to right), if each voter has a single most-preferred outcome, and if decisions are made by simple majority rule, then the median voter will be decisive. Any proposal to the left or right of that point will be defeated by one that is closer to the median voter’s preferred outcome. Because extreme proposals lose to centrist proposals, candidates and parties in a two-party system will move to the center, and, as a result, their platforms and campaign promises will differ only slightly.
Downs and other public choice scholars also conclude that voters in democratic elections will tend to be poorly informed about the candidates and issues on the ballot. Voter ignorance is rational because the cost of gathering information about an upcoming election is high relative to the benefits of voting. Why should a voter bother to become informed if his vote has a very small chance of being decisive? Geoffrey Brennan and Loren Lomasky, among others, have suggested that people vote because it is a low-cost way to express their preferences. In this view, voting is no more irrational than cheering for one’s favorite sports team.
sorry Walter...got to stop you there......Banks is the living example of Bully....boasts every quality of the standard ..SS..requirement....I tell you for sure you could whack a leather coat and Eagle Cap on that boy and point him to the train station......nuff said.
He's there for one reason only....(A) the dirty work...(b) to recapture some kind of power base he lost to Brown............and he'd love to settle the score with that (he believes) commie pinko ethnic loving....Mayor of Auckland.
If brash has erred here it is in this choice....Banks don't like to share...particularly power.
It probably does not make much difference, although it was the perfect time as National have no competition...Brash probably sees the opportunity to pick up votes as Labour will get destroyed at the next election, and wants a slice of the pie (be a small slice) but they probably would of only got scraps under Rodney as he ran out of ideas.
If Cunny & Jonesy roll Goofy & Klinger , the November election could have some fireworks , thank goodness ! ....... Up until now , it's been a dreary sleepwalk , towards the polls ......
........... Go on Cunny , grab the knives , and butcher the silly fecker !!!!! ........ Give Cobber-Digger-Julia a call , if you need directions as to where to plunge the blade .
I don't think that Peter Pan Goof and his merry flock of Tinkerbelles would accept someone who really doesn't believe in fairies . ........... Gummy agrees with Captain Hook , on this one .
[ ........ it is an odd system , where MMP = Maniac Mangles Politician ....... Go Donny ! .......]
This is perfectly in line with the demographic changes in New Zealand.
A senior man to lead the seniors who are going to dictate things from here on.
Winston Peters, watch out, your grey vote bank is under threat from a Pakeha Older man.
I also think John Key was behind the scene in all this hostile (?) takeover.
Hide must have made a sweet deal with the business lobby, cashing out when he could.
Now he will get his due pension from the business lobby and live happily hereafter, may be.
Have updated with Dunne, Goff comments. Bernard's on his bike coming back from the press conference (in his bright yellow cycling top btw).
Funny how Brash always has to muscel his way into politics - when he did try actually standing for an electorate seat, the public said told him to go away.
What began in 2002 has come back to bite Hide. Brash was always an ACT man, but wanted to be Prime Minister, so ACT settled to have Brash as their man in National.
He's licked his wounds and now he's where he possibly should have gone in 2002 (politics career-wise) instead of being led by some grandiose idea of becoming PM.
Could make all the difference in the world. Voters are familiar with Brash and Banks. The Doctor talks about needing to poll in double digits. There is an increasingly disaffected group of National voters waiting for the opportunity to vote for a viable and credible ACT. The vagaries of MMP may well result in a drift of votes from Nat to ACT. The cannibalisation of the 'right' vote has the potential to make the election more interesting than would have been contemplated last week. Whether Goff leads Labour or not is less relevant than the scale of the policy shift that ACT can extract from JK.
Hi all, you can watch the Hollow Men doco here
Pity......I can admire Rodney H. for his determination to bring back ACT from extinction to a party with several MPs and a seat in an electorate thanks to his efforts...I strongly dislike his politics but I think he deserved better....
Brash is a slime ball....and could have well just caused National to lose this election.....but then the right wingers dont care.....with fanatics its extremism or death....
regards
How Apposite
a party of the past, led by men of the past.
Old failed men, old failed ideas; old failed party
Good on Dunne for stating what must be
We have only one choice here - an increasingly radicalised parliament pushing Key, or one linked to Dunne and UF, that can keep the country centrist
You may bash him for working wiht both sides - BUT that is what the centre does - works wiht both to bring stability.
The press especially have a duty here to ensure that this country's politics are not radicalised for a sound bite, or headline
Look to stability, and the future - vote united future
PS - I am NOT a party member!!! :-)
Banksie could easily win Epsom , and Donny could take Tamaki . ....... . And with ACT as the only party to the right of a very left leaning National Party , they could snaffle 5 % of the party vote too . ...........
.......... it gets exciting , from now on .......... Yippppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee !
GBH.....National are only left leaning if you are a right winger and consider yourself the centre.........be that as it may....yes I expect National will lose votes, but they will lose votes in two directions....bleed some to ACT sure, ACT get to 5%, probably but more importantly bleed as much if not a lot more to the left....as the floating voters who backed National last time run....
The only excitement I suspect is in the left/labour camps who now have a decent chance of winning Govt. National I suspect will be p*ssed.......
regards
Brash has skills?
What happened to that report from the task force he headed?
The guy is a warmed up dodo.
He cannot even put a sentence together without at least one guttural hesitation.
Hide? he should resign from Parliament as well and test the waters for Banks.
Hugth - yesterday you stated "I'll leave it up to the experts".
It was a good idea.
That article you read, if correct, means that the Brash/Hide/Banks/Key/English/Cunliffe/Goff/et al approach is now and forever inappropriate.
Yet - without refuting same, you trump these folk as saviours?
Maybe we should introduce a threshold IQ test for Pollies, huscksters and spinmeisters.
It'd save a lot, one way and another.
"many" absolute b*llocks.....what you mean was a few right wingers hoped JK could sucker the voting public into letting him into power and then do a Brash and lurch back to the right....What has actually happened is JK and National have been overtaken by events....I think they very much wanted to be more to the right but circumstances took away any margin of error in getting it wrong and collapsing the NZ economy.
Brash has diddly skills...he's a walking disaster area steeped in the very beliefs that have got us into the biggest financial crisis ever......
Liked internationally, by the same clowns that brought us the GFC.....great, I'd tell him to keep that one off his CV.
Brash in highest regard? if this is the best we can get.....god help us....fortunately not.
Act will be national with a spine...LOL.....National got in as a centre party, ppl wanted a change and voted for JK and not because he and National are "comfortably" to the right.....its simple just as in the UK voters are not looking for radical policies or either wing, ignore that at your peril as the Tories found out with many years in opposition and JK and HC before him figured out acted on.
I'd look forward to National with a spine because it would ensure many years in the wilderness, except unfortuantely Labour are not much better.
That in one thing we can agree on, we need good politicans...just we dont have many....I few of the real greens...cant see anyone else...cant think of one in either party.....hmmm maybe Bill English....
regards
Sat " next" to him on a flight to Spore a while back..seemed like a reasonable dude with an actual belief in what he espouses.
this ACT thing will buggar Winnie as he DEOSN'T believe in what he says whereas Don does and he'll grab the redneck and grey vote accordingly...good to chat Christov
FYI, reaction from Winston Peters - press release:
New Zealand First says the political events today are simply National completing its takeover of the ACT party in time to organise its election campaign.
Rt. Hon Winston Peters says a simple look at the facts involving John Key, Don Brash and Rodney Hide show the key players staged a political soap opera. They did this because National's polling showed it could not govern alone.
“First of all, Mr Key said on the eve of his overseas trip he would again work with the ACT party. He said this despite knowing Mr Hide would lose Epsom.
“Next Don Brash emerges from the dust of National's archives to tell ACT it's headed for oblivion unless he leads it. It is very obvious that ACT knew he was coming and had the door open.
“Mr Hide knew the writing was on the wall all the time . He and Don Brash are long time buddies.
“Meanwhile, John Key, from the distance of his overseas trip says he will work with Don Brash!”
Mr Peters says none of the players in this political soap opera would win an acting award.
“Don Brash is a National Party member and a former leader of the National Party. He and the present National leader John Key will now try to pretend they are in different parties.
“The whole thing is simply a manipulation of the political process to return to the failed policies that started to cripple New Zealand in the 80s and 90s,” says Mr Peters.
I can't keep up....so was Don Brash a 'sleeper' in the National Party acting for an "informal network of people from the right of New Zealand politics", including a number of ACT members" or not. Who are the factions behind NZ 'right of centre' political parties? Is it all Mr Douglas (National sleeper in Labour?)? Wasn't Winston Peters a National MP also..... Cartoons will do.
No wonder people don't vote.
Okay Hugh - I have an idea.
Why not Bob Parker of Christchurch roles party leader Goff from the labour party ? He would be a perfect successor.
Next to his great success in the Christchurch earthquake, he studied an intermediate year zoology at the university of Canterbury - an ideal combination to lead and run "The party in parliament".
No Hugh... That was a list of 'team pickers' - Nothing at all to do with 'issues'. I read some of the material on Mr Brash's website - highly articulate with a few 'mea culpa' articles - regrettably I did not see a Politician/Statesman/Leader. A knowledgeable technician without doubt (reminded me of Geoffrey Palmer a bit), and obviously someone far cleverer than I.
How does this help.... where is the policy / fire... Cactus Kate has more balls.
Our politics are destructive - not constructive. All very amusing from afar - but downright embarassing/disheartening when you live here.
Regrettably there is no one slapping their legs and demanding performance, and no one likely to.
The real issue is where is his birth certificate..?
Also BH is so right, the NZD is too high, lets fix it to the New Caledonian Jungle Clam. Awesome.
Also all good to see BH a disciple of peak oil and deflation. I mean conventional supply and demand theory so yesterday.
That's the bit that confuses me and does not seem to add up.
In theory ACT supporters do well by avoiding taxes. A more level investment playing field, whereby productive investment is favoured over the current (and historic) NZ wide Property Ponzi Scheme, seems to be contrary to the narrower interests of voters.. Hence the push that other taxpayers/recepients need to make the sacrifices to maintain the Property Ponzi. While ACT has had a number of turkeys, statistically, the numbers would surely suggest not all of them can be bird brained enough to vote for this by Christmas.
I recollect as the Res. Bank's Gov, Don was in favour of a CGT. Now as John Banks' Gov., does he tell us voters before we vote, or will we be served up for dinner post the MMP nuptuals,by about Christmas?
The Greenie and Leftie trolls make these threads such a pain in the neck to follow.
If NZ does NOT accept the "Brash/Douglas" medicine at SOME stage, our destiny is sovereign default, followed by Chavismo. The world's first one-time English speaking, Anglo Saxon, Protestant banana republic. NZ making history again.
I just feel sorry for the few decent people left here when the lefties ban emigration, and/or when Aussie pulls the drawbridge up for the sake of ITS own health.
The Greenies and Lefties are addicted to taking someone else's munny for their pet projects and bizarre entitlement programmes . And they thrive on micro-managing the populence's lives . Greenis & Lefties are control freaks . From light-bulbs , to shower heads , folate in your bread , whoring , herbal highs , civil unions , banning of free-political-speech in an election year .........
........ Hardly surprising that they go apoleptic at the thought of Don Brash or Roger Douglas .
Brash & Douglas espouse being responsible for you own munny , and your own stuff ups . No hand-outs , no bail-outs ......
.........No bloody wonder Labour and Greens loathe them ! ....... Don Brash will never mass-medicate the country's bread supply , because he thinks that he knows wots best for you ..............
When keynsian economics started...back in the twenties he was asked what happens in the end..he said "In the end we all die"..The eighty year cycle is up, as all the Governments that adopted it knew in the end it would fail one day..they dont seem to have a clue on what to do when the thing pops.The infra structure to handle the day when the dollar collapses just isnt their..I suggest by the rise of Gold and Silver it will be back to basics of the Gold standard.
Huh? we have not had 80 years of Keynes....Keynes went out of fashion on the late 70s after the loony left made a mess of it and in fact that disapline has been mostly ignored by pollies ever since. What we have had for the last 30 years is the rabid right doing the same to monetarism .....but throwing in crony capitalism at the same time....this isnt keynes and really I dont think Friedman either this was wonkanomics at its best....so the GFC can be put at the laizzaz faire, free marketeers feet...not Keynes.
You assume inflation, when actually deflation is probable (though actually I just found a good looking piece on hyper-inflation I need to digest) You can look for a real world example in the Great Depression, which was a credit bubble leading to a credit collapse and then a depression. You can also look at hyack's impact in there when they stopped stimualting and the recovery vanished and it was back into depression. Ive yet to see but one good article suggesting any other outcome ie depression ....hence with the even bigger credit bubble we see now, following the 1930s path to deflation and depression seems the most likely outcome at present.
regards
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